Moving and Storing a Dorm Room in New York
Student moving in this city is not really a moving problem. It is a timing problem. Every residence hall in New York empties within about a fortnight in May and refills within about a fortnight in late August, which means several thousand students all need the same trucks on the same weekend. Booking three weeks ahead of your hall closing date is worth more than any discount we could offer you.
The second thing that makes it different is that most students are not moving somewhere else. They are going home, going abroad, or going to an internship in another city, and the question is not where their things are going — it is where their things are going to live until September. That is why our student service is built around storage first and a move second, and why we publish what it costs before you book rather than after we have your things.
What We Handle for Students in NYC
Summer storage between terms
Store your things from May to August in a climate-controlled facility and have them back before classes start. Storage runs from $50 a month.
Dorm room pickup
We come to your room, carry everything down, and load it. You do not need to get boxes to a kerb or wait by a truck. On a hall closing day that is the difference between making your flight and missing it.
Autumn redelivery
Tell us your new room and your arrival date and we bring everything to it. Most students book the collection and the redelivery in the same conversation in May.
Moving between apartments
Off-campus students moving from one apartment to another get the same service as any local move — wrapping, loading, transport, and basic reassembly at the other end. Fuel and tolls are included.
Shipping home
If you are not coming back, we can pack and ship your belongings to your family home rather than storing them here in New York.
Packing help
Book packing if you would rather not do it during finals week. We bring the materials. If you would rather pack yourself, that is fine too and it keeps the cost down.
Where Your Things Live Between May and August
The maths on summer storage is straightforward, and it is why almost every student we speak to ends up doing it.
Shipping a dorm room home and shipping it back costs more than storing it, takes longer, and gives you two opportunities to break something. Leaving it with a friend works until their lease ends. Renting your own unit means renting a van twice and carrying a mini fridge down four flights of stairs twice.
We collect from your room, store everything in a climate-controlled facility that is managed and monitored, and bring it to your new room in autumn. Storage starts at $50 a month. You tell us the redelivery date when you book, and if your plans change you tell us the new one.
Furniture is wrapped in blankets before it goes into storage, not after it arrives. Mini fridges, monitors and televisions go into proper boxes. Bikes get handled as bikes rather than as awkward furniture.
How Student Moving and Storage Works
Give us your hall closing date and, if you know it, your return date. If you do not know your return date yet, book the collection and tell us the second one later.
Our team comes up to the room, wraps and boxes what needs it, and carries everything down. You do not need to be packed to a professional standard — we handle the rest.
Your belongings are inventoried and stored in a climate-controlled facility. If you are shipping home instead, this is where it goes onto the truck.
Give us the new address and the date. We deliver, carry up and unwrap. Basic disassembly and reassembly is included.
Book Before Your Hall Closes
New York campuses close within days of each other in May and reopen within days of each other in late August. That is the whole reason student moving is difficult here, and it is the one thing you can control.
Three weeks of notice will usually get you the day and the time slot you want. A week of notice in the middle of May will get you whatever is left. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so if the only slot available is early morning before the lift queue starts, that is a real option rather than a joke — and on a closing day it is often the best one.
If your plans are not fixed yet, book anyway. Moving a booking is easy. Creating one on the busiest weekend of the year is not.
Our support team is available 7AM to 9PM on 212-365-0707.
What Student Moving and Storage Costs
We publish our starting prices because students plan on a budget, and vague answers do not help you plan.
| Service | Starting price | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Moving | $150 an hour | Wrapping (blankets, tape, shrink), TV boxes and picture bins, loading and unloading, basic disassembly and reassembly, basic insurance. Fuel and tolls included. |
| Storage | $50 a month | Climate-controlled, managed and monitored. |
| Packing | Quoted per job | Materials and labour, booked as an add-on to a move or a storage collection. |
Starting prices. Your quote depends on the size of the job, the address and the access.
What we do not charge for
There is no fee for a heavy box, because we do not price by the box. There is no separate charge for fuel or tolls — those are in the hourly rate. There is no minimum number of hours, so if your dorm room is one trip, you pay for one trip. That matters more for students than for anyone else we move, because a dorm room genuinely is a small job, and being charged for a half-day you did not use is the most common complaint students have about movers generally.
If a price changes between the quote and the job, it is because the job changed — a different address, more items, an extra flight of stairs — and you will hear about it before the truck moves.
Why Students in NYC Book Us
We have been doing this since 1979
Big Apple Moving has been moving New Yorkers since 1979 and has completed more than 220,000 moves. We have handled a lot of May closing weekends.
Moving and storage from one company
Your collection, your storage and your autumn delivery are all handled by us. There is no gap where nobody is responsible for your things.
No minimum hours
A dorm room is a small job and we price it as one. From $150 an hour with the truck included.
Nothing gets added at the end
We do not charge by the box, so there is no heavy-box fee to find out about later. Fuel and tolls are in the rate. We operate 24/7, which on a hall closing day is how you get a slot at all. USDOT #382368.
Other Services You Might Need
Small moves
Studio apartments, single rooms and short local moves, billed hourly with no minimum. Small moves in NYC.
Storage
Climate-controlled storage from $50 a month, with collection and redelivery. Moving and storage in NYC.
Packing and unpacking
Professional packing with materials supplied, booked on its own or with a move. Packing services.
Get a Free Quote for Your Student Move
Tell us your hall closing date and we will tell you what is available. Moving from $150 an hour with no minimum number of hours, storage from $50 a month.
