Store as much as you like for as long as you like
Store as much as you like for as long as you like
It’s that time of year again when uni students across the country are gearing up for the summer break. They’ve been working hard all year, and now that their exams are nearly over, many are preparing to come home for a few months to enjoy the sunshine and freedom. But before they can make the journey, there’s one thing left to deal with – their stuff.
Surprisingly, most university accommodations don’t let you keep your belongings in the property over the summer, even if you’re going to come back to the same house and room in the new semester. They need to deep clean, do inspections, and some actually rent out student accommodation to conference goers over the break as well. And even if your uni allows you to leave your belongings, there is a security concern, since more than one person has keys to student accommodation. All of which means students need to pack up their belongings and store them somewhere for a few months. It’s not a fun task, but we do have a few tips to make the process a bit easier to deal with.
Before you even start to pack, you should do a big sort out. This will stop you having to pack (and unpack) things you don’t actually need or want to keep, and speed the whole process up. So go room by room (or area by area) and sort all of your belongings into 3 piles – keep, donate, bin. Going through this process means you can get rid of clothes you haven’t worn in months or shoes that are worn out, and leave you with only the things you really need to pack. If you’re going to use a storage unit (more on that later), add a fourth pile of ‘prohibited in storage’ items, which you want to keep but aren’t allowed in storage units. This is mainly things like food, plants or dangerous goods, which you then have plenty of time find a temporary home for elsewhere.
About a week before you need to start packing, go through your belongings and make sure they’re all in a good condition for storage. This means that everything needs to be clean, dry and free of mildew or mould. Once your belongings are ready to go, it’s time to pack!
We recommend using high quality storage crates or boxes so that everything will be safe and secure during your move. Heavier items should be placed at the bottom of the box, with not too many heavy things per box. Anything delicate should be wrapped tightly in bubble wrap and put in a separate box with a fragile sticker, if you have one. If not, writing on the box works just as well.
Try not to overfill your boxes. This will not only make the move much harder for you, but you’re risking damaging things with each movement, or worse the box buckling and breaking everything within. It’s worth doing a few extra trips to make sure everything arrives in one piece, so try to leave around an inch of space in every box. And finally, make sure you label each box on at least 3 sides. Rather than the room it belongs to, we recommend writing the contents of each box in the side. This makes it easier for you to find things while the boxes are in storage, and also makes unpacking a lot easier.
Depending on how much stuff you have and where you parents live, you may be able to just store your boxes in a garage or shed during the summer break. But while this is convenient, it’s not the best option for your belongings. Garages and sheds can get flooded, aren’t very secure, and tend to fluctuate in temperature a lot throughout the day, which means anything you store within them could be damaged. They also aren’t water tight, which means if it does rain Over the summer you could come back to soggy boxes.
Instead, we recommend using a self storage unit. These have the same level of convenience as storing at h9me, but without any of the drawbacks. You can hire one for as long as you need, from a few days to a few weeks, and you can choose a size to suit you. Choose your self storage company based on your access requirements, how much you have to store, and how close they are to both of your moving locations. Keep an eye out for units that run student deals for summer storage as well if you want to save some money!
It’s tempting to just throw everything into your storage unit as it comes out of the car, and worry about it later. But spending a little time organising your unit as you move in will make things a lot easier in the long run. Be sure to stack your boxes carefully, with heavier boxes at the bottom and lighter ones on top. You should also try to organise your boxes in priority order, with the ones you’ll need to access soonest at the front. Make sure all the labels are easy to see, and that nothing is likely to fall as the boxes settle.
That’s it! You can lock up the unit and walk away, confident that your belongings are safe and you can enjoy your summer break. At Blue Box Self Storage, we love helping students who are coming home for the holidays store their belongings. We can guide you through every step of storage, and our team are always happy to lend a hand if you should need it. Plus, we have units of all shapes and sizes, so no matter how much (or how little) you need to store, we’ll have the right unit for you. To find out more about our student summer deals, just get in touch with the team today.