How students can prepare for temporary relocation

Oh my word, it’s nearly time to pack up – again no doubt. What a pain! You may be leaving the UK for a gap year (exciting), moving campus, taking on a work placement or having to clear out because your landlord is finally getting the decorators in.

When it’s a temporary move, there can be a lot to consider. We’ve come up with a simple checklist to help you prepare, so there’s absolutely no need to panic.

The first and most crucial step…
DO NOT LEAVE IT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!
Planning for your temporary move well ahead of time will cause the least amount of stress. You know this, we know this, but that’s not easy when you’re finishing up a year at Uni.

Expert travel bloggers, the Independent Travel Cats, say that “the easiest way to make the process less stressful is to approach it in parts and stages rather than being overwhelmed by all the things you need to do at once.”

This leads us nicely onto the next step…
MAKE A CHECKLIST
This seems like a super easy task, but unless you are an expert list maker, a to-do list can have the opposite effect and make a person feel completely unmotivated.
List making don’ts:

• • Don’t make it too long
  • Don’t make it too short
  • Don’t make it too vague
  • Don’t make it too confusing
  • Do not over commit
  • Don’t be over meticulous

Sorry, that’s a lot of ‘dont’s’, but these are all elements that make a ‘to-do’ list boring and banal. They also focus on the least favourite parts of the overall tasks, because you have to remind yourself – push yourself – to complete them.

Our Top Tip

“Connect your daily task list to your bigger purpose, and you’ll see the why behind those things you have to do.”

Reminding yourself of the bigger picture, such as a gap year full of travels, will make the mundane tasks purposeful in the long run… we promise.

Or why not draw your list?

The Cut says you should draw your to-do list. According to a Psychology study which saw some participants draw keywords and the others write words, the drawing subjects recalled more than twice as many words compared to those who wrote the words.
Apparently, people have to consider the physical attributes of an object to draw the prompt. Visualising it uses motor skills to keep it locked in the brain for longer.

That sound great. So your alternative to-do list for a short-term relocation could look like this…

We have to say, we kinda like it.
GO ALL MARIE KONDO
We all accumulate clutter. A student isn’t a student without a dodgy plastic shot glass collection and a traffic cone (ok, maybe a bit 90’s retro). We suggest binge watching Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up on Netflix for major inspiration to remove the clutter and “choose joy” (or spend less on short term storage).

Seriously though, it’s the perfect time to rid the crap, allowing you to start your next chapter stress-free and even better, return clutter free.
Our Top Tip
Take on the task:
Take – Store – Remove
Take is what you’ll need for your next chapter.
Store are all the items that you’ll need on your return such as bedding, towels, desks, chairs, pans…

Remove all the items that you no longer need or ‘bring joy to your life’. Make sure these are split into Charity Shop, Bin and Selling Sites. If you can make a bit of extra cash, do so!
Get this task done way before you have to officially pack up. That way, you’ll roughly know how many storage boxes, or the size of storage unit you’ll need later on.

LABEL YOUR STORAGE BOXES

An unmarked box gives us a really sad face here at Incredible Bulk. As a student, you shouldn’t have rooms and rooms to pack and store away. However, it’s the smallest boxes that need the most details adding.
According to Life Hacker, a storage box should include:
– The room (if required)
– The contents
– It’s relative weight (light, medium or heavy)
– And its orientation (this way up sticker)

ARRANGE DELIVERY IN ADVANCE

Our student storage package offers:
– The storage of 5 boxes
– Free packing materials
– Free pick up from any Bradford address
– Free same address deliver when you return

But please do not expect this all to happen with a few days notice. Of course, we do accommodate last minute requests, but to reduce your stress levels, we suggest booking a pickup date well in advance.
Our Top Tip
Give yourself at least 28 days notice, giving you enough time to complete all of the above.
Travel light with little stress
As a Bradford storage location, we assist Bradford University students with their short-term storage solutions frequently. If you need to chat about your needs, then do get in touch. We’ll sort you out.