Student Storage Units & Self Storage for College Students

Every college year in Southern California ends on a date somebody else set. Housing publishes the day the room has to be empty, the registrar publishes the last exam, and a landlord in Westwood or Irvine set the end of the lease a year ago without consulting either. Student storage units exist for the weeks between those dates. A student who does not yet know the fall address needs somewhere the room can wait, and student self storage is what holds it until that address is settled. Box-n-Go collects the room where it stands, keeps it indoors, and delivers it to whatever address the fall turns out to be. Nobody rents a truck and nobody buys a plane ticket.

from$69/mo

Self-Load

8' x 5'

We bring & pick up a storage unit, you load it

from$12/mo

A La Carte
Valet

Storage by the box w/ in-room pick up

Why College Students Need Student Storage Units

Move-out is required rather than chosen, and that is the whole basis of this. A housing contract ends on a published date, a lease ends on the last day of a month, and the room has to be empty either way. Nothing on campus holds a box across the summer. Storage units for students exist because a room has to go somewhere between one address and the next. The student storage solutions that come to the room exist because most students in halls have no vehicle to move it with.

The situations behind it are always the same handful. A hall room has to be cleared within a day or two of the last exam. A lease runs out in early June while the next one starts in late August, which leaves weeks with a signed address at neither end. A semester abroad empties a room for four months or more, and paying rent on it in the meantime costs more than storing what is in it. International student storage is the clearest case of the lot, because a student flying to Seoul or Mumbai has a baggage allowance rather than a car trunk. An internship moves somebody to another city for ten weeks. A transfer between two local schools leaves a gap of its own.

Parents see a different version of the same week. Watching it from two thousand miles away, with a work calendar and other children, the instinct is to book a seat and go and sort it out. That instinct is the most expensive line on the whole list, and it is the one thing here that is genuinely optional.

The Real Challenges Students Face During Move-Out

The first pressure is that all three dates land in the same fortnight. A student sits an exam on the Tuesday and hands back a key on the Friday, and the packing happens in the hours between. The deadline does not move for a flight booked in March. Transportation is what turns that into a problem: most students in halls keep no car, and a car would not be enough anyway, because a mattress topper, a mini-fridge and a desk do not go in one. A rented truck brings its own obstacles, from the age rules at the counter to driving something unfamiliar through campus traffic in exam week.

The second pressure is volume, and it surprises people every year. A room fills between September and April without anyone noticing. By the end of it there is a mini-fridge, a printer, a bike, two seasons of clothes, bedding, a desk lamp and the boxes all of it arrived in. A car takes about a third of that. What follows is the packing, done fast and late by somebody who has not done it before, which is where the heavy box, the undefrosted fridge and the leaking bottle all come from.

The third pressure is that the two ends of the summer are not the same address. A student leaving a hall in May often does not know in May where they will be living in August. Housing assignments arrive across the summer and leases start on the first of a month rather than on a date that suits anyone. Student storage services built for this hold the room across that gap and then follow it to wherever it goes, which is why the delivery address is named in August rather than in May.

The fourth pressure is inexperience, and it is nobody's fault. Most students have never packed anything for a season in a warehouse. They do not know that a sealed jar still counts as food, that a fridge has to be dry before the door closes on it, or that a box labeled only on the top is a box nobody can read once it is stacked. That is why the tips and the checklist further down this page exist, and why they are short.

Schools We Serve Across Southern California

It is worth saying what a Southern California year looks like before the last week of it. USC sits a walk from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. UCLA is ten minutes from Santa Monica and up the hill from the Getty Center. LMU stands on a bluff above Marina del Rey, and Caltech is a short walk from the Huntington Library. The Claremont Colleges share a walkable campus at the foot of the San Gabriels, with the California Botanic Garden at one end. Pepperdine looks out over Malibu, and UC Irvine is twenty minutes from Crystal Cove State Park. Almost none of it needs a car, which is exactly why so few students keep one, and exactly why the last week of the year is the week that becomes a problem.

In the Los Angeles area, we serve students at USC, UCLA, LMU, Occidental College, Otis College of Art and Design, Caltech, and Pepperdine University. The Claremont Colleges, including Pomona College, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps College, and Pitzer College, are on the same list.

California State University campuses we serve include CSUN, Cal State LA, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal State Fullerton. In Orange County, UC Irvine, Chapman University, Concordia University Irvine, Orange Coast College, and Vanguard University students regularly use our services. Additional schools include Cal Poly Pomona, Azusa Pacific University, Biola University, University of La Verne, and Woodbury University. In the Santa Clarita Valley we serve CalArts and The Master's University students.

