Help! We are new UA parents as of this semester. I was just trying to plan ahead for moving my son out of his dorm and cannot find a hotel room in town. Is moving out a process that can be done in a few hours? We will be driving from Dallas so it will impossible to make it there and back home in one day.
Do you mean in May?
Yes, sorry, in May. We need to put in for vacation days for work in 2016 soon so trying to plan ahead.
I think that might depend very heavily on how organized your student is leading up to your arrival.
Here are some things to consider:
-Will you be storing any belongings here in town? Can that be scheduled in advance of your arrival?
-Will you be arriving on Graduation Day (the Saturday the halls close)? That day is crazy around town and traffic will be very heavy, but the other days are generally more relaxed.
Your student can find out from his or her Spring professors very early in January which ones will be giving final exams, and what that schedule will look like. That might give your family a better idea about when you student could be moving out.
If your student is mostly ready to bring things out to the car, then yes, I’d say move-out can be accomplished within a few hours.
Hope this helps,
Janine
Thank you. I am afraid we may need a hotel room based on your reply. I will keep checking.
AnnRyn: A lot of people book very early and book for more nights than they will need… because at the time they are booking, they don’t know when their student will be done with exams. So some rooms WILL open up. However, with graduation because the weekend after finals, those rooms are often snatched up quickly by others coming to graduation! What we did last year was stayed Thursday night in Tuscaloosa, then stayed Friday night about 2 hrs outside of Tuscaloosa, on our way home (9.5 hr trip). As we get closer, you will likely be able to find a room in Tuscaloosa for Thursday night…if plans are to move out of the dorm on Friday. Good luck!
You can always find hotel rooms out of town. It’s not as convenient, but especially if you stop on the way in or on the way out, it’ll work. My daughter has always moved herself out, but I went for move-in freshman year and stayed about 25 minutes away and it was no big deal. For gamedays I’ve stayed 45 minutes away. Again, not a big deal.
AnnRye, my husband was able to move out BOTH my sons within a 4-6 hours period. We are 12 hours away. What my husband has done since my oldest was a freshman was to get a hotel room 4 hours away from Tuscaloosa. We live in SE Wisconsin. What he does is drives 8 hours to Nashville, stay sovernight in a hotel room outside of the city, then leaves at 7 am the next day to drive 4 hours to Tuscaloosa. He moves the kids out from 11 to 5:00 or so, eats dinner in Tuscaloosa with them, and then drives back to the same hotel room he had the night before. The next day he heads the 8 hours home. I don’t know if something like this would work for you, but something like this is an option.
Because of graduation is also that Friday/Saturday, that’s why all the hotels are booked.
Since you’re coming from Dallas…You might want to find a place to stay that is West of Tuscaloosa, stay there the night before, drive into Tuscaloosa that morning, move your child out, and then return to your hotel to sleep, and then drive the rest of the way home.
Choice Hotels in the area still have a couple of places with rooms available now for reservation for Thursday 5/5 - Sunday 5/8), including the Rodeway Inn (which is an ok place down on Skyland which at least offers queen-sized beds and hot breakfast - we stayed there when my son moved in as a freshman, though we prefer the Comfort Suites) and the Econolodge (never have stayed there.)
The final exam schedule is already available for Spring 2016, so if your son already knows his Spring 2016 schedule, he should be able to tell you when his last final is going to be and he should be able to plan ahead to start packing things up before you even arrive in town. As you know, he will have to be moved out 24 hours after his last final (with an extension granted by special request - see the Housing move-out page.)
What made our son’s move-out the easiest for all of us is that we arrived in town from out of state the day before his scheduled move-out day (based on his final and RA checkout on one of the official move-out days, which we scheduled during the 11am slot, which worked out great.) We bought several of those Rubbermaid tote boxes and we went ahead to his dorm with him that night before, when there were no lines of cars or other people moving out, and we helped him load up as much as we could into our van, and went ahead and took a lot of it with us. That also gave us a chance to assess just how much packing and cleaning was going to be needed before he checked out with his RA. And, to my dismay, there was a ton of packing left to do and even more cleaning!
So, even though your son is going to be busy with finals, get him to start packing as early as he can. Get him some of those totes, and have him start loading them up as he can. Have him start getting rid of those things he does not want to take home. Make sure he communicates with his roommates about how they are all going to work together to get their suite in good shape, and not leave the last roommate to check out with all of the mess and the potential fines. One of my son’s roommates just disappeared in the night, leaving stuff everywhere and his paperwork unsigned - what could not be recycled, we just threw everything of his away in the dumpster. Another roommate decided that his trash, dirty dishes, and disgusting side of the bathroom was somebody else’s problem - it became mine - and I spent a couple of hours scrubbing up his mess (and was sick for a month once I got home - not sure what I was exposed to - and had never been that sick ever - so bring gloves and masks if you have any clue that any roommates are slobs!)
