Is Your Student Home from College? Now's the Time to Prepare for Fall

If you've got a student arriving home from college with all her stuff, maybe now is the time for you to plan for the trip back to school in the fall.

Your child may show up with every stitch of clothing she owns, both clean and dirty; piles of books, notebooks, and papers; computers, portable TVs, DVD and CD players, microwaves, and miscellaneous cooking utensils; and all sorts of sports gear - all of which lands at your front door, possibly in one big heap.

You might want to give your returning college student a week or so to decompress - sleep late, catch up with friends, hang out at the mall or on the beach. Then offer to help tackle the task of organizing her belongings.

Separate the stuff into categories, then divide each category again, into the stuff your student needs right now and the stuff to be stored. Clothing for the current season, DVDs and CDs, summer sports gear will end up in the student's bedroom or the family garage, available for easy access. The rest can be stored in one spot, either in the home or in your off-site family storage unit, ready to be repacked and taken back to college.

For clothing - make sure it's all clean, then sort into summer clothing and off-season clothing. Weed out any ripped garments and either mend or discard; also throw out any permanently soiled items. (Make sure you're not throwing out any lucky T-shirts!)

Your daughter probably won't need her microwave or cooking utensils this summer; pack and store them for easy access in the fall. She probably will want her DVDs, CDs, and electronic equipment, including her computer. Her books and notes can be separated into three categories: those she will need in the fall at college, those she won't need but wishes to keep, and those she doesn't ever want to see again. She might want to advertise the last category of books on the Internet, on amazon.com or half.com. If the books are a current edition, she might be able to get quite a bit of money back.

Be sure to keep a list of the stuff you store, and have your daughter review it as she gets ready to return to college. Organizing her belongings now - storing it in one spot and keeping an inventory of it - will simplify the process of packing it up and making the journey back to college in the fall.