As the school year comes to an end, boarders have started to pack up their rooms for their belongings to be shipped back home until next year. To boarding student Karina Atiegha ‘20, “the process of shipping and packing up everything is difficult.” Many other boarders agree that packing up all your belongings can be a tough job as well, especially when you don’t want to lug around 15 boxes and get mocked by your friends for being a hoarder or spendthrift. Karina thinks the main struggle “is not having a lot of boxes because they can be expensive.” So you can save yourself a stress crying session and Siri search on what to do by reading this article!
With the three C’s–clear out, consolidate, and celebrate– anyone, boarders or day students, can move around their belongings without being publicly ridiculed or physically strained. First, clear out. Take note of the items in your room and donate what you can. You can also give items away to the share box in your dorm, which ultimately is emptied and displayed in the free store in Johnston Main at the end of the year. You’ll find that this is a really helpful step in reducing what gets put into your minimal amount of boxes, and you can even serve your community by giving things away. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
Now it’s time to consolidate. You have all of the things you’re going to keep, but you’re probably facing the issue of fitting it all into the overpriced, undersized cardboard boxes you bought. Let’s say you have a lot of purses. Don’t just throw them in the box! Fit as many things as you can inside of the purses you have; then you can put it all in! Also, when packing clothes, roll them up so they don’t take as much space. You can also fit socks inside of hats, the cups of bras, and shoes. Even rings could fit inside of pill boxes, or earrings could go in the holes of buttons. Depending on how big your shampoo bottles and face washes are, you could fit them in a shoe as well. “It’s all about fitting in the little things first.” Karina suggests.
Finally, celebrate. You were able to reduce and consolidate your items enough to fit them in fewer boxes than your original plan! Now you can be the one who calls your friends a hoarding squanderer, dealing out your own share of head nods and eyebrow raises.
