Essentials for Students Moving Around

The end of term-time for students can be a hassle. Sure the holidays are here, which means lots of home-cooking and meeting up with old friends from school; but if your parents live far away from where you study (or even in another country altogether), it can be quite stressful.

Things can be aggravated when you’re moving between different student accommodation and there is a slight gap between one tenancy ending and the next beginning. As a thrifty student, checking into a hotel is probably not an option either, and in areas with a high density of students, break-ins and thefts can be higher than average.

So below are a few tips or ways you can circumvent any problems you might run into, so you and/or your possessions have a roof over your heads.

1: Planning

Confirm dates for when you should be moving out, moving in, going home, coming back etc. It can be easy around this time to get dates mixed up. Some people use a digital calendar on their phone to set appointments, but it may be a lot easier to buy a traditional calendar, and mark out exactly when things will be occurring.

2: Your Landlord

You may be lucky and have a very friendly landlord or letting agent who will negotiate with you to let you move in earlier than usual. The property you’re planning to move into may already be empty, but you might just not know it. You may have to pay something for this privilege, like a week’s equivalent of the monthly rent, but it can save you any inconveniences. If this isn’t possible, they may very well recommend a storage facility which they use frequently or have heard good things about.

3: A Little Help from My Friends

Many foreign-language students often find themselves requiring storage facilities because they can’t transport all their things back-and-forth between home and where they study. If you require any information, it’s always handy to consult these students as they probably have a lot of experience using these facilities. They may even know of a respectable provider, or even, if you’re lucky, let you use theirs if they have the room. You may also want to keep in the good books of someone who has their car with them, so they can help move boxes from one place to another. Moving from property to property, especially in London, on the tube, buses or foot is not the most ideal of circumstances.

4: Packing

Many students will have relied on their parents to pack their things when going on holiday or moving house in the past. Unfortunately they probably won’t be able to come all they way to your university to do the same. If they are coming to pick you up to take you home, having to wait till they arrive to pack will only hold you up. The best thing you can do to learn some of the tricks to packing and moving is to do it when you first move to university. Don’t leave it up to your parents to do it for you, but do it with them. It can be quite therapeutic for all parties as you prepare to fly the nest. If you can pack efficiently, you can fit more into a tighter space.

5: Boxes

Ideally, you’ll have kept the original boxes which you used to move to university and won’t have since used them for drunken games or anything strange during Freshers Week. Keep them folded under your bed or somewhere in your room, as if you keep them in a communal area, someone might just help themselves to them.

Alternatively, ask around at shops, bars and restaurants on campus for any leftover boxes that they have lying around. In a busy student town, the end of term can be chaotic with everyone realising that they ought to start packing, so tracking these down might be a problem if you wait too late. If an average term is 10 weeks, start looking in Week 6. If you can’t get your hands on boxes or they aren’t in the best condition, remember that many self storage facilities stock purpose-built storage boxes, but they come at a price.

Author: Paul works on behalf of a property portal that helps students looking to rent in London during term-time. As a student until quite recently, he understands some of the headaches which come with moving from one accommodation to another, around exams and work.

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