pictured: belted tote bag /

If you have a college student in state, the move out process as a parent is different than what I posted last week about moving your out-of-state student out of their dorm room. In this case, we don’t need storage, but we do need some planning for the move!

When a student is in-state, we don’t need plane tickets, storage or shipping. What we do need are these magic blue bags! You will hear parents talk about the blue bags non-stop when you have a student in college. They are super easy to store during the school year since they fold flat, and they are strong enough for moving heavy objects out of a dorm, apartment, etc. Plus, unlike boxes, they have handles and are easier to reuse over and over again. Love that!

We have six blue bags, and it seems like the perfect amount for a dorm room. The bags are used for clothing, shoes, bedding and everything else. For my in-state student, I drove down to her university the day before packing. It is a six-hour drive so my goal was to bring a kitchen table from home to pop into her new apartment for next year, and hand off the blue bags for packing her dorm room. Here in California, housing is at a minimum. Most students end up dorming for their first year and getting an apartment for the rest of their college career. So, that’s where we are!

In packing her dorm room, we divided the bags into two groups, what comes home and what goes into the apartment. On moving day, we made a trip over to the apartment to drop off the items she didn’t need at home. Everything else was packed and moved into the back of our SUV. The next day, we drove home!

So, my in-state moving plan was drive down and drop off bags on day one. Stay overnight in a hotel. Day two was packing day. Day three was drive home! If your student attends school a little closer, you might be able to shorten the excursion. Socal is a six-hour drive from the Bay Area, so I needed a hotel stay, and coffee; as you can see in the photo above. haha

Having an in-state student is definitely simpler than an out-of-state student. Unless you consider housing. Out-of-state schools have housing, which makes living arrangements simple. In-state, here in California, means dorms the first year, and an apartment for the rest of the years. That being said, blue bags make in-state moving a breeze!

Also, always treat your student to a yummy meal during move-out. This is a reward for finishing the year strong, and a welcome break from dorm food! We went to a sushi place near my daughter’s campus. Yum!

The take-away? Get the blue bags!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy