Storage of belongings over summer for students, rather than bringing it all home? (Edinburgh uni)

[gerbo]

Has anyone experience or recommendations about this?

My daughter is at Edinburgh uni. She has a gap of several weeks between having to leave halls and picking up keys for her 2nd year flat.

Has anyone used a storage company for their child's stuff for a short time? We live 6 hours away so are hoping to avoid 2 trips up!

I'm guessing its expensive?!

Thanks in advance.

no answer but following as have similar issue in Glasgow.

2 trips? What have they took!

I have a son at uni so maybe it’s not the same but he leaves everything here he doesn’t need excluding a trombone and bike and still one trip!

There’s probably a facebook group uni of Edinburgh parents to ask. It’s already been asked in my DD’s uni group there’s several options (Glasgow) The uni may recommend some/offer discount.
Some services for students will drop boxes off, store and return. Lots of dates were already booked up when I checked recently.
Other option is something like any van and a storage unit - so man and van collect from halls and take to storage unit.
Anywhere with lots of international students will have lots of options.
Yr1 luckily her yr2 tenancy started same day halls ended.
Yr2 we are going down storage route.

My daughter did between her 1st and 2nd year (wasn’t an issue in other years). She grouped together with others in the same boat. I don’t know the cost as she organised the whole thing.

I did one of the trips and shuttled everything of hers and the others to the storage unit and another parent did the shuttle at the end of the summer.

Mine is Glasgow. There several options been recommended on uni of Glasgow parents group.
We used Any van last year. I’m leaning to Anyvan and a storage unit this year.

One trip to pick the stuff up to take it home plus one to take it back to Edinburgh makes two trips. Presumably if most things can be stored she can go home on the train.

dd did that between first and second year, some storage place on Corstorphine Rd or there abouts. I can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't that expensive. Also, easily accessible by bus and tram.

There's a big self storage place at Balgreen. Edinburgh Self Storage | Self Storage Units | Jenners Depository

It’s the distance and gap between accommodation.
If I was moving dd out it would be long drive up, hire a car (as my car is tiny) stay overnight as it’s too far for day trip and then store stuff here. Then same in reverse when moves back in September. So paying storage is cheaper.
Mine has a lot of stuff up there virtually nothing at home. Then she’s acquired all sorts of things like a hanging clothes rack, airfryer, heated clothes dryer, massive rug.

Not Edinburgh but DD1 had choice of sending her stuff back via studenst baggage service - we don't drive and that how we got her stuff there - or storing with a student storage service in her city.

She did the sums and went for the student storage service - though left some with nearer family - electrical stuff and other items they wouldn't store -and brought some back for summer. It worked well - they delivered to her new address so was actually easier for her and I don't think it worked out very expensive as it was aservice aimed at students.

She only needed it that one summer. We're waiting to find out what next child at uni is planning on doing.

My opinion FWIW is that bringing everything home for a good wash and sort is invaluable at the end of a student's first year in halls. Use Send My Bag if you don't want to do the drive.

Thanks all!

The 2 trips would be to collect her and her stuff, bring her home, then return her and all her stuff to the flat. 800 miles driving. Plus hotel stay over, food etc.

We think we have found a good company, Flexistore, highly recommended on Facebook group. Someone said roughly £150 and they provide door to door and all materials!

£150 sounds great @gerbo.

We used to use a storage locker while moving property. Unfortunately it was a while back so I'm not sure of the price. I know they do short contracts so that might be an option.

@Ceramiq I agree a wash and sort can be helpful. I actually went up weekend before move out by train and we washed a lot in halls laundry and helped her sort and donate surplus, there were trolleys at the halls to leave donations they then give out to new students. Mine has a physical disability so needed my help.

Quite apart from any other consideration, it's a good discipline to instill in DC that they need to set time aside to sort their belongings with intention.

Why not just chuck it on the pavement like so many other students in Edinburgh seem to do 🙄

Non sarcastic response would be to use somewhere like Lens.

Some Edinburgh landlords let new tenants store their stuff at their new property even if tenant doesn’t move in for a couple of weeks. Worked out okay for DD but she knew those who were in the flat and who was moving in. If she knows others nearby with a continuous tenancy then they might be happy for her to leave stuff with them for a few weeks particularly if not too much stuff/international flatmates who have gone home for summer so space.

DD worked as a resident assistant for a couple of years and there were various storage companies touting their trade around the halls around now ranging from cheaper ones where you carted your stuff yourself to them and carted it back to new address to those which provided boxes and picked up at the previous halls and delivered x weeks later to new property.

Shocking when you see what is chucked. Uni does organise a collection but lots can’t be arsed to take it to the collection point.

There were trolleys upon on trolleys of stuff donated at my dc’s halls. They have a uni eco shop where they give it away free and all the charity shops near uni were stuffed. Lots of international students buy decent quality and just leave it. There were as new £200 designer winter coats etc. Plus skips full of stained mattress toppers/pillows and filthy bedding that looked like not washed all year.

There are some services which do removal-and-storage in Edinburgh.

Cheaper option would be to use anyvan etc to help with the move and use a storage facility. Book the storage facility first. There are quite a few of them. Big yellow etc. They always have some offers of 50% off etc for the first 4 weeks and they have options of a small unit too.

Then book the mover.
Anyvan is volume based.. so, you give an inventory of items and the pick up and destination and get an instant quote.

We used https://lovespace.co.uk/ for DS's stuff as he is in central London. He had two weeks between leaving halls and moving into his shared house.

They weren't necessarily cheap but it was very straightforward. We didn't want to have to drive into London twice to sort him out.

Been a while since mine were at Universities (early-mid 2010s) but yeah, there were places in the city(s) that their Universities were in that specialised in short term storage so the student could just take home what they needed in a suitcase and a backpack, and get the train home.

When the University is 200+ miles away, it's a fecking ballache having to travel back and forth. Mine both were!!! (210 and 230 miles away, in different directions, and they were at University at the same time virtually as they're close in age,) and DH and I genuinely hated them being so far away, because we did have to go there a few times..., NGL it was a massive chore. Both horrible drives..

Ask someone at The University @gerbo

DD used Big Yellow (not Edinburgh though) and shared with the friend she was moving in with which meant that we had 2 cars between us to ferry stuff there and back.

Happy to recommend Door2Door Student Storage. DD (Durham Uni) used them in the summer of 2024. https://door2doorstudentstorage.com/