An (Actually Useful) Student Storage Guide
Matt Wallace
7 minutes
October 5, 2022
How to use this student storage guide
The purpose of this guide is to help you make a good decision when buying storage.
We will not try to sell you any storage.
It will help you answer the two most important questions:
- How much should you pay for student storage?
- What else do you need to think about when choosing a storage provider?
Storage is an odd purchase.
Because the 1st time you need storage is likely to be the first time you’ve ever thought about storage.
How are you supposed to know who to go with and what you need to consider?
To help you we called 100 storage companies to ask for prices & asked 400 students about their experiences buying storage.
We took those responses to give you answers to the two most important storage questions:
- How much should you pay for student storage?
- What else do you need to consider when picking who to store with?
How much should you pay for student storage?
First, a quick note on how we worked out costs.
All prices are based on 12 weeks of storage (a standard university summer) & each person involved having 5 medium sized boxes worth of items (or roughly enough items to fill up a telephone box).
What you pay depends on what storage option you go for.
What storage option you go for depends on 2 things:
- Do you have access to a car?
- Are you storing alone or with friends?
This is the quickest way we can point you in the right direction is to think of it like this:
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Storing alone & don't have access to a car?
Use a by-the-box service provider.
Expect to pay around £163.50 for the summer.
Lovespace & Spaceways are examples of these companies.
They’re generally more expensive than the equivalent space in self storage centres (those big buildings by the side of the motorways) but they’re the most convenient option. They’ll come and collect your possessions for you and drop them back off when you’re back from the summer break.
It works out financially if you don't have access to a car - because by the time you rent a car / van or pay someone to move your stuff into a self storage centre - you'll be paying the same amount. And this option has the added convenience thrown in.
Here is a breakdown of how much Lovespace’s pricing works - and how much it costs for a summer of storage.
Anything else you should be thinking about?
Take advantage of being flexible on the collection time.
£25 is the cheapest option and it gives a big window to wait 07:00-18:00 on weekdays.
It jumps up to £30 if you want collection on a weekend & £50 if you want collection the next day.
Storing with mates and one of you has a car?
The best thing to do is to take out a room in a self storage centre.
These are the big buildings with indoor storage rooms. There are national chains like Big Yellow Storage & Safestore. As well as a plethora of independent storage companies doing the same thing.
Split the cost of the room - pay less.
A guide for room sizes:
Yes you’ll have to move the stuff yourself.
But it’ll be cheaper.
Buy the person letting you use the car a beer to say thanks.
Storing solo with access to a car?
Use a self storage centre - ask for a small room (10ft²).
Or you can try a sharing storage service like Stashbee.
They rent out space in people's homes or offices. You might be able to get an even better rate using that service if they store in your area.
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Storing with friends but no access to a car?
Here's how to approach this:
- Can anyone in the group rent a car or van? (many rental companies have a minimum age of 21)
- If the answer to the 1st point yes - get a price for the van and work out if you're paying more or less per person that going for the by-the-box service.
Remember that in all likelihood you're going to have to rent a van on the other side of summer to go retrieve your stuff as well.
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What else do you need to think about when choosing a storage provider?
We asked 400 students about their experience choosing storage. Here is their advice distilled down to actionable takeaways.
Check online reviews
Our advice with reviews is to look for recurring patterns.
Every company is going to have a few negative reviews. The downfall of online reviews is that people who have a fine, satisfactory experience often won't leave a review.
Which means the only people who leave reviews tend to be those people that review everything and the negative reviews. 1 or 2 bad reviews might not be a dealbreaker. But if it's persistent and the overall average score is less than a 4 - then it's probably time to look elsewhere.
How safe the storage felt was the 2nd most important decision making factor (behind price)
We asked people to respond on a scale of 1-10 how important different factors were when they were making the decision on who to store with.
Unsurprisingly, number 1 was price.
Close behind it was how safe a storage facility felt.
It was rated a 7 out of 10 as a decision making factor by 400 student.
Don't be afraid to pick up the phone
You should expect a storage company to have the ability for you to book online.
But if you're unsure of anything - you can also pick up the phone to ask questions and seek clarifications.
That happened with 59% of our respondents.
It was 50/50 whether people would choose a service that would pick up their possessions for them
Most likely this is related to how important price is as a factor.
Storage-by-the box is more expensive. You pay for the convenience.
This was reflected in the results of our survey with only 50% of people rating whether a storage provider would pick up their items for them as a decision making factor.
Check websites for original images
Check the websites of the storage companies.
Any serious company will have images of their sites.
Don't accept stock photography.
See actual images of the building, storage rooms, yard outside of where you're going to be storing.
Conclusion
Realistically it shouldn't take you more than an hour to make a solid decision.
Use our guide to decide which storage option is best for you depending on your circumstances - based on who you're storing with and if you've got access to a car.
If you're storing alone with no access to a car - really consider a by-the-box storage option.
If you're not - go on websites, call some companies and get 3 prices for comparison purposes.
Check the reviews of those companies.
That'll give you the confidence that you're not getting ripped off and your possessions will be safe for the summer.
