For most Novos on campus, the next couple of days will be spent frantically packing up and trying to make it look like a dorm hasn’t been lived in for the past nine months. For some, this can be stressful—packing up everything brought from home on top of everything new just as finals peer around the corner can seem scary and intimidating. Not to worry, though—the Catalyst has your back. Here are some essential tips for anybody getting ready to go back home.

• Figure out what’s yours! If you’re sharing a room, and odds are that’s the case, you and your roommates have probably gotten some of your stuff mixed up. Kitchen utensils, cords and anything in between can all get passed around by your roommates until it’s hard to tell what belongs to who and goes where. It’s always a good idea to separate your things from your roommates things first, to make sure nothing gets packed away and sent to the wrong state for three months.

• Make a list! There’s going to be three categories to worry about when you’re moving out—things you’ll need over the fall, things you’ll need over the summer and things you’ll need up to the day you leave. As you spend a few days packing up, it’s good to make sure you keep everything you’ll need up to the last few hours before you leave out and available, not packed away. Otherwise, you’ll want to pack away things you’re not going to touch until you get back to school somewhere else, so you don’t have to rummage through everything trying to find your charger mixed in with your textbooks.

• Throw out your trash! Before you pack anything, make sure you get rid of everything that’s going in the trash. Any wrappers or loose paper needs to go away—you want to make sure that once you’re done packing everything but your day-to-day essentials, there’s nothing else left in your dorm.

• Do it in phases! Odds are, you’ve got a lot of stuff to bring home. Try to break up the process of packing and moving your stuff home. Pack a little every day, putting away things you won’t need, so that you’re not swamped the day you leave. Do the same for bringing things home, if you can—mail or bring back some of the things you need to bring home, to make sure you’ll have enough space to move everything.

• Bring a skateboard! A Catalyst tested and approved method. If you’re moving anything fragile and heavy, like a fish tank, bring a skateboard, so you can push anything too heavy without giving it up to one of those fabric carts.