Movers on Packing and Short-Term Storage During a Semester Abroad

Getting the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad can be a thrilling prospect for any young adult. After you say yes, however, you’ll need to tend to the reality of what you’ve agreed to. After all, you’ll be leaving the country for at least three months.

Chances are, you’re going to need to give up your dorm room or apartment. You’ll need to decide what is necessary to take with you, and where you’re going to keep all of your belongings that will be staying behind. If you’ve never had to relocate from one place to another temporarily, this can be a daunting task. To ease your burden, here are some tips on packing and moving out to prepare for a semester abroad.

1. Deciding What to Bring With You

The good news is that packing for a semester abroad is a little bit like going on an extended vacation. The bad news is that the length of the trip tends to make most people over-pack. It’s important to take only what you need unless you think you’ll enjoy carrying heavy baggage with you throughout your trip.

Aside from the obvious items like toiletries, you will have to decide on what clothing to bring. Start by doing some research into what the locals wear in your destination country. Doing this will help you fit into your environment more readily. You won’t need more than three of any item, such as jeans, shirts, and jackets. Be sure to choose clothing that you can layer, so you’ll be ready for whatever mother nature throws at you.

2. Boxing Up What’s Left

Once you’ve packed the items you’ll be taking with you; it’s time to pack up everything else and find a storage facility to keep it in. While you may find a self storage unit, these DC local movers say that many moving companies offer temporary short-term warehouse storage. Rather than taking items to storage yourself, the moving company will come to your apartment or dorm, pick your items up, them keep them in a secure facility until you return. To make the process easier, take the time to go through your belongings and get rid of anything you don’t need. Doing so will save you time, effort, and expense as you leave for your overseas adventure.

Once you’ve done that, purchase sturdy moving boxes to pack all of your things. Remember that in a storage facility, all of your boxes will likely be stacked on top of one another for months. Pack the heaviest items on the bottom of each box, and take care not to make each one too heavy for you to move around. Label each box so you won’t have to remember where everything is when you return.

packing

3. Choosing a Storage Facility

When choosing a storage facility, there are several factors to consider besides price. You’ll want to make sure that the facility is secure and has staff on site during open access hours. The facility should be clean and show no signs of an insect or rodent infestation. You’ll also want to talk to the manager, if possible, to get a feel for how the place is run and if they are attentive to the needs of their customers. Take your time, because once you store your things, you won’t be around to check on them.

After you’ve picked out the facility itself, you’ll need to determine how large of a unit to rent. To do so, count the number and size of the boxes you’re planning to store. If you’ve got nothing but boxes, you can work out the square footage to find the right size unit. If you have appliances or furniture, use an online estimator to get an idea of what you need.

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Top Five Cities for Recent Grads

Each year millions of college graduates are faced with the daunting decision of where to find a job after graduation. There are many factors that go into this delicate decision, and the process can’t be taken lightly. When searching for a new city to call home, graduates must consider things like job opportunities, earning potential,…

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What to Know Before Moving to New York City for College

New York City is home to many excellent schools, including notable institutions like Columbia, Barnard, and New York University among others. Many high school seniors clamor to make it into one of the prestigious undergraduate programs offered by one of these schools, enthralled by the idea of spending their college years in the hustle and bustle of NYC. At just Columbia alone, over 36,000 applications were received for the incoming freshman class. While competition to get into NYC’s top colleges is fierce, there will still be thousands of students who make their way to the Big Apple every fall to start their college life there. If you’re considering applying to or contemplating enrollment at a university in NYC, here are somethings you should consider before making the move:

The Cost of Living is Outrageous

The cost of living in New York City is astronomical compared to living in other cities; it takes 1st place as the most expensive city in North America. If you are not going to be living in a dorm or with a family member, you should be prepared to spend a great deal of money on rent. In an average neighborhood, you can expect to fork over around $1,942 per month for a furnished, 480 square foot studio apartment. But, it’s not just rent that is more expensive here; it’s everything: from groceries and dining out, to clothes, to gym memberships, to personal care items, you can expect to pay more for just about anything than you would anywhere else in the country. Additionally, most NYC colleges come with a hefty price tag, so you might end up taking out more in student loans than you ever imagined to pay tuition and all of your other bills. Just read this one student’s experience taking on debt to attend NYU.

