What I Brought to Uni

And now an impression of my cat.

It’s common knowledge that people moving to university tend to take too much with them. My first and second years here, it didn’t matter to me that I would be part of that stereotype. I would be miles away from home for months at a time, I wanted as much of my stuff with me as possible.

Now, having that mind-set might not be too much of a problem if you weren’t going too far away, or if you or anyone in your family have a car as seems to be the case most of the time. But if you’re someone without any of that, the distance is larger and you have to stick to trains or coaches (I gave up on trains a long time ago. £50 one way? No thanks.) then its’ going to be a lot harder. If you fill up your suitcase so much that you have to stop every five seconds and by the end of it you can’t use any of your muscles without intense pain, then that may be a sign you need to change things. Of course, it might also help if you have any strength whatsoever.  

So yeah, this year I decided I wasn’t having any of that. I wanted easy, light travelling. I only wanted what was absolutely necessary (plus a couple of extras for entertainment). The number of each thing I took was cut down significantly and some things were eliminated altogether.

Below is a list of everything I took:

-Clothes – I took all my underwear but only 4 tops and bottoms, because they can be re-worn and if I spaced them out right I wouldn’t have to worry about running out of clothes (new place has washing machine but no dryer so we have to hang them up which takes longer)

-Hairbrush, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste and 1 towel (everything else like that was either coming back from storage or could be bought when I arrived)

-Blanket and dressing gown (for Winter, and I wasn’t sure if just walking around in my pyjamas in the morning would be acceptable here, plus I just like having something to wrap myself in)

-3DS and games (so I’d have something to play if I wanted, but restricted to save space)

-3 books (again for entertainment, and justified because I’m on a writing course)

-Uni supplies (I’ll go over these later)

-3 Plushies (because I just couldn’t eliminate anymore, plus one is smaller ayway)

-Camera, phone and laptop plus chargers.

That was all I brought and so far it’s been enough. I haven’t even had time to touch the games since starting class again!

So my advice for anyone about to move to uni (though it might be a bit late for this year) is to only take what is absolutely necessary. Add a couple more things for entertainment if you like, but you definitely won’t need as much as you think you do.

This is particularly true if you have to get the coach and then walk half an hour with suitcase and any other bags to get to where you’re staying. I'd talk about my journey but it was pretty boring. The only notable thing about it was how freezing it was on the coach.