Mine is going to manage the move out on her own because we live on the opposite coast from her school. She is staying on campus after her finals are done so she will have time to pack up. She needs to coordinate earlier with the school’s storage facilities to confirm that everything will fit where it needs to.
Wow, after reading all this I’m very inclined to call in a favor and bring an extra pair of hands with us, my sister (who is very organized and efficient with packing) It doesn’t help that we have a big family wedding the day before and won’t be getting home from it until at least midnight. We’re a 3 hour drive from the school and if we leave at 10, get there at 1, take 4 hours for the move-out, and then leave at 5 PM that gets us home by 8 and ready to collapse. Yes, I think I do need the extra pair of hands! And I was thinking of not bringing S’18 but he’s our “pack mule” (a big strong 15 year old) so maybe we do need him.
@CADREAMIN thanks for the upside-down bag tip, we brought a U-haul wardrobe box for move-in but they take up loads of space! Even in a minivan with the 3rd row folded flat it was crowded.
At least D’s dorm has an elevator and a sizable parking lot right outside. It’s not a very big building and around 1/4 of the students are international so don’t have loads and loads of stuff.
@twoinanddone I asked her to check about scheduling move-out time with the RA but she says that’s not a thing at her school. I hope she’s right!
@Bekp2018 what a miserable story, stinks that you got left holding the bag and doing everyone else’s cleanup.
Reading all the heat stories makes me relieved that the forecast for her college town on move-out day is a high of 67 and cloudy. It’s only 43 there right now!
One wrinkle in this is that D is actually staying for Monday and Tuesday after we take almost all her stuff. She’s coming home on Friday for the big wedding on Saturday but still has her last finals on Monday and Tuesday. So she has to take a break and come home in the middle of finals! But she has only 3 finals and can do her own last vacuuming before she leaves.
It was my SIL who is the mother of the groom at the big wedding we’re attending who first alerted me to the difficulty of move-out. We were originally planning to do it on Friday but she told me not to think of doing it the day before the wedding. She has 3 grown kids and moans about the 12 times they went through it.
I going out four days early to help D pack. She and a couple of friends want to share a summer storage unit - I hear that the stepfather of one friend is helping with the search. Hopefully she will have a storage unit ready by the time I get out there but if not, well, that’s why I’m going out so early. Then we fly back. One way or another, all she’s taking back home is a suitcase, computer in a backpack.
First move-out experience will be in the next few weeks - due to his dad’s Nat’l Guard obligations, we are driving the 12+ hours to get his stuff the weekend before finals. A gazillion hours driving with my ex, my teenager daughter, AND the hassle of move out - wow, dream weekend 
I am having a really hard time remembering my own college move-out experiences - I suspect this may be due to the same factors that make us block out enough of the experience of giving birth to be willing to do the whole thing more than once.
Move in was great, though.
My ex and I did move-in together, and it went OK…but I’m kind of glad I am doing move-out just with her, though it sounds like an extra pair of hands would come in handy…
I forgot last year’s move out where my daughter was the last one out of a 6 person apartment and the other girls left everything in the common kitchen and just bailed. The RA was nice enough to bring my daughter and I giant garbage bags and we just chucked everything out - food in the fridge, cabinets, freezer, pots, pans, dishes, etc. What a disaster.
We just went to kid 1 to start moving her stuff out. We will be up there in another two weeks to finish moving her out. We went up there with a bunch of duffle bags. We drove several hours, warned her in advance that she should pack as much as possible, and when we got there…she hands us one bag and says that’s it. Um…no. We went back in and brought home several bags. We use a combination of duffle bags and large garbage bags. She is going to have to clean the apartment (they are off campus). Last year her house mate left a mess and everybody got billed for it.
Kid 2 moves out next week. She is too far to make a trip ahead of time. Kid 2 is a slob and I anticipate a lot of stress. Once again we will be using duffle bags, large garbage bags, and possibly some other type of bag that she has there now. The school sent home some information about storage. Evidently you can pay to store your stuff there for the summer. We did not do that- but she can store some stuff at her friend’s house if she wants to. I doubt she will, which means she and dad will be packing up. He is getting there just as finals are ending- there will be no time to pack before he arrives. She has a shelf really high up- we got her a step ladder. Not quite sure what they are going to do with it. I am finding kid 2’s move to be much harder just because of the distance. They have to remember to clean the suite and shut off the AC. When they came home for Thanksgiving they were written up because they forgot to turn it off.
It is frustrating that in many cases the college requires kids to move out 24 hours or so after their last exam. So who can really expect them to do much organization and packing before they’re done, and they are usually in desperate need of sleep during some fraction of that time.
