Moving Off Campus for the First Time

Moving from managed student housing into an ordinary apartment is a bigger step than it looks. The rent may be similar and the difference is everything the housing office used to handle without anybody noticing.

Just-In-Time Moving is locally owned and works throughout St. George and Washington County.

What you now have to deal with

Utilities. In halls these were included. Now you set up accounts, put them in somebody's name, and pay them. Work out which are included in the rent and which are not, and agree between roommates who holds each account and how it gets split.

One St. George specific: cooling through the summer is a substantial bill, considerably more than students expect. Budget for it rather than being surprised in July.

Internet, which now needs ordering, and which takes longer than people plan for.

Furniture. Most apartments are unfurnished. That is the largest single difference and the largest cost.

Maintenance, which now means reporting to a landlord and waiting rather than a duty office fixing it that afternoon.

Everything else: bins, parking rules, insurance, and cleaning that nobody else does.

Furnishing it without spending a fortune

Buy secondhand, especially at term end when students are leaving and prices are soft. Beds, desks, sofas and tables all circulate locally.

Two cautions worth taking seriously. Check upholstery for pests, in the seams and underneath, because that is the one problem that follows you home and is expensive. And measure before buying, including the route in.

Buy a proper mattress new if you can afford one thing new. It is the item you use most and the one worst bought secondhand.

Do not furnish everything in the first week. Live in it a fortnight and buy what you actually find you need.

The lease is a real contract

Different from a housing contract. Read the deposit terms and what is required at move-out before signing, and understand that on most shared leases everybody is liable for the whole rent, not their share.

Day one

Photograph every room, all walls, floors, appliances and existing marks before anything goes in. Share it with every roommate.

Find the electrical panel, water shut-off and alarms, and test the alarms.

Then learn the parking rules, which cause more first-month trouble than anything else.

We book short hourly jobs for the furniture.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.