Maybe there are obvious answers here, but I don’t know how this works!
So my daughter goes to school 1200+ miles from home, a small LAC. All students at her school are required to live on campus the first two years. She is considering sharing an off campus house or apartment with a couple of friends next year, her junior year. The school is in an urban area so there are lots of options within walking distance of campus. Great, right?
I’m all for it, I think it’s a great way to do more “adulting”, but here’s what I don’t understand…how do students who fly between school and home manage the whole furniture thing? I mean, they’re just going to show up and have nothing to sit or sleep on, then have to shop for stuff when most of them don’t have cars? And what about the end of the year, if they only sign a lease for one school year? Complicating this is the fact that my daughter will be studying abroad for one semester (probably spring) next year. What happens to the furniture? How do kids get beds and couches to storage with no way of transporting WHILE they are also studying for finals and packing to come home? I know that the whole process of getting some of her stuff stored on campus, shipping other stuff home, etc., was pretty time consuming for my daughter last year. It’s different for kids who can just stuff everything in a car and drive a few hours home.
And then, once they graduate, they own a whole bunch of furniture and perhaps they are moving back home or going to grad school in a brand new location, so now what? I get that furniture can be sold but how is a college student supposed to attend to that when they have classes and finals and preparations to ship other belongings home and so on?
How is this all managed? I know most upperclassmen at her school do live off campus, and many students live far away from school and fly back and forth, so I figure there must be ways this gets done…but HOW?
Both of our kids lived off campus. One was 3000 miles away.
Re: furniture. Our kid bought it from the folks who were moving out. They were very happy to sell ALL of the furniture to the new tenants of the house…saved everyone the headache of moving it all.
We never moved a stick of furniture during the summers. Our kids subletted their off campus places furnished. The leases were for 12 months…so they had to sublet. My older kid actually moved into an apartment when he returned from his own study abroad for spring semester. The apartment was furnished and belonged to a kid doing study abroad that spring term.
I just can’t imagine why you would even consider storing anything that is in a college apartment except personal belongings.
Well, it is much easier to do this as a student rather than juggling it around either a full time job or caring for small children. As you note, many of her classmates manage. She will too.
My own experience mirrors @thumper1 's. One buys someone else’s furniture, and upon graduation, resells or tosses. No shipping of furniture involved. There may be school-specific options for the process - some are basically a giant yard sale. In terms of how they manage, there is generally time at the end of the year between the end of finals and graduation. At the beginning of the year, there may be time between move-in and the start of classes.
Sublets are generally furnished. Storage options (at a cost) are generally available for personal items.
It’s time for kids to be adults. Let them manage it or live on campus. I’ve told my kids that they will have free tuition, room and board, maybe the personal and misc expenses as a monthly payment and they can manage the rest. I will of course be available for consultation. I paid my own room and board with loans while working 20-30 hrs a week so they have it easy.
Storage in the house/apartment is probably not an option unless the building has basement storage lockers. I was referencing a mini-storage facility.
The kids who choose to answer are the ones who have the insight, since they are the ones (usually) that are handling the logistics. Regardless, CC allows all users in good standing to answer questions. Questions cannot be directed at one segment of the site only.
Of course! I don’t mean to direct my questions at any specific members. I just meant I’m looking for others’ experiences with managing this stuff rather than opinions on whether students are able to/should manage this on their own. I agree that they can and should. Just wondering, partly out of curiosity and partly out of concern, how they do that since I clearly have no idea!
First. Like my kids I found all of this WAY more difficult when I was in school then I do in “ real life”. No car, no family around to pitch in and friends on the exact same schedule as me meaning no one had the ability to help. I studied all the dang time. My kid’s schedule in school as an engineering major was so demanding. When she graduated and started working she marveled at all her free time! I don’t know of it’s that some people had it super easy in college or that they are very isolated now but the idea that it’s easier in college than in “adult” life? Nope not at all for me. Dealing with this stuffing school was pretty overwhelming in a way it was not later.
So, to answer your question, my kids either had an off campus apartment that was already furnished by the landlord, bought from other kids in the apartment prior or rented the stuff from Cort. All of these made way more sense than trying to furnish their own apartment at school.
While I purposely chose a four year residential college for myself, I did rent an apartment in Manhattan during graduate school at Columbia. My parents took care of arranging all my moves. In fact, they took care of arranging all my moves until I was married! This did not stop me from becoming a fully functioning adult who was able to excel in school, excel in my career, get married and have a kid, continue to excel at work and move up my career ladder, etc. I think it is great when parents are helpful and allow the kid to focus on more important things- like schoolwork, final exams, and the job search.
When I got my first apartment, I chose some relatively inexpensive furniture at a furniture chain store on Long Island. It was delivered to my apartment in Manhattan. When I finished grad school and got my first job on Long Island, my mom arranged for the furniture to be shipped to my apartment there. And again to a third apartment when I got another job. And again in a hurry to a fourth apartment when I was frightened because I heard my landlord beating his girlfriend and he was mad at me for calling the police. All four apartment moving arrangements were handled by my parents. They also came each time and helped me pack and unpack.
I am 48. My bedroom set from my very first apartment at age 21 survived all those moves and is now the furniture in the guest bedroom in our home. The dining room/living room furniture from my very first apartment is now in our basement. That table has stuff piled on it for storage. Guests sometimes sit on that sofa and hang out while watching one another play ping pong in our basement.
So- if my son were to be in the same situation as your daughter, I would not hesitate to offer to contact a storage facility and arrange a moving van and fly out to help with packing (if you can afford to do so). If your daughter wants to handle all or part of this stuff independently, she can just refuse your offer. But she may appreciate the help.
