If you’re living away from home to study, you’ve probably brought quite a lot of stuff with you to make your student house feel more like home. A self storage unit can act as a temporary spare room for when you need to store your stuff during the holidays or just to make a bit more room in a rather tight living space. 
 

Student storage for the holidays

If you privately rent a student house, it will probably be for a full year, so you don’t have to physically move out at the end of every term. However, your parents might want to see you, even if you bring them lots of washing, and indeed you might be feeling a bit homesick by the time the holidays come around. 

If your rent covers holidays, you can just pack a bag of clothes and essentials to take home for a few weeks over Christmas, Easter or summer. You could leave everything else (bedding, pictures, your TV, soft furnishings etc) where it is if you don’t want to take it all back with you when you go home. 

If your student digs are going to be empty, though, be mindful that burglaries of student accommodation tend to spike during holidays. Burglars know that student accommodation can be left empty for several weeks out of term-time. Don’t leave any valuables in your student accommodation, or anything that can’t be replaced. 

Keeping your belongings in a self storage unit would give you peace of mind, knowing that everything is kept securely in a locked unit that’s covered by CCTV, burglar and fire alarms.
 

Term-time-only student accommodation

Some universities offer term-time-only accommodation to students. This has the dual benefit of making accommodation costs cheaper for you (as you don’t have to pay for private accommodation all year round, if you go back home during the holidays) and frees up rooms that the university can hire out to conference guests visiting the university.

The downside, of course, is that you’ll need to empty your room at the end of each term at Christmas, Easter and in the summer. That means packing everything up, loading it into your car - or a van - and taking it home. You might not have space at home for all your student stuff: all your old stuff will be in there, and/or your parents might have usurped it to use as an office or gym or something.

That’s why self storage is so useful for students - you can take all your stuff to a storage unit near your university (you might need to take a couple of trips if you have lots to take) and then just drive home in comfort.

At the start of each new term, drive to your unit, pick everything up and take it back to your student accommodation. 
 

Self storage to give you more space in your student room

Student digs are not renowned for being palatial, so you might need somewhere to store your stuff, just to make your room more comfortable when you’re living there. 

The ‘basics’ you’ve probably taken with you to settle in in your first year might include:

• Clothes and shoes for all seasons 
• Duvet and bedding
• Soft furnishings like cushions
• Books
• Stationery
• Laptop and chargers
• TV
• Laundry airer
• Toiletries
• Cleaning products
• Towels
• Kettle
• Pans
• Glasses, cups, crockery and cutlery
• Sandwich boxes, clingfilm and tinfoil
• Tinned and packet foods 

You’ll need most of those belongings close at hand - they’re the stuff that makes your room comfortable and feel more like home. But if things are feeling a bit cramped, there may be a few things you don’t need every day (or at all during certain seasons) that you could pop into a self storage unit for safekeeping. 

For example:

• Sports equipment - which could be something small like a pair of football boots and training kit, or might be rather larger, like a kayak! 
• Camping gear for weekend trips away or festivals
• Bulky winter clothes during the summer.

If there’s a self storage unit close to your university accommodation, it won’t be difficult to pop in to add to, or remove items from, your unit whenever you need throughout the year.
 

What you need to know about student storage with Safestore:

Self storage rooms vary in size, and students tend to use units that are:

• 10 sq ft (about the size of a car boot, for a couple of boxes of clothes and books) 
• 16 sq ft (a small room, big enough to store the contents of a bedsit)
• 25 sq ft (a good size for the contents of a studio flat)
• 35 sq ft (large enough to fit the contents of a one-bedroomed flat) 

Larger units are available, and it might be more cost-effective for you and a trusted friend (or a few friends) to share the cost of a single larger unit for everyone’s stuff. Make sure you each know the combination for your own padlock, and pack everything separately so you can each access your own belongings whenever you get back to university after the holidays.

Our self storage units are rooms within large, indoor stores. We have staff available during long opening hours, and you can add more or remove items from your unit whenever you like during those times. You’d be the only person who can lock or unlock your unit, and our stores are open every day of the year, including Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and all bank holidays.

You can use a self storage unit for a week or however many weeks you like, so it’s ideal whether you need it for the shorter Easter and Christmas breaks, or a month or more over summer. 

We have self storage facilities all over the country, so you should be able to find one near your university. 

And finally - we know students love a bargain! We offer 50% off* storage for the first 8 weeks, which should cover the majority of the school holidays, if you stay for a minimum of two weeks.  And if you get a quote online, we will also send you a voucher for £10 worth of FREE boxes.