Cheap student storage in Milan: how to spend less

What the price of storage depends on

Cheap storage in Milan comes down to three numbers: the square meters you take up, the months you stay, and how much of the logistics you do yourself. The monthly rate is fixed per size, pickup and transport are paid once when you start, and redelivery is booked and paid when you need it. The rest is arithmetic.

I'm Francesco, and I write from the van side of this. I've watched plenty of students save a few euro on storage and lose a lot more somewhere else, usually in a basement. This article is the list of those somewhere elses.

The four routes, and what each really costs

There are four routes, and money is only one column. Time and risk appear on no quote, yet the bill still arrives, usually in September.

Five ways to spend less

They're ordered by how much they move the final bill. The first is so obvious that hardly anyone does it.

1. Store less. You save far more on the number of square meters than on the price of each one. In Milan curbside bulky-waste collection is free and run by AMSA: you book online, once every 30 days, within the weight and size limits that page lists. The second-hand desk from first year does not deserve three months of rent.

2. Volume needs measuring, because everyone overestimates it by eye. The space calculator often drops you a size, and that saving repeats every month. Filling boxes properly helps too: a half-empty box takes the same floor as a full one, and how to pack your boxes explains how to load them without punching through the bottom.

3. In a shared apartment, one pickup for everyone. If three of you leave in the same week you save trips, and you avoid the scene where the third flatmate discovers the night before that he owns things too.

4. If you already know you'll stay several months, pick that in the quote: the duration discount goes on the pickup, never on the rate, and you see how much you get before you pay.

5. Book early. At the end of June half of Milan moves, and whoever fixes a date in May picks the time slot instead of taking the leftovers.

The mistakes that cost more than the storage

I've seen all of these, more than once. The first and third turn a cheap summer into a dental bill.

• Renting a warehouse unit for the contents of one room. The minimum size is built for a living room, and nobody refunds the difference.

• The rental van "to be quicker". Between the rental, the fuel and the street spot, which in Milan is a temporary occupation of public land you request from the city, do-it-yourself soon stops being the clever option.

• Shipping everything home and then back again: two journeys and two packing jobs, with as many chances to bend something. It only makes sense if there's space at home, and it isn't the hallway.

• Leaving the boxes with the flatmate who stays. "I'll put them in the basement" costs nothing in June; in September you find them ruined by damp, and the chair who knows where. Of the whole list, it's the most expensive "free".

• Packing on the day, like revising the night before the exam. Except here the grade is awarded by gravity.

The "free" you pay for later

With storage you also buy something no column shows: someone to write to when it goes wrong. That's why the flatmate's basement is cheap on paper and dear in practice. If something goes missing there's no number to call, and the only person to ask is the one you'll share a bathroom with next year.

We answer on chat and at info@smoves.it, Monday to Friday 9 to 19, usually within a few hours. What people who tried it think is in reviews, and the whole loop, from pickup to redelivery, is in how it works.

How you pay, and what's in the figure

You pay a monthly rate for the size you take up, from 1 m² upwards: you pick it when you book, and when your things reach the warehouse we measure the space they actually take up: if it's less, the rate goes down. On top there's the pickup with transport, paid once at the start. Its price includes the time of the stop; if loading takes longer, we estimate the extra time beforehand and you pay what it actually took.

Redelivery is not included: you book it from your account when you need it and pay for it then, on the same basis as the pickup and with no discounts. If you commit to more months, the discount goes on the pickup, not the rate. With Insurance the base limit is included in the rate, and if you need a higher one you pay for it monthly; it covers storage, not transport. The other extras are optional: packing done by us and furniture dismantling, both on a quote, and boxes and tape if you don't have them.

There's no deposit. At booking you choose whether to stay month by month or commit to more months for a discount on the pickup. A booked pickup can't be canceled; the date can be moved with at least 48 hours' notice, free the first time, while from the second move, or with shorter notice, there's a charge. If the new day costs more you pay the difference. The figures for each size are on the pricing page, and the online quote shows them before you book.