The year is coming to an end, which means most students are looking forward to going home and enjoying summer. For a lot of students, this means moving out of their room in their respective residence hall. With finals week and end of the year plans on everyone’s minds, however, it can be easy to forget that there are some important steps to checking out of the residence halls.

Finals week is next week and everyone will be leaving town at different times, depending on when their last final is over. Rather than having students just pack up and head out, the school would like each student to schedule a check out time. Students are required to check out within 24 hours of their last final. The only exception is for graduating seniors or students who will be attending graduation. These students must talk to their RA and request a late stay. Time slots are available online, on the CWU housing site. Anyone who doesn’t sign up is charged with a $35 fee.

The residence halls close at noon on Saturday, June 10. Everyone is expected to be gone by then.

Students should be completely ready to hand over their keys and leave their room by the scheduled check out time. Before this is done, there are a few things that each student needs to do.

Cleaning the room may sound obvious but this is a very important step. Everyone’s room naturally gets at least a little dirty after a year of living in it and it is crucial that the room is cleaned before another resident moves in next year. The cleaning staff can’t be expected to go through each and every room on campus to do a deep clean, so it is the responsibility of the students to make sure the rooms are clean.

This means making the rooms look as they did on move in day. All trash must be taken out, the floors should be swept (and mopped if needed), all surfaces should be wiped down and the microwave and fridge needs to be cleaned out, wiped down and unplugged. Each hall has cleaning supplies that can be checked out and used as needed.

Furniture should also be put back to its original place. The number on the bottom of the chairs should match the room number and anything that has been broken has to be replaced. Students can put in a maintenance request to fix or replace any broken items otherwise they will be charged a fee.

“I know that maintenance requests can sometimes take a while so I am going to put mine in at least a week before my check out time. That way I don’t have to worry about it not getting done,” said Alex Douglas, a freshman biology major who lives in Alford Montgomery Hall.

In addition to cleaning the rooms, all personal items should be packed up and taken out of the room before checking out. Once checked out, students will be required to hand over their keys and will no longer have access to their rooms. Moving everything out of a room can be a long and difficult task but there are ways of making the whole process easier and faster.

“I plan on putting all my clothes in suitcases and filling large cardboard boxes with miscellaneous items, just to get everything out of my room in one go,” said Tristan Wall, a freshman graphic design major who lives in Barto Hall.

Large cardboard boxes are a great way to pack up. Having everything in a few big boxes reduces the number of trips in and out of the rooms and it makes packing things up faster.

“I am going to pack all my things a day or two before moving out so I can just check out and leave without having to worry about time,” Wall said.

This is a good idea because it ensures that students do not stay over their check out time and get charged a fee. Packing and cleaning in advance also guarantees that nothing gets left behind because once checked out, there is no going back into the rooms. Nobody wants to be halfway home and realize they forgot something hiding under a bed or in a closet.

Students should talk to their roommates and make a plan to work together to get everything done before checking out. Cutting the work in half will make it all go faster and leave more time for focusing on finals.