As it gets closer to the end of the semester/quarter, the pressures of finding summer storage get more and more stressful. From finding storage on sketchy websites to squeezing 5 people’s boxes into one tiny storage room, students do everything in their power to facilitate this moving process. No matter how many years you’ve been through this process, here are some struggles that will never go away.
1. Finals week = packing week
Move out season always coincides with finals season, and there’s just not enough time to do both. A lot of schools make the move out deadline the same day as the last day of finals, and for many students, that means studying while packing during dead week. How are we expected to do well on our exams if we have to worry about moving out at the same time?
2. The more you pack, the more messy your room seems to be
Somehow your clothes always seem to multiple and reappear when you start trying to pack them away. After you clean out one drawer, two drawers worth of clothes seem to appear out of nowhere. Seems like 2 boxes won’t be able to fit all your stuff after all.
3. You want to take out another box, but your room is so cramped that if you do, there will no longer be standing room
Anyone who’s ever looked for housing around campus knows that rent is expensive. The affordable places like the one you live in are tiny. Good luck trying to open more than one suitcase at once and still expecting to be able to get around the room.
4. Hoarding unnecessary things in case they ever come in handy
To my fellow mild hoarders out there: I totally understand. You haven’t used your class notes from last year at all, but you don’t want to throw them out in case it comes in handy next year. This pen is out of ink, but it still looks new, and who knows, maybe you’ll find the ink replacement one day! Whatever you tend to hoard, the best action is to just throw them away - you’ll never actually use it.
5. Getting your stuff from your room to the actual moving vehicle
Packing may have seemed like the tedious part because you had to sort through all of the junk you’ve accumulated in the past year, but the real struggle is actually getting your sealed boxes to its residence for the summer. How are you supposed to carry 50+ pound boxes downstairs multiple times? Good luck trying to stop your bulky items from making a mark on the dorm hallways.
6. Packing something then realizing you need it
School’s over, so you pack away that small stapler and your sticky notes and seal it in the box since you’ll probably never need it again. Or so you thought. The very same day, you’ll probably have 3 different occasions where you have to staple papers together and 2 others where a sticky note would have been greatly useful. You never know just how much you rely on something until it’s neatly packed away in a sealed box.
7. Running out of toilet paper or shampoo 3 days before move out day
There are literally 3 days left until you move out, and of course you’ll run out of toilet paper. You can’t finish a new pack of 4 rolls in 3 days, but it’s also something so essential that you can’t live without it. Better hope that a friend has an extra roll, otherwise you’ll be stuck with extra toilet paper rolls for the summer.
8. Summer storage costs an arm and a leg
As if student housing wasn’t pricey enough - summer storage costs are terrifying too. $100 a month for a tiny public storage space equals $300 every summer just to have a place to keep your stuff. If you hire people to pick your stuff up from your dorm, it ends up costing even more than that. At least this will force you to throw out unnecessary items and keep your belongings at a reasonable size.
