Storage wars
Students who come to Utah from another state are faced with the challenge of storing their winter clothes.
Autumn season brings colorful trees, pumpkin bread and football games. But according to many female students, the best change of all during this time of year is the fashion. Decorative scarves, warm jackets and stylish boots are becoming common pieces on campus as summer continues to turn into fall.
Although these students enjoy showing off their winter fashion, many of them do not enjoy the process of storing these bulky items in the off season. For students who live with their families, it’s no big deal to keep their coats and boots in their closest, but for students living in small apartments throughout Orem and Provo, storing their winter attire can be a struggle.
Amanda Williams recently moved from San Diego, Calif., and said storing her winter clothes has been more of a challenge than she expected.
It wouldn’t be a problem if she were living at home where she has a walk-in closet, but her current living conditions do not have such accommodations. Instead, she shares her room with her roommate, which means that she only gets half of the storage space as she would if she lived alone.
“My closet is so small,” Williams said. “It’s hard to fit my summer clothes in there, let alone my winter clothes.”
Through trial and error, Williams has finally found storing methods that work for her. Every Thanksgiving, Williams goes home to San Diego and takes a load of summer clothes with her to store at her family’s house. She returns to Utah with a box of coats, boots and scarves that she now has room to store in her apartment. When Spring Break rolls around, she takes the same trip back to San Diego to drop off her winter gear and return with shorts and sandals.
“It’s become an annual thing,” Williams said regarding her storage solutions. “It works out well because Thanksgiving is when it starts getting cold, and Spring Break is when it starts getting warm.”
Other students from out-of-state have found similar solutions.
Tim Cowley is from Denver, Colo., but has relatives that live in Pleasant Grove who are “kind enough” to let him use their closets.
However, for students who do not have local relatives and the trip home is much farther than San Diego, the storage wars are even more difficult.
Chad Westlock is from Alberta, Canada, so his trips home are not as frequent as he would like. According to Westlock, he tries to make it home every Christmas, but he has missed the last two years.
“If I stored my winter clothes at my parent’s house, I would not see them for years,” Westlock said.
Instead he is forced to cram his clothes into boxes that he stores under his bed, on the top shelf of his closet and any other free space he can find in his “minuscule apartment.”