The Battalion
LIFESTYLES
4IH
Lou F
Song*
SireA'
Monday, April 30,1990
Lifestyles Editor Lisa Ann Robertson 845-33'
o
Summer storage veterans
shed light on space, costs
n
Unoe
■—
Loch
and
Key
VOL l
A
a
QjD
11
R
jyjOHI
)|TheE
It’s be
ou Ree
lecordii
of
H. ,
oadecl'
In tin
nd com
lost dis
vinyl
e-emer|
onathoi
overs,
lary Cf
In th^
nd inn
leed an
lackagei
nedia e'
table.
One c
he Vef
lutftt’s 1
^asjohr
Cale,
Jico, wa
stingly.
By HELEN WOLFE
Of The Battalion Staff
T he nightmare keeps coming back. It
haunts students leaving town for the
summer. You run down a misty road toward
something you can’t quite reach. You wake in
a cold sweat. Then it hits you. You’re hunting
for storage space.
The importance of getting an early start is
obvious for those who’ve been through the
storage nightmare before.
“I’m glad I won’t have to worry about stor
age this summer because I’ll be here for sum
mer school,” Demetra Andrews, senior mar
keting major, says.
Waiting until the last minute is where the
trouble begins, she says.“If students start
looking early, they can avoid all the hassle.”
Sometimes, though, it takes learning the
hard way for students to act.
Patrice Simmons, senior accounting major,
went through the nightmare of searching late
for summer storage space.
“I’ll never get caught in that position
again,” she says.
Getting an early start is the mpst important
thing to do, Simmons says.
“Finding someone to help you move is a
good idea, too,” she says.
Renting storage space does not have to be
as torturous as it sounds.
Students need to accomodate their belong
ings for the summer, though, as soon as possi
ble.
Candy Hopkins, office manager at Foxx
Moving and Storage, says spaces fill up
around the first week of May.
Martha Starns, office manager at Pack Rat
Mini Storage and the Storage Center, says
renting at the beginning of the month is best.
“To have a choice of sizes,” Starns says,
“rent as soon as possible.”
The size of the storage space can prove to
be one of the most important parts of rental
options.
Glenda Childs, office manager at Security
Plus Mini-Warehouses and Storage, says
they’re promoting “Aggie-Share Space.”
“We’ve taken some of our largest ware
houses and partitioned them into spaces for
storage,” she says.
The storage special begins May 1 and ends
Sept. 1, and no security deposit is required
with a student I.D., Childs says.
Southwest Storage also has a student spe
cial that lasts from May 1 to Aug. 31.
Bubba Gamble, an employee at Southwest
Storage, says students can receive the special
upon rental and do not have to pay a security
deposit.
Another storage option available lies in
apartments.
Most apartments allow storage only if a fu
ture-lease agreement has been signed.
Paige Beal, assistant manager at Arbor
Square Apartments, says students can store
things in the apartments they have a lease for.
in the fall and spring.
With a nine-month lease, the storage cost is
$50 a month, she says.
Lorri Walker, an employee at Briarwood
Apartments, says students can store their be
longings if they are already living in the
apartment and have a lease for the fall. Sum
mer storage in Briarwood costs $100 a
month, she says.
There are some exceptions to the storage-
only-if-pre-leased-rule.
Yvonne Redding, assistant manager at Lin
coln Square Apartments, says anybody can
store their furniture at Lincoln Square.
Redding also said the renter gets to keep
the apartment key over the summer.
W hen storing in an apartment or stor
age space, students should find out
about any find out about any speciahcondi-
tions.
Assistant manager Derrick Jones at Pepper
Tree Apartments, says Pepper Tree also al
lows storage in apartments if the student has
a lease already.
Jones says, though, that students "have to
turn in the keys and keep the electricity on, in
their name, over the summer.”
In order to secure a storage space after
6:00 p.m., Childs says an appointment must
be made with a $5 entry fee.
Starns says the security gates are locked at
night and storers will not be able to get to
their spaces.
Storage space sizes and prices vary from
company to company depending on availabil-
ity.
With most of the spaces, there is also a re
fundable security deposit that must he paid
before the initial rental.
Therefore, shopping early gives students
the advantage of price comparison.
Hopkins says, “We don’t anticipate as
much of a problem as last year because we’re
ready for them.”
