Storing Your Things Over the Summer

Student housing rarely runs continuously. Contracts end at the close of the academic year, the next one starts weeks or months later, and in between there is a gap that has to be solved every single year.

Just-In-Time Moving works across West Valley City and Salt Lake County.

The cheapest answer is usually to own less

Worth saying first, because the cost of storing something for four months is frequently more than the item is worth.

Furniture bought secondhand for forty dollars is not worth storing at fifteen dollars a month. Sell it at the end of term, when everybody else is leaving and there are buyers, and buy again in August, when everybody is arriving and there are sellers.

That market exists reliably around every campus and it is the correct answer for most bulky items.

Split it into three piles

Goes home with you. Clothes, laptop, documents, anything valuable, anything irreplaceable.

Worth storing. Bedding, kitchen equipment, books, decent furniture you will use again.

Sell or donate. Everything else.

Do this before you price anything, because the pile determines what size unit you need, and unit size is the cost.

Share the unit

The single biggest saving available. Four people splitting one unit pay a quarter each, and student belongings are compact enough that this works.

Two practical rules: label everything by owner, clearly, and agree who is on the contract and how it gets paid. A unit in one person's name that everybody was supposed to contribute to is a reliable way to fall out with your friends.

Agree the collection date in advance too.

Getting it there

Several carloads over a week costs nothing but time. If there is furniture, or if you are on a fourth floor with a lift queue, an hourly crew for a short window is often less than you would guess and far less than a full move.

The end of term is the busiest week of the year for anybody doing this, so book early. Prices and availability both worsen in the final days.

Practical storage points

Units are unheated. Nothing liquid, nothing perishable, nothing you would mind reaching a summer temperature. Bedding and clothing stored clean and dry, in sealed containers rather than bags.

Keep an inventory and a photograph of the loaded unit.

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