I go tomorrow to help my freshman D move out. She has to be out 24 hours after last final and she brought WAY too much stuff in August. AND has acquired more stuff during the year. She is so stressed about sorting what will be stored and what we need to take home for summer. She keeps texting with questions. When I called, she said she has studying to do. I stopped her in her tracks - “Studying is #1 priority!” I’ll be there for 48 hours. I’m hoping that’s enough time to pack up and clean. I’m also hoping she’ll purge and we can donate some stuff. Should be a fun 48 hours after traveling across the country. I’m expecting a total mess! Bonding, right?
I’m having a hard time understanding how it can take more than 2-3 hours to move stuff from a dorm room into a car, assuming the car can be parked within a block or two of the dorm. Well, ok I guess if you have to move a fridge and there’s no elevator, but the rest of it?
Amazon should have a storage business for their customers because my daughter got a LOT of stuff from them during her freshman year. They made it way too easy for D to get stuff in the middle of cornfields of the midwest.
And it gets worse when they graduate. More emotional, more stress. My S had to be out by like 8PM on graduation day. UGH. We went the weekend before to take a lot of stuff out but still, packing the rest of the stuff and wiping down the kitchen/bathroom in his suite did put a damper an otherwise wonderful graduation day. At least my D she has until noon on the day after graduation to move out (although we will still go early to get the bulk of her stuff out).
I will be facing the graduation move out in about a week - not looking forward to it. Hopefully, much of the stuff will be moved in advance (to an apartment - not coming back home).
My kids never had move in the same day as a roommate. Both went early for a sport. However, move out? The other posts have given you a pretty good idea of what to expect (no or inadequate packing, an increase in the amount of “stuff” over the year, grumpy post-finals kids), but I will add that you are also working around a roommate and his or her family. So, TWICE as much as your own kids already multiplying stuff to wade through (and in my d’s case, I do mean wade) and extra people trying to navigate in the same tiny space!
OK you guys have me definitely worried. My D is ending her freshman year. She took her car out over Winter Break, so she says not to worry and she’ll move herself out. But I know she won’t start packing until the last minute and she severely underestimates the stuff she has. I’ve thought about flying out that Saturday morning, but then she has to make room for me in the car. And one of the things she managed to accumulate this semester was a cage of two rats plus their rat accessories!
I’m still having trouble understanding how stuff that fits into a car or a cramped dorm room can take multiple people all day to move. My daughter has 5 drawers for clothing, about 3 ft of closet hanging space, a desk with two drawers and two 3-ft shelves for books, (but only a few books), bedding, towels, a small lamp and computer. She’s got a few posters on the wall, about 3 boxes of stuff under her bed and a large empty suitcase waiting to receive the clothes from the drawers. How on earth can this take multiple people hours and hours to pack and put into a car? What am I missing?
Move-in went really well. We went to designated parking lot and unloaded, got a cart and I think 3 loads plus carrying stuff did the job. We then had a minor hiccup with key not being activated. Roommate had moved in earlier and was out shopping for last minute necessities. After key was good to go we unpacked and put away, made the bed, hung up clothes, cleaned the bathroom. It took several hours and I was surprised by that.
Facing move-out this weekend. We are supposed to be able to park in the same lot and get carts. So I’m hoping it will only take about an hour to pack up and bring stuff down to the car. Then do the cleaning and RA check.
Roommate is moving out a day earlier so that should help.
@mathyone If you’re an experienced packer and you’re prepared, it won’t be bad. But if you’re not, and you wake up on move-out day, and start thinking, um, I wonder where to get some boxes . . .uh, does anyone have packing tape? oh, I forgot about the winter clothes I stored under the bed, etc., there’s definitely potential for problems. Or if you procrastinate and/or have accumulated extra stuff. Also if you’re driving, you have to pack it in such a way that it fits into the dimensions of whatever vehicle you’re using while maintaining some visibility. In D’s case, that’s a small car. And the dratted rats will need their own seat! I just hope she is organized enough to put the bedding, including all her decorative pillows and the mattress topper, in storage along with 3-level mini-bookshelf she bought after she got there, the under-bed shoe rack she bought, and the area rug she ordered. But the storage is only available limited hours during finals week and is first come first served.
@mathyone, we went minimal with moving in and thought D would get, on her own, what she needed. That worked very well moving in. What we didn’t anticipate was her roommate (and the refrigerator) moving out. She bought a refrigerator. Then, she proceeded to fill the empty space left by her roommate. When we visited last month, we all noticed she just had more stuff. Some of the stuff she even got for free - students who graduated or left mid-year gave her some things.
Thanks for the tip on the IKEA bags! What a great idea. For anyone else looking for them, I found them on Amazon and had 5 shipped to my D in college. Told her to start packing and let me know if she needs more. Here’s the link to the bags on Amazon. Free shipping with Prime. http://www.amazon.com/Ikea-901-491-48-Frakta-Storage-Blue/dp/B00QNRHM8C?ie=UTF8&refRID=AHZQ1E8NV3EA7VPSJT6J&ref_=pd_rhf_eetyp_p_img_1#Ask