Let’s hope so.
Safely Stored
UP.D officer, locksmith give tips
to protect caches of storage stuff
By KRISTI LORSEN
Of The Battalion Staff
up
Finally. Everything is boxed
and stored safely. Or is it?
Students getting ready to go home
for the summer need to take the
time to make sure that their stuff is
burglary-proof.
University Police Department of
ficer Burt Kretzschmar offered sug
gestions for safe summer storage of
personal belongings.
He says apartment dwellers
should let the manager and close
neighbors know when they are leav
ing. He also says residents should
lock all doors and windows and close
the curtains to prevent thieves from
viewing valuables.
“While you’re window shopping
at Post Oak Mall, they’re window
shopping at your apartment,
sai
he
Topping
lid. “Don’t create the opportunity
by advertising your belongings.”
Minnie Garcia, owner of Duncan
Storage in Bryan, offers another way
for students to secure their belong
ings between semesters.
“I think storage units are defi
nitely the safest way to store things
over the summer,” she said.
Duncan Storage offers fifty-five
concrete storage units which are
protected by a tall fence and two
large dogs at night.
While Garcia says 10 to 15 units
are now available at Duncan Storage,
other places in College Station are
already booked for the summer.
Becky Wedube, an employee at
the Space Station on S. Texas Ave
nue, says the units are almost always
full. “During the summer, we are
usually filled to capacity and it stays
that way until the fall semester,” she
says.
The Space Station and most other
College Station storage-unit busi
nesses require customers to provide
their own lock.
Howard Robinson, owner of Bra
zos Valley Lock and Key, warns
against trying to save money on in
expensive locks.
“Many people go out and buy a
two-dollar lock for these units, and
you get what you pay for,” he says.
“It’s worth the extra money to pro
tect what you’re locking up.”
Protecting personal belongings
may be the last thing students are
thinking about at the end of the
school year, but for thieves, finals is
the prime time to make big profits.
University Police Department of
ficer Burt Kretzschmar says that stu
dents who are preoccupied with fi
nals forget to guard their belongings
and often find them stolen.
“We’ve experienced an increase in
personal-item thefts like books,
backpacks, wallets and purses dur
ing the month prior to graduation,”
Pro movers
ease hassles
for a price
By HELEN WOLFE
Of The Battalion Staff
Finding a storage space isnota
problem for those who p®
ahead.
The main difficulty lies
choosing howto get the items toa
rented space. ,
The least expensive way mig
be to recruit family niem et i
friends or even strangers, i
you’re really desperate.
However, if storage space^
moving assistance is a pi
oblem, a
professional-moving compa,
may be the answer. .
• “It’s cheaper than m ()V ,
yourself,” Wendy Christensen'
billing clerk at Conlee Moving
and Storage, says. , •
The items are also store
wooden vaults, she says.
Christensen gave a roj
breakdown of the prices cn g
for moving and storage.
The general idea is to charge
on a per weight basis, she sa\s
The minimum weight n
Conlee Moving and Storage ''
handle is one thousand poun ^
It costs $14 lor the fi ist
sand pounds and $1.40 l»i 1
additional one-hundred p oun
The company then assesses.
$5.25 pick-up and storage
with a one-hundred poun
mum. t . (■ „ n f
A warehouse handling ,
$1.75 and an evaluation charge
$1.40 a month is added w
two-thousand pound minimun .
“An approximate monthly^
for storage and evalua i
$15.40,” Christensen said.^ ^
For an entire summer
about $50. For some s J; lK * ell j
StllC
price more than pays
s for itself bv
avoiding
yoursell
the hassles of moving
Quit.
r
Jot
re\
he says. , j for
Kretzchmar, who has w°
UPD for five years, says booKs |(
are stolen and sold hacK
bookstores are also a hot uen •
“To prevent stolen ,)()0 , s ; ^
leave backpacks unatten ’ ^
mark a certain page m e ‘
with vnnr initials so it can
ByJOHl
Of The E
I do n
that sou
of his Fr
My pe
ability tc
which h
set that \
Let’s
Johnson
any aspi
instrunr
dear em
Using
caster, J
with a
fiends,”
rones.
The s
have be
the near
Johns
number
was a ni
Johnsor