Student Engagement Ambassador, Dal, talks about her experience moving out of student halls and suggests 5 ways to make your move easier.
June is the month of moving out of halls for most students on a 40-week contract with the university. I myself am one of the students moving out of my halls during the course of the next week. As second year moving into a student home, this is my experience.
Moving can be stressful – ‘have any of my belongings gone missing’, ‘have I disposed of everything’, ‘do I have everything I need’. These are some of the thoughts that are bound to cross everyone’s mind at some point during the moving process.
Those thoughts often cropped up in my mind when I was moving out in at the end of my first year. I had chosen to live in student halls again for my second year instead of a student home. This decision meant that I had to clear out everything from my hall and bring it back to my home address – which was approximately 189 miles away. This caused me a lot of stress over planning transport and dates as well as arranging everything with my parents. I learnt a lot about planning from this experience.
When it comes to planning, I understand that everyone has their own way of doing it. Everyone has their own individual lives, and some are busier than others with things such as a job, assignments (continued over summer) or personal life. I myself have a part-time job so I find that I have to schedule moving out according to my shifts.These are the steps I take for planning:
Look at my calendar
I write down all my shifts and all meetings and important dates and times on my calendar first and then I check the dates and times I am free to see when would be the best time to move out.
Write down your inventory
When you have a clear idea of everything you own, it makes it easier for yourself of what you want to keep, dispose, or donate as you move out. This way, you will also prevent loss of your belongings.
Get packing
Don’t leave this last minute as it will stress you. Even if you don’t pack everything at once it really helps to pack little by little of things you don’t use (such as winter clothes or that teapot sitting on your kitchen counter, collecting dust).
Sorting
Sort all your items out into 3 sections: ‘Keep’, ‘Dispose’ ‘Donate’. Do not throw away perfectly good condition items, do consider donating as the halls provide charity bag for donation
Move out
Most people prefer moving out on the one day but due to my busy schedule I find that moving out my belongings little by little on different days suit me better. Of course, this is different for everyone, but this is just my experience.
Other things to note are that you should also clean everything in your room and shared common areas such as the kitchen and dining space.
I hope everyone at least tried one of my tips if they are not already doing it as this should save time and energy! Please also see the university’s own guide for moving out of halls as well. If you are living in a university owned halls, do not forget to put in your bank details to receive your deposit back! If you have any queries or problem, do contact your halls hotline or use the ‘Home at Halls’ app.