Whistle While You Work

It's a rather popular children's song.  'Whistle While You Work,' from the movie 'Snow White.'  

The point of the song is to essentially tell children that a bit of a song whilst cleaning up can make the cleaning go a lot smoother, and with a lot less complaints.  Of course, the song also insinuates that you will have all your little forest friends to help you with the dishes, which, I can tell you from experience, is completely false.  You are all by yourself in the cleaning up.  But, I will admit that listening to music or putting on a movie as background noise while you work is actually very effective.  It still takes two hours to clean out the closet, but it is easier to clean when Andy Dufresne is toiling away in prison and making friends with Morgan Freeman right next to you.  

The concept is the same, even it is less 'cleaning up' and more of a 'packing up your entire life into boxes that definitely fit all this stuff in here on the way back down so where did all this extra crap come from anyway?' type of thing.  

Therefore, I would suggest putting off the packing up of the iPod speakers or the television away for as long as possible.  Keeping the iPod on relatively upbeat songs will help, though if your neighbors or roommates are also listening to music, various genres can sometimes clash a bit.  This is fine, and at least you aren't alone with your thoughts when you are trying to figure out just how things will fit together in their boxes, and then in your car.  

A movie or music is definitely a welcome distraction from the tedium of cleaning.  And more often than not, 'packing' turns into 'cleaning' very quickly.

Movies certainly believe this about themselves.  Especially Disney.  Enchanted, Mary Poppins, Snow White, Cinderella and quite a few others have either a 'moving' scene or at the very least a 'clean up' scene, and all of them utilize song and dance and sometimes animals to make it more appealing.  Because of this, I believe, I now find it impossible to even attempt to clean or move without some kind of aural or visual stimulation.  

It works especially well if in the movie the characters are cleaning up as well.  Or, even better, if their situation is about a million times worse than yours.  You can enjoy the movie, clean up, and be very glad that all you have to do is figure out how to make your boxes defy all the laws of physics in order to pack everything up--it's easier than trying to save the world or escape from prison or crazy government agents, or dealing with any action move plot ever.

Moving Out, sans Stress

Finals are over and you’re thinking there is nothing standing between you and a summer filled with cook outs, laying out by the pool, and trips to your friends’ beach houses. Sadly, though I wish it was, this is not true. Gone are the lazy summers, and here are the summers filled with work, internships, summer classes, and maybe the most stressful of them all: moving out.

Many people place moving into the category of the most stressful events, along with death, divorce, and illness (read more about it here). So here are a few tips to deal with that stress.

Organize your stuff ahead of time. This might be one of the easiest ways to reduce stress while moving. Go through all of your things few weeks before the big move, and decide what you want to take with you, what you can sell, and what you want to donate or just throw away. This way, when the time comes to actually pack and move, you simply have to pack up your things and move them instead of sorting through everything and packing all at the same time.

No one wants this to be their moving experience.

Organizing beforehand also minimizes the actual amount of moving you have to do. If you get rid of everything you don’t need, you won’t have to pack and move as many things.

If possible, move in little by little. This year, I am moving out from my apartment and into a huge house downtown, and my leases overlap by a month. Instead of moving all my stuff at once, and I do have a lot of stuff, I plan on moving in a little at a time so I won’t get overwhelmed.

My house for next year!

Unfortunately, I am moving from a fully furnished apartment into a completely unfurnished house. This is what I have been stressing out about the most, but I have calmed down after a bit of planning. Moving into an unfurnished place can be really stressful, especially for college students, because furniture is expensive. A great way to find furniture is to ask around. I am not a fan of getting used furniture from people I don’t know or thrift stores, but I will ask my parents or family friends if they have a couch that they no longer need. In my experience, many people are more than willing to help out us poor college students, especially when we will be taking things that they don’t want anymore but don’t know what to do with.

Get organized and plan ahead to make moving less stressful, and you will be able to host your own cook outs at your new place.

Lisa Garsson

Have a Potluck!

Moving out of the dorms or an apartment can be very stressful. There is so much to pack and so little time to do it. One thing you do not want to have to worry about is what to do with all that leftover or half-opened foods. A great way to get rid of those extras is to have a potluck with friends! A potluck is a gathering of friends, where each person brings a dish to be shared with everyone.

