<p>My daughter is a first year and I'm wondering about storage over the summer. My daughter says she can use the basement in her house, but it sounds like a free-for-all and not very organized. She's in Albright. If we don't leave things in the basement are there good storage facilities for rent in Northampton? We're in the Midwest so I'd like to avoid the drive. </p>
<p>I'm happy to report that she loves Smith and had a great first semester. She loved all of her classes and is excited about the ones this semester as well.</p>
<p>Storage in the basement "trunk room" <em>is</em> very disorganized. Somehow it works and it's what most people do. I stowed and re-stowed a lot of stuff when I moved stuff of D's down there at the end of her first year. (We would not have gone to help her move out except that we met her with the Smith Orchestra in NYC for a concert at Carnegie Hall, then went to Smith to help her pack up and return en famille.) There was a lot of stuff that had been either just set down in the first open space or else was piled precariously on top of other stuff. I did mutter a lot. But by the time I left, all of D's stuff, including a printer, was secure and a lot of other students' stuff was <em>more</em> secure. She got stuff out next Fall with nothing missing, nothing damaged. </p>
<p>Perhaps it's the type of thing that most parents would be better off not seeing but it works.</p>
<p>And it's great to hear of another happy Smithie.</p>
<p>The storage system is changing this year - I only learned of it Sunday night, but it's my understanding that the aim is to have the trunk rooms be less disorganized. </p>
<p>What I understand is this:
each student gets an unlimited number of stickers to put on their boxes, but there is a limit to the number of lamps and rugs that can be stored. Furniture and other items that are not in boxes cannot be stored at all, but there will be a "week" or something where local storage companies come to answer questions about their facilities and prices. </p>
<p>I was also told that we'd be given information about what to do later in the semester. </p>
<p>I store my belongings in the trunk room every summer and I've yet to have any problems.</p>
<p>I bought big plastic bins and staked out space all in one area last year. I labeled them really well and it seemed to work out. I did lose a lamp but that cost a lot less to replace than it costs to reat a storage facility.</p>
<p>The "official" blue labels are a new wrinkle since I was last down there. As is the probably long overdue prohibition against using large plastic trash bags as a "storage" container.</p>
<p><a href="http://mastorage.com/%5B/url%5D">http://mastorage.com/</a> is a pretty cheap way to store your stuff, plus they will come pick it up from you at the end of the year, and also drop it off during the first few days of school. It's a conglomeration of five college students, so you should be able to access someone at Smith.</p>
<p>Actually, storing stuff in the spring is not the disorganized part, it's getting it out in the fall that becomes a headache. Still, I managed to recover all of my things from the trunk room with no trouble, as did all my friends. It's advisable to store stuff as early as you can, so you can try and put most of your things in the same area. Also, storing them as close to the walls as possible is a good idea. The less stuff there is behind your stuff, the less likely it is that your stuff will be shifted around in the unpacking phase in the fall.</p>
<p>I live in the Quad, so I can only comment on our basements, but I've put my stuff down there for two summers, and it's been fine. It's a bit disorganized, but I've just gown down and cleared out a space for my stuff, packed it into boxes, sealed them up, and put them in. There's usually a lot of cursing under my breath at the people who can't pack worth anything and have no concept of how to fit things into storage, but my things are always intact in the end. I also label very well, which is key. (When I say I cleared out a space, I mean that people really don't store things very well sometimes. When I leave, the shelves are more stable and I have room for my stuff.)</p>
<p>I also curse under my breath at all the people whose fathers come and move their stuff for them, but that's more my frustration than anything that's their fault.</p>