Plan to Move with as Little as Possible

In a city where rent is high and spaces are microscopic, expect to not bring much with you. While the typical freshman living off-campus might be able to bring their whole bedroom set and entire wardrobe, if you’re going to college in NYC, you can plan on leaving those things at home. Local moving company, Imperial Movers NYC, says that in their last decade of moving thousands of people into Manhattan apartments, they see the same story time and time again. People move to New York City not realizing just how tiny the accommodations are. In some cases, they’ll even have the movers put half of their belongings back on the truck and move it to storage until they can figure out what to do with it. If you’re moving here for school, you’ll probably want to look into on-campus housing or an affordable, furnished apartment to avoid having to bother moving furniture at all, and keep the rest of the things you bring to a minimum.

Also…You’ll Want to Leave Your Car at Home

Many New Yorkers don’t own cars because the city’s traffic is brutal, parking is an expensive nightmare, and public transportation is just way easier. Instead of bringing a car to college, you’ll want to look into one of the abundant alternative transportation options:

  • The Subway: The New York City subway system has 469 stations that serve 24 subway lines. You can hop a train to just about anywhere in the city 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To find out everything you need to know about the subway system click here.
  • Taxis and Uber: Taking one a ride in one of NYC’s 13,000 taxis can be equally exhilarating and terrifying. While a convenient option for many New Yorkers who rely on cabs to get them around town, at $2.50/mile, the price of taking a taxi everywhere can really add up. Generally, Uber or another ride sharing service is a more economical option.
  • Buses: If you can’t afford to take a taxi every day, there are over 5,800 buses running each day in New York. An unlimited combined subway and bus pass only costs $116.50/month.

You Should Brace Yourself for Fast Paced Living

If you are moving to New York City for school, you should expect to live a fast paced life. People are always rushing to get somewhere, and the streets are always packed with people at all hours of the day and the night. The fast pace can be exciting, and actually good for you, some studies show, but it can also be tiring. For most college students, the convenience of 24-hour restaurants and clubs that stay open until 6 a.m. is welcomed, but for those who prefer a slower life with time to breathe may find the pace debilitating.

This Won’t Be the Typical College Experience

As one author put it, going to school in New York meant sacrificing the typical college experience filled with football games, sorority houses, and campus tailgates. After spending a year in NYC, she felt something was lacking and transferred back to her home state to finish out her college career. For many, going to school amidst high rises and skyscrapers just doesn’t seem like the quintessential college experience. Make sure that you are prepared for the atypical if you decide to enroll somewhere in Manhattan.

Manhattan Itself is a Classroom

If you can survive and thrive in New York’s concrete jungle, you’ll find yourself in a world where there are learning opportunities at nearly every street corner. As a NYC college student, you can get into any of the city’s world-class museums for free, attend Broadway productions whenever your budget allows, eat some of the best food on the planet, and meet a diverse population of people. In fact, living here, you might learn more outside of the classroom than sitting in one.

 

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Stats About Drug & Alcohol Abuse on College Campuses

Although not a new occurrence, alcohol and drug abuse among college students has spiked over the recent years. Since the 1970s, substance abuse has been rampant on college campuses, but it seems that in more recent years, students have engaged with different types of drugs with greater frequency. Particularly disturbing is the increase in prescription…

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Tips for Avoiding the Dreaded Freshman 15

Most students head off to college or university looking forward to independence, making new friends, getting an education, and having lots of fun. What a lot of students don’t consider their first year(s) away from home is the need to eat well, exercise, and focus on their health. Many of us are used to having parents…

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Get Ready for College Move-In Day with These Moving Tips

In August, a new wave of freshmen moved off to college, away from everything they’ve known for the last 18 years and into a new life on campus. Some moved into on-campus housing, crammed two to a room with an old friend or possibly a potluck bunkmate. The more fortunate opted for off-campus housing, either living in a rented apartment or real estate owned by mom and dad. Once the movers unloaded the moving truck and parents tearfully said goodbyes, freshmen were left to fend for themselves.