There are so many different ways you can incorporate leftover foods into new, delicious dishes. Look through your refrigerator, cabinets, and/or pantry and make a list of everything you have that you need to get rid of. Take note of the main meat ingredients you have, such as chicken, steak, or hamburger meat. These will be the main ingredients of the meal you choose to cook. Below are some ideas for what to do with leftover foods!
Chicken
1. Make chicken quesadillas.
Need:

~Chicken, soft tortillas, cheese, sour cream, lettuce

2. Throw it on top of a caesar salad.
Need:

~Lettuce or spinach, chicken, shredded parmesan cheese, croutons, caesar dressing

Hamburger (ground beef)
1. Mix taco salad.
Need:

~Ground beef (browned in a pan), shredded cheese, taco seasoning, Tostitos chips, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream

2. Stir into chili.
Need:

~Ground beef,can of kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chopped onions, chopped green pepper, minced garlic, chili powder, salt & pepper, shredded cheddar cheese

Steak
1. Saute it for an easy teriyaki stir-fry.
Need:

~Steak, teriyaki sauce, vegetables (broccoli, peppers, carrots), brown rice

2. Wrap up some fajitas.
Need:

~Steak, tortillas, red pepper, green pepper, onion, steak sauce (to marinade)

Vegetables
1. Cook into an omelette.
Need:

~Vegetables, eggs, shredded cheese

2. Make vegetable soup.
Need:

~Yellow zucchini, carrots, brown rice, tomatoes, cauliflower, diced onions, olive oil, minced garlic, chicken broth, oregano, italian seasoning

Fruit
1. Chop up for fruit salad.
Need:

~Fruit of your choice, chopped and mixed together

2. Blend a smoothie.
Need:

~Frozen fruit, orange juice, plain yogurt, ice

An app for the iPhone or iPad that I use when I am deciding what to make is called DinnerSpinner by allrecipes.com. You just choose a dish type, select an ingredient and then how long you have to make the recipe. After clicking "View Matches", the app gives you some tasty recipes to make with the information you've given it! For example, if you choose "Dessert", "Fruit", and "20 min or less", it gives you recipes for everything from chocolate covered strawberries to cream cheese blueberry pie! The app also lets you search for specific recipes, or search for special recipes, like ones that contain "No Dairy" or "No Wheat". It also has search options for recipes that are high in fiber and low in fat! This helpful search app will definitely come in handy when trying to use up all that leftover food!

Moving Out: Cleaning up your dorm room

Campus Collegiate: Home and Living

Finals are over, the stress has left your body and you are ready to go home and not move from the  couch for approximately 3 months. That is until you look around and realize that your room is still filled with all the miscellaneous junk you collected this year and you don't know where to begin packing. No worries because, as always, I'm here with some tips to help you get all moved out and on with your summer. I got inspiration from quite a few sites but the one that I liked the best was from Youngadults.about.com. My tips are below and they are very close to home because I am currently working on packing up myself since I move out next Thursday.

1. Actually throw things away.

This is the hardest tip for me personally because I save anything and everything I can. I have a whole desk drawer of cards, notes, tickets, programs, pamphlets and so much more. The hardest part of moving out for me is cleaning out this drawer. I know deep inside that it is necessary because f I did manage to bring it all home I would have nowhere to put it. Throwing away the things in your room that you know you'll never use again is the easiest way to rid yourself of clutter and make it so you have a lot less to pack up.

2. Sell your books.

I recommend keeping books from your major that you think you'll be able to use later. You should take all of your other books to the bookstore at your college and try to get at least a few dollars. The other tip for selling books that some people do not know about is shipping them to Amazon. All you have to do is acquire a box to put the books in (which is usually very easy to get from someone in your dorm at this time of year) and print a shipping code and tape it to the box. The code makes it is absolutely free to ship your books to them and a lot of time they give you more money than you could otherwise get. Selling your books is a win-win because you'll get some money and you don't have so many heavy items weighing down your boxes.

3. Pack in items you already own.

Most of us don't realize how many storage units we already own in our room. If you don't, however, it is definitely time to invest. 

These bins are from Wal-Mart. You get two of them for $10.94 and they are well worth the investment. 

If you already have storage bins like I do, simply clean them out and get rid of the unnecessary items in them and add clothes and other items that you need to pack to them. This is the easiest way to kill two birds with one stone.

4. Fold those clothes up.

For me packing up my clothes is the biggest headache. As a girl, I do not care that my dorm room closet is laughably tiny and I still bring my whole wardrobe with me. This is great for fashion purposes, but not so much for moving out. I found a really great YouTube clip that shows how to fold various types of clothing so they are small and space saving. I highly encourage you to fold like this when packing up at the end of the year. It does take a little bit longer while folding, but it makes it so much easier than carrying bags upon bags of clothes down the stairs for hours. 

That's all I have for you. I know that packing and moving out is extremely stressful and I hope these four little tips make your life even a tad bit easier during this time of year. Just remember, this is the last step you have to take before you take your first step onto that sandy beach you've been dreaming of.

If you are a polar bear (I'm looking at you boys) please help the ladies take down their heavier items.

Jenna Danzig

Campus Collegiate

Weekly Theme: Moving Out

As it is that time of year where school comes to an end, it can be overwhelming when it is time to pack up your room. Check out some tips on how you can make moving out, whether it be a dorm or an apartment, less stressful!