Every campus on those lists is served the same way, from one indoor facility rather than from a building near each school. The distance stops mattering when the crew comes to the room.

What Happens Without a Storage Plan

The usual way of solving this is a rented unit and a rented truck. It works, and it is worth reading what it asks for before signing anything.

It asks for a vehicle. Not a car, a truck, driven by somebody who has never driven one, on the single weekend when every friend who might have helped is doing their own move-out. It asks for a lease signed by the month when what is needed runs from one week in May to one week in August. It asks for gate hours to be learned and kept. Then it asks for all of it again in reverse in August, in the days after a flight lands.

For a family out of state the same plan has a different shape. Somebody flies in, rents a car at the airport, takes two nights in a hotel because nobody who has tried this finishes in an afternoon, and spends a Saturday carrying a bed frame down an exterior staircase in the heat. Elevators in a hall are busy all week, hallways are narrow, and parking structures have height limits a van does not clear. What reads as manageable in April is exhausting in May.

The Hidden Costs of Traditional Move-Out

The monthly rate on a unit is the smallest number in the sum, and it is the only one most people compare. Start with the truck. It is quoted by the day and billed by the mile, with a deposit taken at the counter and a padlock sold beside it. The mileage is where the number moves, because the facility with space in May is rarely the facility nearest the campus. It is needed twice, once when the room has to be empty and once when the fall housing opens, and the second trip is the one left out when the arithmetic is done in spring.

Then the trip, where there is one. A seat into Los Angeles or Ontario in the second week of May is priced for the second week of May, because every family within reach of a campus is buying one. Hotel rooms near a campus do the same thing that week. Add a rental car, because the airport is never close to the room, and the days off work that none of it happens without.

Then the shape of the deal itself. A unit is rented by the month, whole months at a time, and the weeks nobody opens the door cost the same as the weeks it is being filled and emptied. A student needs fourteen weeks and pays for four months. None of this is a complaint about the facilities. They are built for a household putting furniture away for a year, not for a room that has to disappear in May and reappear at an address nobody has chosen yet.

How Box-n-Go Solves the Student Self Storage Problem

Box-n-Go turns the problem around. Rather than sending a student across town to a building, the storage comes to the room. We bring boxes or a container to the address the student is living at, they fill it, we take it away and keep it under a roof, and it comes back in the fall to whatever address they give us. There is no truck to rent, no gate code to learn and no second trip in August. Box-n-Go has run storage and moving out of Los Angeles since 2006.

It works for the parent as well as the student. A student can run the whole thing alone, which is the point of it. A parent can book it, pay for it and move a date from anywhere in the country, and can take the delivery in August if the student is still abroad. Nobody has to be in Los Angeles for any part of it. Everything sits indoors in a monitored warehouse rather than an outdoor row of roll-up doors.

Not every room comes back in August either. A semester abroad, an internship in another state, a leave of absence or a stretch between one degree and the next all put a room into storage for longer than a break. Billing runs month to month, so four months and fourteen months cost the same per month, and a stay that overruns the plan extends rather than restarting. Belongings can be reached during the stay on a few days of notice, and How to Access Your Box-n-Go Storage sets out what that takes.

Student Self Storage Options: Two Service Types

There are two services and the choice between them is about the room rather than the budget. One leaves a container at the address and lets the student fill it over several days. The other sends a crew up to the room to carry everything down. What decides it is whether there is furniture.

A first-year in a residence hall usually has boxes, bedding, a lamp and a mini-fridge. That is a by-the-box job, and A La Carte Valet handles it. A senior leaving an unfurnished apartment has a desk, a chair, a bed frame and a bookcase as well, which is a container job, and Self-Load Flex handles that. Roommates splitting the cost are almost always a container job too. Both come to the address and both come back to it.

Self-Load Flex Container Storage

We deliver an eight by five by seven foot Flex container to the building, the house, or the closest place the property allows one to stand, and leave it there for several days. It rests on the ground the whole time, so nothing goes up a ramp and nothing is lifted overhead. The student loads it across an evening here and an afternoon there instead of in one bad Saturday, closes it with a lock of their own, and calls when it is done. Container Sizes, Weight Limits and Loading gives the inside measurements and the weight it will take.
We collect it whole and it goes straight into an indoor facility, where it stays until you send for it. In the fall it comes back to the address named then, which is often not the address it left from.