My son had cleaned his areas, maintaining them through the year, thankfully, but had not packed up nearly enough, and I was very unhappy to find his room filled with unpacked clothing and items accumulated through the year. Had we not come the night before, there is no way he would have been packed up and ready to go during his move-out time. Sitting in the car line outside was the easiest part - very well-organized. It was dealing with all of the stuff that was the issue.
I have already told my son I am not doing any of that for him this year. That was the freshman year free get out of jail card - and he does not get another one from me. He’s got his totes ready in his closet and he knows it is all on him this time around, as it should be anyway. I am definitely not cleaning up anything ever again. We will gladly come help load some stuff in our car, and drive through the move-out day line, but that’s it 
Another option is to let him move himself out and fly home. My son has done it twice and it’s a great learning experience. Surprisingly he didn’t receive any damage/cleaning fines in the dorm or apartment.
Could always stay in Birmingham, it’s only 45 miles away.
Son has finals on Friday unless he winds up changing his classes around. We are still optimistic we can get in and out in a day and partway home.
@chesterton 's response #9 is spot on.
Make sure students pay attention to the sign-up sheets posted on RA’s doors to book a move-out time - this is where they hand over the keys and RA does a final inspection. These won’t start going up until probably April, but it is easy to lose sight of.
If your student doesn’t/won’t have access to Rubbermaid bins, have them start collecting sturdy boxes (and storing under bed or in the suite-storage rooms (sometimes these rooms are out in the hallways).
If student is the last in the room/suite to vacate, the responsibility of the final cleaning (and inspection) is on them. Even the nicest of roommates throughout the year can turn disrespectful on that last day when they just want to leave…and leave a mess for the last person to deal with. Damage fees to common areas are assessed equally across all room/suite members. Most of messes left behind will be in these common areas!
Altho move-out can go well, be warned that it is not at all like move-in. There will not be armies of volunteers helping you load your stuff, for example. Those large bins/luggage carts will be much harder to find (students - and parents - seem to grab them all whenever they see them in the lobbies and put them in their dorm rooms until they are ready to load the car, often hours later, so they are scarce). You may be lucky and have these carts available for when you check out…but don’t count on it. One thing I’ve found invaluable regarding this is to have a small folding hand cart (got at Costco for ~$25). If you have everything in boxes and bins, you can easily wheel the stuff out without having to rely on finding the UA carts.
If your car/van was completely full at move-in…be warned: you might find that everything won’t fit into the same car/van at move-out. There are two reasons for this: students have accumulated more stuff since move-in (and many of you bought their stuff down in Tuscaloosa that wasn’t in your car originally); and they will not be as jenga-like in their packing as us parents were.
A tip for future parents is to pack everything in Rubbermaid bins with lids or sturdy boxes (don’t have anything lose!). Leave these with your student all year. Whatever doesn’t fit into them, they simply don’t bring home. And the biggest tip of all: they don’t need a lot except for clothes and shoes. Repeat that over and over. You will be thankful that you sent them to school ‘light’, when you pick them up in 9 months.
We flew in & had everything shipped. They told us at the Ferg, DS’s was one of the biggest orders they had. However, there really wasn’t that much there, just multiple shipments for the orders I placed. The bulk was t-paper, paper towels, school supplies, all of which will be used up during the year; no furniture, carpeting, lamps, nothing.
I left two collapsed boxes under his bed. I wish we had left at least 3 for anything he has picked up during the year. My DH thinks we should rent storage there & not bring anything home, but most of it is his clothing & bedding.
I definitely want to bring them home, as I want to give them a thorough washing!. 
Move out week is a very busy time for your students, there are finals, papers, studying and then they have to pack, go to storage, clean and check-out… I can’t say what is right for each student /parent, but we wanted our student to concentrate on school, so we did take the time to rent a storage room and go down to help. While my student was at class, we packed and cleaned and moved everything to the storage facility. No need to ship anything down the following year. We also cleaned the suite, took out garbage and filled in minor holes in the wall.
You cannot believe how many stories you will hear, after move out, about the condition (dirty) that the suites and bathrooms were left in. Even if your student is the clean/neat one, there may be other students in the suite who will just take their own stuff and leave a mess. You are not responsible for the mess/damage in other student’s individual rooms but you are responsible for the common areas (fridges, microwave, garbage, damages, vacuuming). If there are fines for the common areas, all the students in the suite will be billed.
Elevators are busy, carts are scarce, parking can be a real pain and unless your student has a vehicle, it is much harder to accomplish all this while you they are busy with school. Also, if your student is involved with sports or clubs, there are usually last minute meetings and get-togethers. If your student is involved in research, or CBH, there are even more things to attend to.
The end of the school year is also very stressful for your student(s). So, in my opinion, if you can help…help, they will appreciate it.