Moving with kids

Uni Students: Five Tips for Storing Your Stuff During the Summer Holidays

If you are going home from uni for the summer, you have to make a plan to deal with your stuff. You can give it away, donate it or throw it away, but then, you will have to waste money in the fall buying new stuff. You can also haul it all back to your parents, but that can be cumbersome, especially if you don't have a something that can haul items:

Avoid either of those options and put your stuff in storage for the summer. Before you rent a storage unit and shove it all in there, here are a few tips to make the process easier:

1. Look for a climate controlled facility

When you are choosing your storage unit, look for a unit that is climate controlled. Having a space with relatively consistent temperature and humidity levels ensures your electronics, musical instruments and books do not get damaged by excessive heat or moisture.

2. Do not pack food in your storage unit

Now that you are heading home for a few months, you can likely live off your parents' tasty home cooked meals, and you won't have as much use for your instant microwave meals or boxes of cereal. However, you cannot store these items until next year.

If you store any food stuffs besides canned goods in your storage unit, you run the risk of attracting mice or bugs to your unit. Give away your food or donate it to a food bank rather than trying to store it.

3. Pack your books carefully

As a university student, you probably have a lot of books to put in storage. To ensure your books don't get damaged in storage, vacuum them before boxing them – that gets rid of the dust which could damage your books.

Even if the unit is climate controlled, give your books a bit of extra protection by putting them in a sealed plastic storage bin. Add a packet of desiccant to the bin to keep the boks dry.

4. Invest in shelves, hooks and stackable storage containers

To make the most of your storage unit's available space, you need storage solutions that allow you to take advantage of the unit's full height and width. To make that possible, invest in metal shelves, stackable storage containers and other storage solutions.

5. Share a unit your your friends

If you want to save money on your storage unit, find friends or other students who are in the same situation and split the unit with them. Just arrange to meet after the summer when the term starts again and empty the unit at that time. Pay upfront so you don't have to worry about collecting multiple payments from a bunch of people.

Contact a company such sa Eastlakes Self Storage to learn more.


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