Living Small In College - Can You Really Pack Everything?

If you're going to be living on campus in your college dorm room, your primary concern is probably how you're going to fit everything from your room at home into your Residence Hall room. You've inevitably collected a lot of things throughout the years, after all! In fact, the first thing you probably did was stand in the middle of your room at home, look around and think how to do it. How to get everything in your room into your car and then into your Residence Hall room. The thing is, you're not. Your college dorm room is small as it is and then you're also going to be living with a roommate, which further limits your space. So how can you do it?

First, you need to think about the location of your college. This may seem silly, but it will determine a lot. Your college may be an hour away or it may be in another state or even another country. If your college is an hour or two away from home, you will have the luxury of being able to leave some things at home such as seasonal clothes and switch your clothes out as you go home for the long break. If your college is farther away from home, such as in another country, you may not have that luxury. It really depends upon what your plans are for the college year and what you plan on doing during long breaks. You'll need to decide these things and plan on them before you even start packing up your room.

Once you have figured out your plans and what you're doing during the long breaks, then comes the time to pack. Here is where a list may come in handy. Start with thinking about the absolute necessities. You obviously need bedding and you may have some supplies for studying left over from High School that you can bring with you to college. Next, you need to think about clothes - this is where things get tricky. Your first instinct is to bring everything, after all! However, you really need to pare down what you bring. Start with the clothes you wear all the time - and be honest with yourself. If you wear a T-Shirt multiple times in one month, definitely pack it! But if you can't remember the last time you wore it and it may have been months and months ago....then it is probably a good idea to leave it at home. The same goes with your shoes. Give your shoes the same critical eye as you do your clothes. And don't fall for the "Oh, I MIGHT need these for this thing" trap. That will result in you bringing more things to college than you have room for.

The key in packing for college is to be realistic. You won't have room for nor will you need to pack everything that you have in your room to take to your college dorm room. This is especially so for some of those decorative items around your room - if they take up space on your desk or dresser, you have to be especially critical on if you need to bring it. You won't have much surface space, after all - You may not have a dresser or you may not have a desk. If you're lucky, you'll have both, so you really need to evaluate if a framed photo is worth taking. You can always take the photo with you and tape it to your wall, but a framed photo will take space that you need for functional items.