It’s that time of year. Here’s some tips that will hopefully help you move out of your old gaff, or into your new one, with less stress.
Moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do in this life, and guess what; you’re gonna do it a lot. Minimum once a year during your time at uni, unless you stay in the same house second and third year, and then even more when you graduate and bounce around new builds for a couple of years.
In the last seven years, I’ve moved eight times. During these arduous experiences, I’ve learned what to do to make things less stressful, and crucially, what not to do. Here’s a couple of tips you can use to make your moves less hellish.
Moving out of halls of residence
Leaving halls isn’t actually too bad, all you’ve gotta do is pack up your room and maybe take some kitchenware home (although that’s likely fucked after a year of not being washed up properly, so just bin it imo).
But, you do need to make sure you leave things in a good state because much like the real world, you’ll be charged for any damage. So focus on the packing first and then give way more time to the deep-clean/damage control.
Tips for a stress-free move out of halls
- Throw stuff out. Not like, everything, but things you’ve outgrown in your first year for sure. Any debris from parties or costumes from Freshers.
- If you’re the last person out you’ll probably get left with the most cleaning so bear that in mind.
- It’s never too early to box stuff up, a little each day makes the move much easier.
Moving out of a house share
This gets a bit tricky, not only are you responsible for a whole house at this point, you’ve also got to deal with dodgy landlords who desperately want your deposit. Add in a bit of house politics and you’ve got a potential disaster.
Tips for a stress-free move out of a student house
- Try and repair stuff as best you can before leaving, marks on the wall might be grounds for not getting your deposit back (toothpaste or white paint are great for covering those up btw).
- Obviously everyone is responsible for their own room, but make sure the rest of the house is a group effort. It’s a shared deposit after all.
- If you’re the kind of person who hangs their clothes (which you should be), you can keep them on the hangers and just chuck a bin bag over them. Easy packing and saves on space!
Moving into halls of residence
Maann this is exciting. Typically you won’t be able to move until the start of the new term, so you’ve got plenty of time to pack up. Luckily for you we’ve already put together a couple of lists on this:
- Five hacks to make packing for uni a breeze
- What to pack for university
- The best food to take to university
Moving into a house share
The same tips for moving into halls will apply when moving into a second and third year house, but there’s a few more things to consider.
Firstly, the fact that you need to kit out a whole house, rather than just a room. Thankfully though a lot of this stuff can be sorted when you and your housemates arrive - walking around Wilko’s or Asda or equivalent and splitting a toilet brush holder four ways is a canon event.
Secondly, you’ll also need to consider the costs of running a house as well (unless all your bills are included), getting stuff like electric, gas and water set up is step one, finding a way of everyone paying their share each month is step two. Thankfully you don’t have to pay council tax though, so make sure you savour that…
Tips for moving into a student house
- Bring up the bare essentials only, you can buy everything else when you arrive.
- Don’t feel you have to get everything set up on day one. Somewhere to sit, somewhere to cook and somewhere to sleep are priorities.
- Unless it’s predetermined, first in gets first pick of the rooms and cupboard space so bear that in mind.
Want more tips on uni life? Check these out:
No BS last-minute revision tips
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