Moving to college can be scary, but is mostly exciting when you’re prepared for what’s ahead. We sat down with some new freshman to get their sage advice on moving away from home:

When Packing, Consider the Size of Your New Digs

You may have grown up in a 5-bedroom home, with plenty of room for you and all of your stuff, but this likely won’t be the case when you head for college. The average dorm room is 12 by 19 feet, or 114 square feet. Unless you get the place to yourself, this means you’ll get about 57 square feet to your lonesome, which after you figure in the footprint of a XL twin bed, isn’t much room at all. In addition to the paltry square footage, your dorm room will likely also be lacking on closet space.

Rachel Z., a freshman at Trinity University in San Antonio, confided that she brought entirely too much stuff for her new dorm room. “My parents hired some local movers to help me get moved into my dorm room. About halfway through the unloading process, there was like literally no space left for them to put stuff. My mom and I had to frantically go through boxes and bins to sort out the essentials. Everything else had to be put back in my parents’ car to go back home with them.” Rachel said if she could do it all over again, she would have thought twice about most of the things she packed. It’s better to err on the side of not bringing enough with you – there are always stores or you can always pick up additional things when you go home on weekends or holidays.

Bring Clothes for the Current Season

Most universities in the south won’t see chilly weather until at least Thanksgiving, while most northern climates have already put away their summer clothes. When packing your wardrobe for college, try to avoid taking the whole closet. Unless you’re moving to school really far away from home, there will likely be plenty of opportunities for you to swap out your seasonal wardrobe when you go home.

Christina J., who just started her freshman year at Emory University, said she was glad her mom was involved in the packing process for this reason. “I grew up in New England, so I was expecting to bring all of my huge jackets and coats with me to Atlanta. When my mom saw what I was packing, she told me to reconsider. Atlanta is hot well into the fall months, plus it never really gets cold enough for all of my puffy winter gear. I was SO glad on moving day that I didn’t have all of winter clothes. My warm weather clothes barely fit in my tiny closet space as it was.” Check out other tips on packing your closet for college.

Get Organized and Stay That Way

Cramming your life into a small dorm room can be pretty challenging; however, there are tons of ways you can get creative with maximizing the space you do have and staying organized. Here are a few of our favorites:

  • Use the backs of doors for extra storage. Try hanging a shoe organizer on the backside of your closet door to keep all of your kicks from crowding your closet space. In the bathroom, add storage caddies to the back of the door for all of your toiletries and cleaning supplies.
  • Maximize the storage under your bed: Use large plastic storage bins to store all those extra items you can’t squeeze into your dresser drawers. You may even want to put your bed on risers to make the under the bed space larger.
  • Use skinny hangers in your closet so you can fit more of your favorite clothes hanging up.
  • Use wall space to hang decorative but functional pieces like a floating necklace holder or bulletin boards.
  • Make use of a small rolling cart to hold extra desk or food items.

Kelley M., an undergraduate at Kansas State, said she got lots of great dorm organizing tips from the site, iheartorganizing.com. “Three of my favorite recommendations from this site were 1) bringing additional shelving to add storage space on top of desks and dressers, 2) filing away hair tools to keep the cords from creating clutter, and 3) using baskets for under the bed storage. Additionally, my roommate and I discussed who was bringing what ahead of time, so we were able to coordinate larger items and come up with a consistent color scheme.” Kelley told us her biggest challenge has been keeping the room clean with her busy freshman schedule of classes and extracurricular activities.

Freshman year will be an exciting time filled with new friends and experiences. Though living in a small space can pose challenges, knowing what to pack and how to keep it organized will help you keep your sanity during your first year as an undergrad.

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College Admission FAQs

There are an overwhelming number of colleges and universities that you can apply to when you’re coming out of high school so finding the right school can be a little like finding a needle in a haystack.  A big part of finding the right school is understanding the admissions process, here are the answers to…

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