In August, a new wave of freshmen moved off to college, away from everything they’ve known for the last 18 years and into a new life on campus. Some moved into on-campus housing, crammed two to a room with an old friend or possibly a potluck bunkmate. The more fortunate opted for off-campus housing, either living in a rented apartment or real estate owned by mom and dad. Once the movers unloaded the moving truck and parents tearfully said goodbyes, freshmen were left to fend for themselves.

Moving to college can be scary, but is mostly exciting when you’re prepared for what’s ahead. We sat down with some new freshman to get their sage advice on moving away from home:

When Packing, Consider the Size of Your New Digs

You may have grown up in a 5-bedroom home, with plenty of room for you and all of your stuff, but this likely won’t be the case when you head for college. The average dorm room is 12 by 19 feet, or 114 square feet. Unless you get the place to yourself, this means you’ll get about 57 square feet to your lonesome, which after you figure in the footprint of a XL twin bed, isn’t much room at all. In addition to the paltry square footage, your dorm room will likely also be lacking on closet space.

Rachel Z., a freshman at Trinity University in San Antonio, confided that she brought entirely too much stuff for her new dorm room. “My parents hired some local movers to help me get moved into my dorm room. About halfway through the unloading process, there was like literally no space left for them to put stuff. My mom and I had to frantically go through boxes and bins to sort out the essentials. Everything else had to be put back in my parents’ car to go back home with them.” Rachel said if she could do it all over again, she would have thought twice about most of the things she packed. It’s better to err on the side of not bringing enough with you – there are always stores or you can always pick up additional things when you go home on weekends or holidays.

Bring Clothes for the Current Season

Most universities in the south won’t see chilly weather until at least Thanksgiving, while most northern climates have already put away their summer clothes. When packing your wardrobe for college, try to avoid taking the whole closet. Unless you’re moving to school really far away from home, there will likely be plenty of opportunities for you to swap out your seasonal wardrobe when you go home.

Christina J., who just started her freshman year at Emory University, said she was glad her mom was involved in the packing process for this reason. “I grew up in New England, so I was expecting to bring all of my huge jackets and coats with me to Atlanta. When my mom saw what I was packing, she told me to reconsider. Atlanta is hot well into the fall months, plus it never really gets cold enough for all of my puffy winter gear. I was SO glad on moving day that I didn’t have all of winter clothes. My warm weather clothes barely fit in my tiny closet space as it was.” Check out other tips on packing your closet for college.

Get Organized and Stay That Way

Cramming your life into a small dorm room can be pretty challenging; however, there are tons of ways you can get creative with maximizing the space you do have and staying organized. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Use the backs of doors for extra storage. Try hanging a shoe organizer on the backside of your closet door to keep all of your kicks from crowding your closet space. In the bathroom, add storage caddies to the back of the door for all of your toiletries and cleaning supplies.
• Maximize the storage under your bed: Use large plastic storage bins to store all those extra items you can’t squeeze into your dresser drawers. You may even want to put your bed on risers to make the under the bed space larger.
• Use skinny hangers in your closet so you can fit more of your favorite clothes hanging up.
• Use wall space to hang decorative but functional pieces like a floating necklace holder or bulletin boards.
• Make use of a small rolling cart to hold extra desk or food items.

Kelley M., an undergraduate at Kansas State, said she got lots of great dorm organizing tips from the site, iheartorganizing.com. “Three of my favorite recommendations from this site were 1) bringing additional shelving to add storage space on top of desks and dressers, 2) filing away hair tools to keep the cords from creating clutter, and 3) using baskets for under the bed storage. Additionally, my roommate and I discussed who was bringing what ahead of time, so we were able to coordinate larger items and come up with a consistent color scheme.” Kelley told us her biggest challenge has been keeping the room clean with her busy freshman schedule of classes and extracurricular activities.

Freshman year will be an exciting time filled with new friends and experiences. Though living in a small space can pose challenges, knowing what to pack and how to keep it organized will help you keep your sanity during your first year as an undergrad.