When your space and your college student’s dorm or apartment space are both exhausted, you need to start looking for a place to store the overflow. As you’ve noticed by now, your student does have overflow, and every summer it ends up in your garage or basement on top of your already extensive collection of non-essential junk.  

You could stuff your garage, attic, and spare bedrooms with all of this stuff. Who cares if your cars are outside sitting in the sizzling summer sun all day? Your kids sure don’t. You can protect your hands from steering wheel burns with gloves. And, what will you do with the items that are already in your attic? It should only take you a month or two to sort through them and figure out where to put them. As far as spare bedrooms, you don’t want annoying guests anyway (this may be the only upside to storing stuff at home).

In case you’re not sold yet, here are a few reasons that your kids really need self storage.

Why Your Student Needs Self Storage

• Space: This is a big one. Dorm rooms are cramped. It’s great to have a place to store extra books and off-season clothing, not to mention any other strange things they may have accumulated while away at school. We prefer not to mention them.
• Flexibility: Most self storage facilities offer flexible month-to-month leasing. You’ll be able to rent on your schedule without the hassle of a long-term commitment.
• Travel or Study Abroad: The opportunity to travel or study in a foreign country is incredible, but what about the stuff? Instead of packing everything up and moving it home, consider renting a storage unit. Self storage has enough space to accommodate all the dorm room furniture and belongings.
• Security: It is an understatement to say that most college-age students can be careless. Any items that they don’t use regularly will be far more secure in a safely locked storage unit than in their dorm or the trunk of their car. And, as far as summer, storing furniture and valuables at a storage facility provides a level of safety not found in a locked apartment that is abandoned until school starts again.
• Savings:  The cost and inconvenience of moving the stuff to and from home between semesters and over the summer for four – to who knows how many – years will far exceed the cost of storage.

Now you know why storage works for your students. Here are a few tips to help you keep them as safe as their possessions.

Keep Your Students as Safe as Their Possessions

Let’s talk about finding the right storage facility to not only keep the possessions safe, but to keep the students safe. As shocking as this might sound, college students don’t always have the best judgment, and cautious behavior is not always a priority. It’s probably a good idea if you choose the storage facility. You never know when they will decide to drive to the storage unit at 3:00 a.m. to look for that misplaced textbook that they haven’t cracked open since September or to find that cute outfit that is buried at the bottom of the miscellaneous box. This is why you need a safe facility. For more info, check out How to Choose a Storage Facility and Smart Self Storage: Keeping Your Stored Valuables Safe and Secure.

Look for Layers of Security

• A facility in a safe, convenient location
• A clean and well-maintained facility
• Well lit property
• Perimeter fencing
• Gates equipped with electronic access 
• Twenty-four hour video surveillance
• An indoor unit with keypad access
• On site and/or resident managers
• A disc or cylinder lock that is resistant to tampering
• Do not share gate access code with friends

Be thoughtful when choosing a storage facility, and don’t worry, or at least try not to. There are numerous safe, clean, and secure storage facilities with plenty of amenities. You won’t have trouble finding a good one. Your student will thank you and you will thank yourself!