Moving out of halls: an end-of-first-year checklist

The end of first year comes round faster than you expect, and moving out of halls has more to it than throwing clothes in a bag. Get the order right and you leave with your deposit back and no last minute panic. Here is the checklist, roughly in the order you should tackle it.

Check your move out date and notice

Find your contract and confirm the exact date and time you have to be out. Halls usually want the room emptied and keys returned by a set hour on a set day, and staying past it can cost you. If your accommodation asks for any notice or a checkout slot, sort that first so everything else fits around it.

Sort what stays, goes home and gets stored

Before you pack, split everything into three piles. What you will use over summer goes home with you. What you cannot use but will want again in September, the bedding, kitchen kit, books and winter clothes, is worth storing. What you no longer want goes to charity, a friend, or the bin. Doing this first stops you carting things around you do not need.

Clean the room properly

Most deposit deductions come down to cleaning, so do it thoroughly. Work through:

• Kitchen, including oven, hob, microwave and inside the fridge
• Bathroom, if it is yours, including limescale and drains
• Floors hoovered and hard floors mopped
• Bins emptied and rubbish taken out, not left in the corridor
• Marks wiped off walls and any blu tack removed

Take dated photos of the room once it is empty and clean. If there is ever a dispute over the deposit, photos are the evidence that settles it.

Return keys and read the meters

Hand back every key, fob and parking permit to the right place, and get confirmation you have done so. If you were responsible for any bills, take a meter reading photo on the day you leave so you are not charged for someone else's use.

Redirect your post

Tell your bank, your university and anyone who posts to you that you are moving. Anything sent to an empty halls room may not reach you. It is worth updating your address a couple of weeks before you go so nothing important is left behind.

Deal with the room full of stuff

The awkward part of moving out is the volume. If you are going home for summer and coming back to a new place, you do not have to move it twice. UniMove collects your boxes from halls, stores them over the summer and returns them to your next address, door to door, on a scheduled weekly collection day, with one all in price shown before you pay. Book it early, because the last weeks of term are the busiest of the year.

The last walk round

Before you close the door, open every drawer and cupboard, check under the bed and behind the desk, and look in the bathroom cabinet. Chargers, adaptors and paperwork are the things people leave behind. One slow walk round saves a lost item and a long trip back.