There’s a lot to becoming independent. It does not have to happen all at once. And, truly, parents help our children all their lives. It is our most important job. My parents helped me all my life, and now they are both experiencing health crises, and I am helping them.
My kid stored only personal items…and sold the furniture. What is your kid planning to do? Furnish an entire apartment with brand new furniture? Most college kids buy used stuff from classmates…or like I suggested…from the folks moving out.
All my kids bought used from the previous tenant was bedroom furniture. That’s it. The common room furniture was purchased by all the shared apartment folks…used…from the previous tenant.
My DD shared a house with six others. She was working on campus for the summer…so she was going to be in the house. Before the last month rent was due, she knocked on the door of the house they were renting as of July 1…and asked the (graduating senior) resident if they would be interested in selling all of the furniture contents of the house. They were thrilled because they hadn’t figured out what to do. DD paid $700 ($100 per housemate) and got all five bedrooms of bedroom furniture, the dining room set which included 8 chairs and a couple of leaves for the table, a couple of decent couches and coffee/end tables, the stools for the breakfast bar, and an extra fridge for the garage.
When she was ready to graduate, they sold ALL of the same stuff for…$700 to the next folks who were thrilled to have it all.
They donated the dishes, pots and pans and such to AmVets.
Our kids never stored or moved furniture in undergrad school. And really, we had nothing to do with it at all. Our mantra was…”you want to live off campus…figure it out. We aren’t paying extra. So figure it out. The college apartments are furnished so if you want something off campus…it’s all on you.”
Very nice offer…but not exactly a bargain these days to store and hire movers. And fly all over the place to help out.
I’m not a total stick in the mud. We DID help both kids move into grad school apartments…and helped the one who finished move out (because he took some nice stuff that then went to his younger sibling for a grad school apartment).
Thanks for all the helpful responses so far! I’m hoping she has the option of buying “hand me down” stuff that’s already in the place from former student tenants! That sounds pretty easy!
Our experience was similar to @thumper1 and @skieurope.
Two daughters: one went 3000 miles away, the other went 900 miles away. Son went 140 miles away.
Reality is that the kids figure it out on their own.
Everything is online. It’s called IKEA or the housing website. There are postings everywhere and the kids find help.
They buy cheap and have it delivered, then pieces are sold, loaned, donated, or exchanged.
The only thing both daughters had stored were their beds for $25 per summer month storage either at the school or at a local storage company. For both, the public storage places, had trucks available.
Most landlords near schools have discovered the ‘11 1/2’ month lease. You pay even if you don’t stay for the summer. There is a week or two in Aug when everyone is out of the houses as the leases flip and you all cram in with friends who are staying in the same place for another year.
My daughter took the place of a teammate in a rental house and got the bed from someone moving out, the desk from her boyfriend’s roommate, took some pots and pans from me, etc. After 2 years, she graduated and donated everything to the next teammate who moved in. Some of the couches and stuff stayed, some left. It kind of depended on how local those living in the house were. Really no one lived in it during the summer, so stuff from the prior year’s tenants stayed and from the new tenants were added. My daughter was the one without a parent (with a big car) to move stuff so she used what was there and left it. She’s a minimalist anyway, so doesn’t have much. Ironically, she got a job in the area and moved into an apartment and everyone else moved all their things back to their parents’ homes several states away. EVERYTHING in the apartment is new as she didn’t want the college stuff.
However, if your child is studying abroad, why not just stay in the dorm for another semester? My other daughter lived in the sorority house and the best part about it was the moving in and out as SHE needed to. She did one semester off for an internship, so just up and moved out. No lease to break, no furniture to move. She did a semester in England and again, just moved out in Dec and back in in Sept. No lost security deposit, no lease to break, no furniture to store.
My kid is in a similar situation, far away at a LAC and renting a house with friends. The kids picked a mostly furnished house to rent. There is a pool of houses like that from which kids pick and there is a way (IDK how exactly) they know of these houses. I was surprised the kids handled it on their own. One mom who lives close by I expected to supplement their stuff with more, newer, and better stuff, but she didn’t. They had enough.
I asked my son questions just to make sure he and his friends had thought of everything: rent over summer, furniture, cookware, shopping and cooking for food, utilities, mowing the yard. He didn’t always know the answers, but he’d go ask and find out. (And sometimes he messed up, like when the first rent was due and he needed it NOW.) Good luck. Some groups handle it better than others. (My son and his friends struggle with chores. They have friends who have no problem with this piece.)
I lived off campus for two years a long time ago in college. I did have a small pick up. I just bought furniture used where I could. I stayed one summer and rented my couch to a friend and made money on the reduced rent over the summer.
Even the kids that didn’t live off campus had stuff to store over summers. We all had couches, chairs, lofts, and other junk. Someone would rent a storage unit and usually rent a truck for a day. We would cram everything in the unit and get it when we got back.
No one ever bought new furniture. Used couches with a sheet over it worked. Some of those probably were passed around for many years on campus.
“Cort. A furniture rental company. An avenue I do not recommend”
Worked for our kid when she was abroad for one semester and where there really werent apartments where people sold their stuff. It was slightly pricey in theory. But because she couldn’t even be there til the night before the semester started and was only there for 4.5 months, It actually was a bargain. They moved everything in the day she got there. Moved it all out her last day there.
Also, don’t be surprised if the parents are required to sign the lease. My nephew rented houses near campus for his final 3 years and my sister had me look at the lease. $46,000! I’m not kidding. I think it was a 5 bedroom unit, but each had to sign for the entire amount, and the entire year. They had a security deposit of about $7000, and there was no hope of getting about 1/2 of it back (carpet cleaning, re-keying the locks, cleaning even if they left it clean). If one of those kids moved out, the others were liable for the rent.
