Your kid who has finished their first year at university: do they have to bring all their stuff home?

[Doorkeeper]

DS has just finished his first year at university. He was in university accommodation, and - as seems to be standard - he's renting a house with some other students for year two.

The house they've put a deposit on and signed a contract with had said they could store their stuff there over the summer, but has now reneged on that because they are renovating - and it wasn't in the contract. The university says they have no space at all for students to store stuff.

How do they expect this to work? I don't have a car. He's accumulated a duvet and other bedding, crockery, pots and pans, a toaster, etc. He can't bring it back on the train!

It seems nuts for students to ferry massive amounts of household items back and forth every year. What do your kids do?

He's accumulated a duvet and other bedding, crockery, pots and pans, a toaster, etc

The options are

• give away the stuff and buy new next year. Presumably it was cheap stuff anyway
• pay for a storage locker, maybe go in with a friend/friends
• work out a way to bring it back on the train e.g. in a suitcase

I don't understand why you think the university or his future landlord should solve this problem for you. Its annoying that the landlord changed his mind but if they're not paying to rent until September then he is within his right to do so.

We used a cheep removals company. I think it was around £100. Cheaper than driving up and staying overnight.

Find a local lok n store or similar, always book online at the given price as staff are bonused on upselling either unit size or adding couple quid to website price. I should think a 25 sqft should suffice - about 7 quid a week I think.

He's accumulated a duvet and other bedding, crockery, pots and pans, a toaster, etc

Highly likely it would be cheaper to buy new in September than rent storage for that kind of thing which can usually be bought very cheap, especially in a Uni town. Some Unis even have second hand stalls during freshers week to sell items left by students the year before.

At my son's Uni, there are already shipping containers around the accommodation blocks for students to "donate" good stuff to be resold to next years students during freshers week. Otherwise it would get thrown away.

It's pretty standard to dispose of the cheap stuff and buy again after Summer.

In many areas there are student-specific storage companies who will come and collect their stuff, charge per box per week, and bring it all to their new address in September. Have a dig around and see if you can find anything similar nearby.

There are companies who deal with this,google SHIPLY and it also throws up lots of other options too. There's instant quotes too so you get an idea of price. Good luck

This has always been the case.

In my time I got the train with a trunk in the guards van, two huge suitcases and a rucksack. Taxi from the station.

Others hired a van.

Recently I have heard of joining with others for a storage unit.

There are companies and individuals that specialise in moving students too, or there were pre-Covid.

Box it up and courier it to your house???

A company like this www.transport-executive.co.uk/student-movers/ - Google for your area.

Hire a man with a van to move his belongings

www.sherpr.com/student-shipping/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2ZaGBhBoEiwA8pfP_jvsoaxcUv8lVMHOuTs8BlU78gokBtEXYtQaOnxtrSraR-h-WOPp9hoCyjYQAvD_BwE

This seemed not too extortionate when I was worrying about getting stuff to and fro

The easiest thing to do is probably rent some storage or use a company to move it home again for you.

When I worked in student accommodation a lot of students used www.sevenseasworldwide.com

There's no easy option over the summer, if he's lucky next time he may be able to find a house for the whole year, rather than just the student term, then he can move straight from one house to another. That's what I did each summer.

Can you actually drive, so hire a car/van?

Could the two future housemates take half each home with them over summer?

Or state which city, and see if a MNer has space for a couple of boxes in the garage over summer? (Which would have worked ten years ago, not sure now, lol)

get a courier quote

It's normal. When I was at uni in halls I used to have to pack everything up and take it home at the end of each term not just at the end of the year!

It's not the university's responsibility to store students stuff unfortunately - you'd think they'd cash in and get some storage units over summer and sublet them but they don't seem too

I'd either hire a car/van and bring it home or as people suggested put it in storage local to the university for the summer

I know when my niece stayed in halls even tho where she was she was in halls the full 3 years every summer she had to empty her room so they could deep clean etc....

God, what a faff. We had it easy - we used to put our stuff into big trunks and the uni porters took it away and put it into storage in halls. It was such a sensible, easy system.

@Grossbuttrue

It's normal. When I was at uni in halls I used to have to pack everything up and take it home at the end of each term not just at the end of the year!

@grossbuttrue I did too. The halls were let out to conference guests outside of term. It was such a faff empty your room completely at the end of term. Then travelling back with everything at the start of next term

Throw the duvet away and put the rest in a suitcase and he can bring it on the train or coach.

Get him to price up the following options and pick one.
A) dispose of the heaviest/bulkiest/cheapest items in an environmentally sound way and repurchase in autumn
B) courier a large bag home and back again
C) you come up with a large rucksack or two and help him bring everything back (and again in autumn)
D) he makes two trips (and again in autumn)
E) he finds a storage company with a half price student deal for 8 weeks over the summer (most of them do this)

When I was using a storage unit a couple of summers ago while having building work done there were always groups of studenty lads dropping off and picking up.

Its not a system though. Hes an adult who is renting a series of accommodation and has a gap in this renting.

Hes rented accommodation from the university. He has always known when this would end
Hes then renting a house which starts from September. He has accommodation for the interim but isn't willing to pay for a method to transport his stuff to this accommodation

So he therefore either needs to find a way to transport his stuff to his interim accommodation (your house) or he needs to pay for storage. Msot storage companies will do a deal for students for storage for about a rooms worth of stuff

Its pretty entitled to suggest the university sorts this out for him so he doesn't have to pay

To be fair the landlord has changed his mind about letting them store it.

Op is he paying any rent over the summer there?

I know in alot of 3 bed plus homes they pay half rent and are allowed to use one room for all to store their things.

I'd be in the same position as you, and had looked into storage, there's quite alot out there for students.

As it is DD is sharing with only one other and paying full rent from 1st July.
Bank of me.
Mind you she'd go mad spending the whole summer back at home.

Yep, he has to take it home or pay for it to be stored somewhere. I had to take all my stuff home every term!