Moving in is scary and very stressful, but if you have everything ready to go you can easily move in. I find it helpful to immediately make your dorm room your second home by getting it just the way you like it in one fowl swoop. Then you will already have one place on campus that you will feel comfortable in. Here are a few tips for your college move-in day.
1. Do not bring the whole family
As tempting as it is to have the aunts and uncles and all the siblings coming with you to help move in it is a bad idea. It will be packed tighter than sardines. Dorm rooms can be super small, even if they aren’t fitting all those people they will not be comfortable. If everyone still wants to come to drop you off, I suggest sending a few people on a campus tour while you are actually unpacking, they can scope out the lunch spots while you have some room to breathe.
2. Utilize your help
With that being said it is super important that you utilize the help that is there so have your mom unpackaging everything while you put away clothes. Use the hands you have so it will be more efficient and go faster. Because, usually, either your roommate will be coming soon or you will be moving in together and there are even more people there feeling uncomfortable in your humble dorm room.
3. Pre-plan your storage space
Bringing baskets and shelves are a good way to utilize your space, but it does not help if you bring too many or too few. Try to visualize what you will put where before you end up on campus it will help you in the long run on move-in day. If you have a vision it will be easier to assign tasks to people.
4. Communicate with the roommates ahead of time
Talk about how you want to plan out the room or if you want to color coordinate. It will be easier to get going on move-in day if you and your roommates have already agreed on the setup of the room. If you have it planned out then you can make your super tall dad hang up your string lights instead of being forced to do it yourself (personal experience: it was hard)
5. Unpackage
Unwrap all of your boxed items or plastic sealed items because it will help to cut down on garbage in your dorm room. If you do not need the packaging and are sure you will keep the item unwrap it. There are limited garbage cans in all dorms so ditch the waste at home.
It is scary going to a whole new place, but eventually you will feel right at home. I know I felt uneasy right as I got on campus but always remember every single person is in the same situation as you so do not be afraid to be yourself.