When we were younger, summer meant everything.
Summer meant no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!
For college students, though, summer takes on a whole new meaning—it means leaving the glory of college life behind for a few months, saying temporary “See you laters” to friends, and, worst of all, hauling all your stuff back home.
If you plan wisely, though, you can skip that last—and most annoying—step. Thankfully, there are plenty of companies that offer summer storage options to students, and by taking advantage of these offers, you could save yourself a lot of hassle when summer rolls around. Next Door Storage provides a few tips on how to utilize storage space efficiently.
Cut Costs
Cost cutting is probably the Number 1 goal of any college student. Use these cost cutting tips from Next Door Storage to make sure you get yourself the best deal possible:
- Book your storage unit early. Prices tend to increase during crunch time (e.g., right before summer), so make arrangements ahead of time.
- Look out for discounts. Try to find companies that offer cheap discounts to local students.
- Split space with a friend. If you and a friend both need a little space for the summer, splitting a storage unit is a great way to go
- Pack to the brim. Ensure you’re getting your money’s worth by packing as much as you can.
Know How Much Space You Need
It’s one of the most elusive unsolved mysteries of college life: Where did all this stuff come from? When you left home, you swear you only packed one suitcase. Now, the year is over and you have enough junk to furnish an entire house.
Next Door Storage suggests the following storage unit sizes based on how much stuff you need to store:
- For freshmen: A 5×5 unit will probably be large enough
- For sophomores: Consider a 5×10 unit, especially if you now possess some of your own furniture
- For juniors: If you’ve kept accumulating more and more, you might be looking at a 5×15 unit
- For seniors: Depending on how much you’ve accumulated over the years, you may need a 10×10 unit
Pack Wisely
Any frequent traveler can tell you that packing wisely is the secret to all success—there are whole books dedicated to packing a suitcase. In general, people don’t get so fanatical about packing a storage unit, but the same rules apply.
- Pack backwards. Keep the most important items (i.e., the ones you’ll need first) at the front of the unit. So when packing your car, make sure that the important items are at the back so they’ll be the last items to go into storage.
- Fill every box. A full box is a sturdy box, and a sturdy box lasts. Try to fill your boxes to the brim and fill all open spaces with newspaper.
- Don’t pack more than you can lift. Remember, the whole reason you’re using summer storage is to save yourself some trouble. Throwing your back out will ruin the whole plan.
- Stack wisely. Try to use similarly sized boxes to make stacking easier, and make sure that the heavy boxes stay on the bottom and the lighter ones go on top.
- Respect your books. Instead of standing them end on end, stack books on top of each other to protect their spines.
- Be mindful of temperature. If you’re putting temperature sensitive items into your storage unit, you might want to look out for a climate-controlled unit.
As an overworked, underpaid, and/or stressed out college student, you have enough to worry about. You deserve a nice, carefree summer, so don’t let yourself be bogged down by the pain of lugging your possessions back and forth every year.
Following these tips from Next Door Storage will save you time and energy so that you’ll be able to jump into summer as soon as possible.
