<p>Parent of freshman here. D will fly home after one final on Thursday and 2 finals on Friday in May. How much time is needed to pack / clean / move-out? Briefly, what is involved? </p>
<p>She is planning to live on campus next year but no storage on campus. We don't know yet if she will use a packing / pickup service, share a storage pod or make other arrangements. Need to buy her airline ticket. Looking at Saturday late afternoon or Sunday early afternoon (more time but more expensive). Recommendations?</p>
<p>Once her things are packed and moved out, the cleaning process shouldn’t take long, an hour, maybe. Realistically she could get most of her stuff moved into a storage locker the weekend before finals, take one small load after finals and be ready to go Friday night even. I think you need to check with the school to find out when they need to be out of their rooms. Often that will be the last day of finals so she may need to be out of her room on Friday.</p>
<p>Check with the school, some have 24 hours after the lsat exam to be out of the dorms. Start planning now (I bought D’s ticket in march)</p>
<p>Actually, the Monday before is the last day of classes, and Tuesday and Wednesday are study days so she could use some of that time to pack and transport. If she uses a pickup service I would think you get one pickup. Since she needs to wash and pack her bedding (Mom hopes), this would be the day she leaves. I’m concerned that a 4 pm flight Sat may be leaving her too little time for all that and good-byes. The last day of finals is the following Wednesday so her move-out is not an issue with the school. I’m not sure when her roommate is leaving.</p>
<p>What about having her stay until the last day of finals? How are the prices for tickets then? She could then study for finals, finish and then worry about packing, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for helping me think this through. She wants to get home as soon after she’s finished as possible because she leaves again ~9 days later for 2 months of the summer. I think I am leaning toward the Sunday early afternoon flight. She finishes finals late afternoon Friday, can get some laundry and packing done, get all her things picked up or to wherever on Saturday, and she still has time to spend with friends without being rushed.</p>
<p>If her finals are done friday, I would not book a ticket bfore sunday/monday. Remember she also needs to clean the room before she leaves (or you will receive a big bill from res life over the summer).</p>
<p>If you think that the packing is going to happen in conjuntion with studying for the finals, it is not. Right now your daughter needs to tell you where she is in the process. She can also start now doing a little each week so when finals come, she may only have one machine of clothes to do.</p>
<p>For example is she is not in a place where any more snow/really artic weather is expected, she could start packing the heavy winter clothes. </p>
<p>She can minimizing/downsizing and doing laundry to pack heavy quilts, sheets, towels(this will also force her to do laundry once a week).</p>
<p>She can start packing last terms books which she will not need for this term. She can start packing all of the little nick nacks in her room.</p>
<p>She can cut down on some of the clothes and start boxing stuff that she will not need over the summer (overweight luggage is $$$). The during the last week, she needs to clean the fridge (thoroughly) and unplug it. Remember she has to purchase packaging materials to box tape and label her stuff. She should also prepare an inventory, in case when she returns in the fall if anything is broken or missing in her move.</p>
<p>If she is using the storage pick up facility, she needs to know how much lead time she needs to give before arranging her pick up and what are their pick up times on given days.</p>
<p>I always gave myself an extra day, because I didn’t want to have to worry about packing during final exams-- on top of being time consuming, dorms are tiny and once you start pulling things out of their allotted spaces the room gets messy and difficult to navigate very quickly, and it is stressful and distracting. Once I actually started packing, it usually took several hours but wasn’t too bad-- it will take a lot longer than your D thinks it will, I was surprised every time. Cleaning up the room after was a breeze as I kept the room clean in general anyway, there wasn’t much extra that needed to be done. Your D’s mileage will vary. Some people are less anal retentive than I am about their stuff being disorganized for packing during finals. :P</p>
<p>I seem to remember there being a rule that I had to be out within 24 hours of my last exam, but I also seem to remember it being something more like 36-48 hours each time. In my case, that didn’t appear to be an issue. Nobody knew when my finals were or had the time or energy to enforce that.</p>
<p>Thanks for those tips. She’s in San Diego so no cold weather stuff to speak of. We did decide on the Sunday afternoon flight as it gives her more time to clean and pack. I’ve heard about the junk heaps/treasure piles at some schools at the end of the year and I wouldn’t want her to add her stuff because she didn’t have time to deal with it properly for next year. I sure don’t want to have that kind of a bill at Bed Bath & Beyond a second time!</p>
<p>Any packing/protection tips for stuff going to a storage unit?</p>
<p>I would just say that–in my experience–there are seldom long goodbyes or hanging out with friends–students normally take off as soon as they’re done. And the ones who only have papers can now submit electronically and have no reason to hang around campus.</p>
<p>I would say a day at most. For both D1 and S2 the school wants them out 24 hours after their last final. Although I don’t know how closely they check that sort of thing. D1’s final was on the last day of finals and her RA wanted to check her out of the room before the final!!! Goodbyes are hard because people finish at different times and most leave as soon as they are done.</p>
<p>I sent my daughter some boxes ordered online and some packing tape. She shipped home boxes of things she needed over summer. She would send back a box soon as it was filled.</p>
<p>What she can do ahead of time is sell back old books, purge, and feet rid of old stuff</p>
<p>There are no goodbyes really. Everyones schedules are all over the place and they need to get out of there. You will have a better timeline once you decide where to store her stuff.</p>