Student storage in Marquette, MI, without the truck rental.
Move-out at Northern Michigan University lands in early May, and everything you own has to go somewhere for three months. STOVA brings totes to where you live, collects them once you have packed, and stores them climate-controlled until you come back — no van, no parents' garage, no unit across town you have to drive to twice.
How it works around move-out
You sign up, we deliver durable totes to your hall or apartment, and you pack at your own pace during finals week rather than in one frantic afternoon. When you are done we collect them and take them to a monitored, climate-controlled facility.
Every tote is logged individually, so at the end of summer you are not guessing which box has your winter coat in it. You request what you want back and we redeliver to your new address — which for most students is a different address from the one we collected from, and that is fine.
Why this beats the alternatives
The usual options are driving everything home, splitting a self-storage unit with people you may not live with next year, or leaving it with whoever has a basement. All three involve a vehicle you probably do not have and a lease you cannot get out of.
With tote-based storage you pay for what you actually store. A student storing six totes over summer is paying for six totes, not for a half-empty 5x10 unit rented by the month.
Upper Peninsula winters change what you store
Students here accumulate more seasonal gear than most: parkas, boots, skis, snowboards, and the heavy bedding that makes a residence hall survivable in February. None of it is useful in July, and all of it takes up the space you need for everything else.
That gear is also exactly what suffers in an unheated garage or a storage unit that swings from below freezing to humid. Everything we store sits in a climate-controlled facility, which matters more here than it would downstate.
What students usually store with us
- Winter coats, boots and snow gear
- Bedding, pillows and towels
- Books, notes and course materials
- Kitchen things — pans, plates, small appliances
- Clothes for the other three seasons
- Sports and hobby equipment that fits a tote
Common questions
- When should I book summer storage?
- Book before finals rather than after. Totes have to reach you with enough time to pack, and move-out week concentrates a lot of collections into a few days. Booking early costs nothing extra and gives you room to pack at your own pace.
- Do I have to be there when you collect?
- Someone needs to hand the totes over, but it does not have to be you — a roommate is fine. What matters is that the totes are packed and closed when we arrive, because we take them straight to storage.
- What if my roommates and I want to split it?
- That works. Each membership is individual, so the simplest approach is one person per account with their own totes. Totes are tracked individually, so nobody's things get mixed up even if you are packing in the same room.
- Can I get something back in the middle of summer?
- Yes. Request the totes you want and we redeliver them on a service day. On the Flex plan that is included; on Archive each delivery trip is $29, however many totes come back on it.
- What about furniture, a mini-fridge or a bike?
- Those do not fit our system — we store what fits in a tote, on shelves, in a climate-controlled facility. For furniture and appliances you want a self-storage unit. We would rather tell you that now than after you have paid.
Ready when you are.
We currently run in Marquette. Check your ZIP code and we will tell you straight away.
Keep reading: See what it costs · How pickup and delivery works · Compared with a storage unit