It is the option to take when there is furniture, and student rentals across Southern California come unfurnished, so there usually is. A desk, a chair, a bed frame and a set of shelves fit one without anyone having to plan it on paper. Because it stands at the address for days rather than an hour, the awkward things stop being an argument: a bike, a rolled rug, a floor lamp, a monitor stand. Roommates who split one pay less each than either would pay for a unit alone, and every name goes on the account, so each person labels and reclaims their own belongings.

Loading is licensed moving work, so a third party performs it rather than Box-n-Go. Box-n-Go controls the schedule and handles the arrangements, which means the booking is made with us and the student deals with nobody else. Campus rules on where a container may stand differ from school to school and change from year to year. Several campuses assign a parking lot for them and set a window for how long one may sit there, so check the current rule with the housing office before the date is fixed and we will work to it.

A La Carte Valet Storage: By-the-Box College Student Storage

A La Carte Valet counts boxes rather than containers. A container is no use outside a residence hall room and it is not needed there, so the bill follows what the room actually holds. Eight boxes cost eight boxes, and nobody pays for the empty half of a unit.
It starts in the mail. A kit reaches the student before pickup day with five Box-n-Go U Boxes, tape and a marker in it. Five is where most people start rather than where they stop, so ask for more, change what the kit holds before it ships, or pack into boxes you already own.

The U Box is built for this rather than bought off a hardware store shelf. The cardboard is heavier and the flaps overlap the whole way across, because a student box is not carried once across a room and set down. It spends the summer at the bottom of a stack with other boxes on top of it, which is what splits the seams and crushes the corners of an ordinary moving box.

On the day, the crew comes up to the room. Every box and every loose item is labeled, registered against the account, carried down and driven to an indoor facility. Nothing has to reach a curb or a loading bay on the student's shoulders. In the fall it comes back up to the room, or to whatever address you name if the student has moved.

Nothing about it is limited to boxes. Furniture goes the same way, and so does anything else a box will not hold, as long as it is on the booking: a chair, a bookcase, a floor lamp, a bicycle, a mini-fridge that has been emptied and dried. The delivery end is the part people plan for least and ask about most. Housing assignments arrive across the summer, so the booking holds the date and the address is confirmed later, and if the assignment changes in August the delivery follows it. Whoever is named on the account can sign for it. Box-n-Go Storage and Moving Services for Students sets out both services in full, and Box-n-Go Storage for Students covers what a student booking carries that a general one does not.

Self Storage Facilities Across Our Service Area

Conventional self storage exists near every campus we serve, and it is worth knowing what is on the map before choosing between the two ways of doing this. These sit closest to the largest campuses in the service area, and every one of them expects the student to get their belongings there and back without help:

Public Storage, 3625 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Extra Space Storage, 2515 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Public Storage, 1901 S Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Public Storage, 11625 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Extra Space Storage, 18333 Gault St, Reseda, CA 91330

Public Storage, 8200 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91330

Extra Space Storage, 8150 E Wardlow Rd, Long Beach, CA 90840

Public Storage, 2506 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA 90840

They are real options for a student with a car and a free weekend. Without a car, the truck rental and the two round trips cost more than pickup and delivery does, and they cost the weekend as well. That is the trade a rented unit offers: the lower number on the price list, and the higher one by the time the summer is over. Box-n-Go vs Self-Storage sets the two side by side.

What Students and Parents Say About Student Storage Units

Student Self Storage Tips: Avoid Common Mistakes

Almost nothing goes wrong in the warehouse. It goes wrong in the room, at eleven at night, at the end of a week of exams, when somebody who has never done this before is deciding fast. Four things account for most of the damage every year: food, liquids, mini-fridges and open toiletries.

• Keep every box under fifty pounds. Overloaded boxes are unsafe to lift and collapse when stacked.
• Nothing that pours, nothing that spoils. Shampoo, detergent, half-finished drinks and anything sealed in the pantry all find a way out in a warm truck. Tape the lids, bag them, or leave them behind.
• Defrost the mini-fridge a day before pickup. Then clean and dry it, and clean the microwave. A fridge packed damp comes back smelling of what was in it.
• Label all sides of every box. Student name, a phone number, and where it is going. Boxes are stacked, and the top is the one face nobody can read.
• Trash bags are dust covers, not luggage. Never let one carry weight. Roll mattress toppers rather than folding them, and bag them.
• Pad anything breakable and mark it fragile. Wrap each piece individually. Nothing loose rattling in drawers.
• Photograph the inside of each box before taping it. It takes a second and it is the only inventory anybody actually keeps.
• Keep passport, medication, laptop and chargers with you. Nothing needed in the next few days goes into storage.

