After your child leaves for college, you likely want to start looking into what you're going to be using their old bedroom for. Whether you want to turn their bedroom into an office or a guest room, you likely have a lot of extra things that your child left behind due to limited space in their dorm or plans to pick it up after they get their own apartment or home in the future.
Instead of allowing their items to take up valuable space in your home, consider what can be done while renting a storage unit.
Decide What Sentimental Items to Keep
An easy way to get started with sorting through what should or should not be stored in the storage unit is figuring out what should be thrown away and what should be preserved. You likely have a ton of items including photos, artwork from them as a child, and other sentimental things that can be hard to get sort through.
While some of these items should definitely going into storage for later viewing, you want to make sure that the storage unit doesn't become full of useless things that your child may not want.
Discuss Who Will Pay for the Unit
Another important thing to consider when looking into renting a storage unit for your child's items is who is going to be paying for it. In many cases, the parent will choose to pay for the storage unit due to their desire for extra storage space at home. However, if the storage unit is only including items of your child, it may be best for them to take care of expenses.
Pick a Location That Makes Sense
One other thing you will need to discuss with your child is where would be the best location for the unit. In many cases, your child will want to have access to their items, especially for seasonal clothing or photographs they may want to look back on with friends while in college. With this in mind, it could be best to choose a storage unit closer to their college—unless it is a far drive and not worth the moving truck needed.
Keep Valuables and Important Documents at Home
While you may be comfortable with storing personal things such as photographs in the storage unit, it is important that you remember never to store valuables such as expensive jewelry or important documents including tax information or a passport. For these items, make sure you keep them stored at home in a safe or other location more appropriate.
Renting a storage unit can come with a number of benefits, but there are some unique challenges when you're considering renting one for your child. By keeping the above tips in mind you can move forward with renting a storage unit that will provide ample storage space while her child is in college so that you are free to use their old bedroom as you please.
Share27 January 2016
After my boss told me that I would probably be moving a lot for work, I realized we needed to get a little more organized. Instead of gathering produce boxes and hoping for the best, we started analyzing our mistakes and successes of previous relocations. We realized that we usually got hung up on the packing, which is why we asked my employer to pay for a professional service. Our next relocation was a breeze. This blog is all about identifying storage problems so that you can avoid hassles, delays, and expensive mistakes that could destroy your overall budget.