Plan Your Package Room Before Move-In, Not During It

Every August, I hear the same story. The leasing office is buried in boxes, residents are lined up out the door, and the team that should be signing leases is digging through piles looking for a parent's lost mini fridge. Move-in week is when package volume peaks. Students order everything to arrive the same week they do.

More shelving won't fix it. A plan made in June will:

• Plan for the surge. Pull last year's move-in week numbers and plan for more.
• Claim the space early. A clubroom or an empty unit beats a buried front desk.
• Staff it separately. Every hour your leasing team spends on packages is an hour they aren't leasing.
• Log every package when it arrives. When a parent calls about a missing box, you want a name and a timestamp, not a guess.
• Tell residents before they arrive. Let them know where packages go, when they can pick them up, and what ID to bring.

Ask yourself one question now. If 1,500 packages show up the week your doors open, who handles them? If the answer is "whoever's free," you know where you stand, and there's still time to fix it.