Parents, that list is also a phone call. Read it down once with your student and you will know whether the fridge was really defrosted and the open bottles really went in the trash.

Go through the student storage move-out checklist several days beforehand rather than on the last evening. It is short on purpose, and it is the thing that keeps a parent from flying in to supervise a job that only needed a phone call.

Frequently Asked Questions About Student Self Storage

What do college students do with their belongings over the summer?

Three routes, and they suit different people. Taking it home only wins where the drive is short. Renting a unit near campus works for a student with a car and a free weekend at each end of the summer. A service that collects from the room and returns it in the fall is what a student without a car actually needs. For anyone whose home is a flight away, keeping the room here costs less than moving it twice.

Do dorms allow students to leave belongings over the summer?

No. Halls are cleared completely at the end of the year, and nothing may be left in a room, a closet or a lounge, because the rooms are turned over for summer programs and orientation. That is the whole reason this page exists.

Where do students store their stuff between semesters?

In a warehouse, a friend's garage, or the back of whatever car they can borrow. Searches for student storage near me mostly come from students in halls, who have no vehicle and no garage, and that is the group pickup and delivery was built for. What decides it is volume, how long the room is away, and whether there is a car at both ends.

What is the difference between student storage and self storage?

Self storage is a building you rent space in and drive to. Renting a unit means paying for a fixed size, whole months at a time, and doing the carrying twice. Student storage is built around the academic calendar instead: the pickup, the months in between and the delivery are one booking, timed to when the term ends rather than to a lease you sign. At a campus where most students keep no car, that difference decides it. Student Storage Terms: A Plain English Glossary sets out the words a storage contract uses.

Can roommates share college student storage?

Yes, and it is the cheapest way to do it. Two or three people leaving the same apartment usually put one container between them and divide the bill. Every name goes on the account, so each person labels their own things and any of them can schedule the delivery.

What items should not be stored in college student storage?

No food, even sealed. No liquids, which covers open shampoo, detergent and anything in the pantry. No aerosols and nothing hazardous. It starts in the room rather than in the warehouse, so keep the passport, the medication, the laptop and anything irreplaceable with you. Anything needed in the next few days travels with the student.

View All Student Storage FAQs

Schools and Services

Every campus we cover works the same way, which matters for a transfer, for friends at two schools splitting a container, or for a sibling working out what they can book. Each page below is written for its own campus, with that school's dates, halls and neighborhood on it:

Los Angeles Area: USC | UCLA | LMU | Occidental College | Otis College | Caltech | Pepperdine

Claremont Colleges: Claremont Colleges | Pomona College | Claremont McKenna | Harvey Mudd | Scripps College | Pitzer College

Cal State Universities: CSUN | Cal State LA | Cal State Long Beach | Cal State Fullerton

Orange County: UC Irvine | Chapman University | Concordia Irvine | Orange Coast College | Vanguard University

Santa Clarita Valley: CalArts | The Master's University

Additional Schools: Cal Poly Pomona | Azusa Pacific | Biola University | University of La Verne | Woodbury University

Explore Our Services: Dorm Storage | Summer Storage | Student Discounts | Pickup & Delivery | Study Abroad Storage | FAQs

Five of those pages carry the rest of the detail. Dorm storage covers what fits in a hall room and what a residence hall will allow on pickup day. Summer storage runs the May to August cycle end to end. Student discounts sets out what students pay. Pickup and delivery explains how the collection and the return are scheduled. Study abroad storage covers the longer version, where a room is packed in the spring and not seen again until the following year. The printable move-out checklist is worth having open before any of it starts.

Box-n-Go has provided portable storage solutions across Southern California since 2006. We are a BBB Accredited Business and proud member of the California Self Storage Association, committed to secure, reliable service for students and families.

Get Started with Student Storage Units Today

It comes back to the calendar in the end, which is the one thing here nobody gets to negotiate. Housing closes on one published date and the leases turn over on another, and both land inside the same two weeks, so every booking in the region is wanted at once. The pickup slots that fit around an exam go first. A container if there is furniture, A La Carte if it is a room of boxes: that is the whole of the decision.

Call 877-269-6461 and name a date. We will ask which campus, roughly how many boxes, and whether there is furniture, and the call takes a few minutes. You can also visit our Google Business page for reviews, hours, and directions.

Box-n-Go Student Storage Units Service Area

Box-n-Go serves students at colleges and universities throughout the greater Los Angeles area, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. Our trucks run about 45 miles out from the yard, which reaches every major campus from Malibu to Irvine and from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach.