What Not to Pack When Traveling for a Year!

What Not to Pack When Traveling for a Year (in the tropics)!

So, when I sold almost everything, and I believed I needed to bring everything that was left, I was…. WRONG! I need 2 of these, 4 of those, ah and 15 of them there. Of course, I did. After 4 trips to the post office to ship items home, and over $100 in fees to the airlines, I’m officially done. Period, end of story. Today was the last…

By Aubrey Harper

It’s midnight… The day before you assume your position as a Freshman at UC Davis… What are you doing? Packing, obviously. I have a theory that if you are done with packing more than 3 hours prior to your departure, you aren’t allowing yourself enough of the last-minute panic inspiration that packing truly requires.

As you are sorting through your giant mound of things to begin your life as an Aggie, here are some items you should definitely take out of that stack.

Printer. Unnecessary space/outlet stealer. I’m an English major, and never used CLOSE to the allotted 250 prints per quarter. First of all, (most of the time) professors let you turn hard copies in double-sided. There’s a good chance that the majority of your written work will be submitted soft copy, anyway. Those of you who will need PDFs in class can easily print out them out without worrying about running low on prints, as I did this and never got below 100 pages all three quarters.

Excessive knick knacks. Chances are, you will have at least one roommate. Chances are, they will have friends. Chances are, you will have friends. With all of these people in the room (not to mention the inevitable mess of textbooks and laundry) your room will probably look like this sea of minions. Don’t risk things breaking or falling into a crevice you will never find it again.

Doubles of things. This means coordinate with your roommate. There is a lot of stuff that can easily be shared. My roomie and I shared a full length mirror, and the girls next door ended up sharing it, too. Stuff like mirrors or even air freshener, blow dryer (c’mon boys, I know some of you use those), microwave, fridge, etc. either aren’t used enough for multiples to be purchased or just take up too much room. Plan ahead by asking your roommate what he/she is willing to share and setting some basic guidelines about how the shared belongings need to be treated.

Things you don’t already normally use. It’s great that you have been wanting to start sewing your own clothes, but maybe leave the bulky sewing machine at home. There’s plenty of time for trying new things in college, but don’t sacrifice space for a potential new hobby.

The classic “Back to School” complete office set. While you definitely want to have the basics on hand, college requires different materials than high school. I found this out the hard way. I brought a 3 hole punch, stapler, paper clips (varying sizes, of course), and multiple post it packs. Maybe I’m not the avid office supplies user that you are, but all of that really wasn’t necessary. Your computer is likely to replace most of the notebooks (except for things like math and the like). Bring only the essentials (paper, a couple pens/pencils, eraser, MAYBE a highlighter) until you find that one class really requires post its or paper clips, which are all sold at the UC Davis Bookstore.