As July comes to an end many of us are experiencing the summer time blues, but not me! Back-to-school season is upon us and I couldn’t be more excited. Ever since I was in elementary school, school shopping was always my favorite. I carried this feeling through high school and now to college. The summer before college was probably the most excited I ever felt for school shopping.

With that being said, I may or may not have went a little overboard my freshman year. When it comes to packing I’m always the one who over does it, ask my roommates. Going into my first year of college I read article and article about what I should bring and eventually came to the conclusion that I needed everything. Boy, was I wrong. It only took me a few months to become annoyed with all of the clutter in my room.

I find that so many people talk about all of the items you will need in college, however there is little focus on what to leave at home. For this reason I bring to you my top 5 items to not to bring to college your freshman year. Enjoy!

1. Books that are not for your classes

For all my fellow bookworms out there this is a tough one. During the summer months I spend the majority of my time reading. So naturally, I figured I could do the same during my “free time” at school. WRONG. First of all, if your lucky enough to have any free time at all you will most likely want to sleep, meet new people, or just relax your mind and catch some Netflix. With all the reading you do for school, I found it almost impossible to find the motivation to read for leisure. If you think otherwise, your school will definitely have a library will hundreds of books for you to check out, so why not save some space and leave at least the majority of your books back home.

2. Most (if not all) of your t-shirts from high school

Ok, so unless you wear t-shirts 7 days a week, hear me out. I went to college with my basketball team t-shirts, my senior class t-shirts, and so on thinking that I would wear them to the gym, class, bed etc. However, as a freshman, you get like a million different t-shirts. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but I definitely got at least 10 t-shirts my freshman year. From orientation, to concerts, and other events, t-shirts are always being given to us. Anyways, I ended up having so many t-shirts lying around that they would not even fit in my drawers. Stick to your favorite three t-shirts and go from there.

3. All of your high-heels

I don’t know why but I thought bringing high heels to college was the best idea ever. Now that I think about it I don’t know what I was thinking. Besides presentations, there is never a day where I would wear them to class. As for the weekend life…I find that most people walk to wherever they go as opposed to driving, which can sometimes be over a mile away depending on the size of your campus, etc. So unless you’re on that supermodel status, heels aren’t really an option. My advice is to bring two pairs (black and neutral) for presentations, interviews, etc.

4. Dishes/Silverware

Lets be honest here, no one enjoys cleaning dishes. Even if you do, there is rarely time. I recommend buying plastic or paper plates as well as plastic silverware. I just makes life so much easier. The only exception would be plastic soup bowls/containers, which I totally recommend buying.

5. Knick Knacks

This is going to be a hard one for me this year, but I’m determined to do it. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “knick knacks”, they are basically just small items that are useless other than for decoration. For example, my desk my freshman year was covered in things like shells from Greece, key chains, perfumes, decorative shot glasses, and even a coke can with my name on it. Don’t get me wrong, it looked really cute, however I just wanted space. It’s not easy doing work in a cluttered area. Most of the time those objects served as distractions. I recommend bring maybe a picture frame or two but that’s it.

That does it for my top 5 items to leave at home your freshman year of college. I hope you found this helpful! Be sure to follow my blog for more 🙂

xo Rickie