Organising The First Move To University

Right now, up and down the country, thousands of students and their families are asking their friends, family, and forums what’s the best way to prepare for that first move from home to university.

Preparing for this exciting stage can be overwhelming for a first-timer, so we’ve put together some of our top tips to help with the move.

Soak up helpful advice from those who have gone before you.

It may feel almost impossible to look around your home and decide what you do and don’t need to pack in the car in September. Luckily, these days, the internet and social media is full of advice and suggestions on how best to decide what belongings are essential for freshers everywhere.

• Here’s a useful university essentials checklist from Which.
• UCAS has lots of useful advice and tips for upcoming freshers, including this list of everything you need to take to university.
• This list from Save the Student even includes a downloadable list that you can print off if that helps with your organising.

Pack for the space you will have, not the space you have now.

Uni halls can often be quite cramped, and although communal areas serve a function, you may well have a smaller space to make your own than your room back home. The accommodation you viewed on your tour of the universities months ago might not be the same as the one you’re allocated. After confirming your accommodation, go online to remind yourself of the precise size of your personal space. What you want to take and what you can take may well need some negotiating.

What should I use to pack? 

Once you are ready to pack, consider the boxes that you will pack into. Will plastic ones with lids slide under your bed or on top of your wardrobe for year-long storage, or do you need cardboard ones that you can flatten and save for the next move ten months later? Space may dictate what will work best for you. Don’t underestimate the value of reusable shopping bags either; they’re perfect for filling with soft items and squashing into any gaps in the car, not to mention they’re great for your grocery shopping and laundry too! Using a suitcase as part of this initial move can also be helpful. During the year, you may plan visits home or abroad with your course that it will be useful for.

Organise before packing.

You may have spent the last year picking up items to take to university. Now is the time to unwrap that bedding and leave the recycling at home, rather than use up any valuable car boot space. Take the plastic wrapping off the cutlery and kitchen utensils and fill the bins here rather than at your new lodgings. All that cardboard and plastic takes up space. Space is going to be a priority for loading and unloading the car, not to mention the next move at the end of year one.

Invest in a HandiHoldall (and a HandiRack if you need roof bars). 

You can remove the need to do more than one trip or the need to take a second car by using a roof bag. Our HandiHoldall 400L will easily absorb some of the extra load for this important journey (and those for years 2,3 and beyond!)

This durable HandiHoldall 400L is a waterproof soft roof top bag that is easy to store as it is foldable. These high-quality roof box alternatives are more affordable than hard roof boxes and can be easily stored in the car boot when not in use. If you don’t already have roof bars, that’s also not an issue. Our HandiRack inflatable roof rack complements the HandiHoldall range and can be purchased as part of a bundle deal too.

Learn more about the HandiHoldall soft roof bag here.

Finally, remember that checklist you used to plan what to take with you? Now you can recycle it and use it to tick off items as they are packed in the car, making sure there’s no last-minute worry about what has been forgotten.

Good luck to all those freshers preparing to start a whole new adventure. To those who are taking them and waving proudly as they head off to their new beginnings, it’s time to give thanks and plan some exciting new adventures of your own.

Images:

1.Oxford University. Photo by Darya Tryfanava on Unsplash 2.King’s College, Cambridge. Photo by Chris Boland on Unsplash