If you are a student studying away from home, chances are you will do your fair share of moving house over your time at university. Most of the time, students will only rent a property for the academic year and plan to go home or travel over the summer. The prospect of moving all your stuff home for the summer and then back again for the new term can be pretty depressing, but the alternative of paying for accommodation you are not using over the summer is equally unappealing.
For increasing numbers of students, self storage is becoming a popular way of not having the hassle of moving all your belongings miles across the country and keeping them safe whilst you are away. So much so that there are now a range of specific student storage schemes available with a number of the larger, nationwide storage outlets offering low cost options and special offers for students.
So, what do you need to know about student self storage?
You need to think about the space you need and how best to pack and store your belongings in the most efficient way. Most self storage companies will have a range of options available, usually measured in Cubit feet or square feet, although some companies like Lovespacepricing things up per box, per week. They will also collect your stuff from you and bring it back! If you are not sure what a cubic foot represents and what you would be able to storage in a particular size of container, there is a handy visual guide here. It is also helpful to look at the overall dimensions of the space you are renting to make sure you can access all of it – some storage space is better designed for contents which can be stacked to make use of the full height of the storage available.
Packing materials
Some storage facilities will provide you with boxes to use, notably those which price by the box as the boxes need to be a uniform size. If not, make sure you use good quality packing materials so keep you stuff safe whilst it is in storage – we have produced a guide on our blog with our best tips for packing for storage– using good quality packing materials and not over filling boxes is important.
Insurance
Make sure you have adequate insurance cover for your goods in storage, some facilities can offer this additionally to the storage cost, some may say it is included in the storage cost but all reputable storage facilities will require your belongings to be insured. We would advise that you get a quote for comparison for your storage insurance from a specialist like Store-Insure as well as carefully checking to scope and extent of cover if this is offered as part of a package. You need to ensure that you arrange cover for your belongings for their full replacement cost. For a quick quote – visit https://www.store-insure.co.uk/get-a-quote. All our standard policies include goods in transit insurance for when travelling to and from the storage location and zero excess on claims and come with no credit card fees
Storage Types
Finally, make sure you pick the right kind of storage to suit your belongings – if you are planning on storing computers, electrical equipment and textile items you should ensure that your goods will be being storage in a temperature controlled environment to avoid damage being caused by temperature changes or humidity. Our guide to which storage types are best for you can be found here
For more information and guides on self storage, head over to our blog, for more information on Storage Insurance, contact us via the website