6 Things You Need to Do Before You Leave Campus for Break (That Your Future Self Will Love You For)

This article is part of Best Break Ever, a collection of stories designed to help you travel in style and relax to the max over college break. Have the coziest time off!

College break is a time to get off campus, unload a little stress, and, importantly, eat some yummy home-cooked meals. Sometimes a couple days off for Thanksgiving or a few weeks spent back home during winter break is exactly what I need to reset and replenish my productivity, especially after a rush of exams and papers. 

Of course, when I’m packing for break, I’m always always rushing around my room without a plan, shoving clothes in bags and leaving my room a complete disaster. Unlocking my dorm room’s door and stepping back into a pigsty upon my return to school is never fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way! If you take a little time to do a few simple tasks just before leaving campus, you’ll thank yourself for thinking ahead. 

When I am running between classes, clubs, and meetings, my desk somehow becomes a magnet for loose papers and random pen caps. And being so busy means that I rarely have time to fully clean up my desk. Before you head out for break, professional cleaner and the founder of Wizard of Homes, Kadi Dulude, recommends looking “at your desk space with a critical eye [to] see if there are things you no longer need” and organizing “the rest in a neat way.” 

She suggests taking advantage of your free time during your break to look for something “to make the organizing system work even better in the future.” Who knows, maybe you have the perfect desk organizer waiting for you in your childhood bedroom or your favorite local thrift store. Whether or not you come back from break with an organizing solution, taking some extra time to neaten up your desk before leaving your dorm can make it so much easier to get back to work when you return.

Getting your laundry done in a college residence hall with a limited number of washers and dryers can be chaotic. But it is still essential to do one last load before you leave campus. The worst feeling is coming back from a relaxing break and realizing you have no clean clothes to wear and there’s been a pile of stinky athletic gear sitting in your room for a week. 

If you are lucky enough to live within driving distance of college (and have access to a washer and dryer wherever you’re staying), skip the dorm washers altogether and take that laundry basket home. Olivia Pham, a Resident Assistant at Stonehill College, says she always sees tabled piles of laundry atop machines in the days before break, so she strongly suggests taking advantage of those home washing machines if you can. 

Changing the sheets is always such a battle for lofted twin beds, so it’s a chore I put off for longer than I want to admit. But Dulude guarantees that it is worth the challenge to come back to a freshly made bed that you can dive right into after that long first day back in class. Especially after recharging at home over the holidays, the last thing you want is to have an annoying chore on your to-do list the second you get back. 

The area rug in my dorm room can get pretty nasty with dust, hair, and random crumbs, so it is always a good idea to give it a quick vacuum. It can be a challenge to fit a full-sized vacuum in a tiny dorm (although there are slim models), so I have a compact handheld vacuum that hardly takes up any space when I’m not using it. Before you desert your dorm for days on end, Pham suggests vacuuming or sweeping your floors to prevent any “food crumbs or dust from accumulating and causing dust mites to fester or make the room smell.” 

Dulude agrees, urging students not to forget to “get under furniture and send the dust bunnies packing, too!” Coming back to a dusty dorm is no fun, after all.

The last thing you want to find when you get back to your dorm is a stack of moldy cups or a crumb-laden plate left to attract ants, so be sure to wash that icky stack of dishes before rolling your suitcase out the door. “Don’t let bacteria grow during break,” warns Pham, who says to take 10 minutes and give those dishes a scrub before you go. That way, you can come back to plenty of clean bowls ready to fill with your favorite college snacks. 

You don’t need your cleaning supplies for this one, but it is always a good idea to make sure all the roommates are on the same page before you head out for break. “Clearing up your space is just as important as clearing up the air between your roommate and you,” Dulude says. 

Not everyone is best friends with their college roommate, which is perfectly okay, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be on good terms. As an RA, Pham has witnessed plenty of roommate squabbles, and she knows that “it’s good to at least say goodbye and squash any problems to ensure a good transition into the next semester.” It reduces stress and anxiety to know that you won’t be returning to a roommate who is still angry about that one time you accidentally woke them up.