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Cleaning supplies and diligent hands will be hard at work as students race to clean before leaving for break.

Maria Bunczak, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, has had a messy room her whole life and said her habit of throwing clean clothes on the ground in particular drove her mother nuts.

“We came up with this deal which started freshman year of high school,” Bunczak said. “I could keep my room in whatever condition I wanted as long as I did all my own laundry.”

Now living on her own and organizing to her own tastes, the current makeup of Bunczak’s dorm room includes a suitcase of unpacked clothes from Easter break, a laundry basket of clean laundry, dirty laundry lying around and a desk cluttered with an array of miscellaneous objects including stale bread, hot cocoa mix and 10 pill bottles. But with the end of the school year just weeks away, the idea of cleaning and packing everything up to move out for the summer looms as a somewhat daunting task for students like Bunczak.

Whether living in a dorm, an apartment or a house, virtually all people on campus face the need for “spring cleaning” at this time of year — a fact that both students and staff can attest to.

Mary Janz, executive director of housing and residence life, said that as soon as the dorms close for the semester, the facility managers and residence hall directors check to make sure each room is emptied for the summer. Cleaning and repair preparations begin immediately in order to make dorms available not only for next semester’s students, but also for various guests housed there over the summer. Spring cleaning, therefore, is not an option but a necessity for students to move out on time and clear the way for others.

Kazumi Musial, a sophomore in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, said both she and her roommate have gotten to the point where they need to do a full spring cleaning of their room.

“I’m not that lazy to the point that I decorated for a holiday and I left them up just because I didn’t feel like cleaning up. We’re not at that level,” Musial said. “But we do have a Christmas tree up.”

While Musial said she feels stressed at the thought of planning how to clean and pack everything up for the summer, she is starting small with having her family take home some of her winter clothes the next time they visit.

“My dad is going to bring as many garbage bags as he can and throw them all in there,” Musial said. “That’s what we did last year.”

For those graduating in May, the task of cleaning up to move out is perhaps especially daunting. Fortunately for Brian Vargas, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, a weekly cleaning routine as well as a plan for the end of the year have kept him on schedule and protected him from the urgent realization that hits many students during the final month of school.

Vargas said he keeps his house in order by cleaning every Sunday but prepares to do a deeper clean of everything once graduation comes. With the end in sight, he said he plans to buy a better vacuum, dusting supplies and a mop before the final days arrive.

With fewer than five weeks remaining and many classes reaching their peak workloads, students across campus can attest to a simultaneous itch to leave for break and anxiety in figuring out how to get all of their furniture, clothing, appliances, books, dishes and other signs of life moved out. For the sake of those students and the staff mentioned by Janz, one hopes the transition from school to summer break will be smooth.