Hi, I apologize if this is in the inappropriate forum. I am moving to graduate school so I just chose this forum.
I will be attending Georgia Tech as a graduate student this fall. Looking ahead at my summer schedule, I would like to ship my belongings (several pieces of luggage as well as many boxes) to school ahead of time and have them waiting for me when I get there. Ideally, I’d like the school to be able to hold my belongings for 1.5 months (~5-6 weeks) before I arrive. Perhaps it is unorthodox but that is the way that my schedule will work out as I will be visiting some family before I actually leave where I currently live and move to Georgia.
I’d like to hear from you what your experiences have been like in regards to shipping belongings to the school beforehand and if there are any services that you can recommend. I called the GATech post office and housing office but both simply stated that they don’t have any storage space for student belongings and just said to ship my stuff a day or two before I arrive. This was obviously unhelpful tomorrow so I turn to the people here for any advice.
I also Googled around and was wondering if people had used any services like dormroommovers.com or collegeboxes.com.
Thank you for your help.
You can use something like UHaul’s U-Box service - they give you these shipping containers that you pack your stuff into. Either you tow it with your car or they’ll deliver it. You pack it with your stuff, and then drop it off or they’ll pick it up. They’ll store it for X days and then deliver it to your new address, if you want.
http://www.uhaul.com/UBox/
They say a U-Box can fit a room and a half’s worth of belongings.
There are other moving companies and storage services that offer stuff like this - like PODS, UPack and Door to Door.
I haven’t actually used any of these storage solutions (I’ve rented a UHaul truck, but not the boxes) bu it sounds simple enough.
The school is not going to hold anything for you. They’d have to have the space, and they’d also have to be held responsible for your belongings while you are gone. You’ll have to pay someone to do it for you.
The other solution is to visit family earlier in the summer and be back home a week before you need to move so that you can handle business.
I’d say ask your apartment complex but if it’s more than a box or two, they won’t hold it. PODs are expensive. You can drive your stuff there yourself ahead of time (depending on where you live now) and rent a storage unit for pretty cheap.