<p>D will be a OOS freshmen a long way from home. Driving down for august check inl but wondering if it makes sense to store everything over the summer and just fly back home in spring with neccessities. Anyone have any experience with doing this? Who did you use...what did it cost...what kind of a facility was it...dry? a/c?. We will have a Tv....bedding....and the usual supplies.....iron....laudry basket....<br>
Would like to avoid another long drive if possible.
Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>we got a flyer from a storage company a month before the school year ended. Can’t remember the exact name, think it was College Boxes. There should be other businesses of the same nature. They have varying rates depending on the size of the boxes (their boxes), and how many. And they have pickup and delivery options. We were lucky to have a friend living near my son’s campus that was okay with just storing his stuff in the garage, or else we might have gone this route. Might get a bit spendy, depending on how much stuff your D has.</p>
<p>My son had some friends that rented a storage space from a company there in Columbia. I believe there are several very close to campus. I can’t speak about the facilities in Columbia, but we have rented a 5 x 5 space from Public Storage before near our house in Charlotte, NC. I waited until a couple of weeks before school was out and the ones real close to campus were full. (We brought his stuff home from USC and rented a space here…we were living in a small space, waiting for our house to be built.) The storage facility was clean and dry. I liked the unit because it was inside a building, not one that opened directly to the outside, but it’s harder to move stuff in and out. Public Storage nearly always has a promo deal…$1 for the first month, and maybe $30 a month thereafter. The rates depend on the size of the unit. We just put his stuff in there, we didn’t have to pack everything in boxes. The climate controlled ones are more expensive.
When my son-in-law attended college, he and several buddies used to go together to rent a storage space over the summer while they went back to Pennsylvania. They took computers home with them (might get damaged by the heat) but everything was fine.
Every storage company we have dealt with required a lock. If you get a small space such as 5 x 5, they sometimes have a round cylinder lock that you have to buy from the storage company, and the lock was around $20 if I recall.
We have used Public Storage several times and have been pleased, but I don’t know about the ones in Columbia.</p>
<p>S used Public Storage in Columbia one year, then another company the second year when he was too late to book the Public Storage.There are more than one locations for Public Storage, the closest one is near the stadium.
2nd company was fine also.
Public allows payment online also!
He split the unit with others and price came to about 50-60(for summer) for each of them.Public does run those $1 first month deals.Have your student book them by March(before the spring break). It was inside a building,with elevator access.Someone will have a car to make the runs to the storage units.You can fit alot into the units,just stack the stuff up to the ceiling height! Plastic bins worked well.Units were climate controlled.
The first year, this kind of logisitcs seem daunting, don’t worry it gets easier!!</p>
<p>i used the Public Storage on Rosewood and Assembly from May-Aug for 2 summers. I got a 10X10 and shared it with 3 other friends (we each paid for about one month’s rent). You have to make sure you go in at the beginning of May or before otherwise spaces fill up rather quickly and you may be forced to go to less desirable storage places. It’s climate controlled, clean, and only a few years old. I believe it was about $125 per month and we actually got the first month’s rent for a dollar because it was on special. best and easiest idea ever.</p>
<p>Actually I would suggest contacting them long before May. I reserved spaces at that Public Storage facility (Rosewood/Assembly) for two years (once when it was brand new) and they were selling out by late March. They had a deal where the first month was free so booking it for April when we didn’t actually need it until May had no real financial consequences. It isn’t hard to get several other OOS kids to share the space and bring the cost per person down. I think it ended up being about $80-90 total per kid for the whole summer including insurance.</p>