Chicago is a city built on a grid, but moving out of a college dorm here is anything but straightforward. DePaul students in Lincoln Park face permit-only parking on every residential block. Loyola students in Rogers Park deal with narrow one-way streets and hydrant zones that swallow every potential loading spot. Northwestern students in Evanston have to navigate campus access restrictions and the tight streets around Sheridan Road. And everyone is trying to move at the same time, during the same two-week window in May.

Self-storage options in Chicago are plentiful -- Life Storage on Clybourn, CubeSmart in Lincoln Park, Extra Space Storage in Lakeview -- but they all assume you have a way to get your stuff there. In a city where most students don't own cars, that means renting a U-Haul (good luck parking it on Fullerton), calling a Lyft XL with boxes stacked to the ceiling, or convincing a friend with an SUV to spend their Saturday helping you move.

Storage Scholars eliminates all of it. We come directly to your dorm room or apartment, pack and pick up your belongings, store everything in a climate-controlled facility, and deliver it back when you return. DePaul University's website lists Storage Scholars as an approved vendor -- we're the storage service the school itself recommends.

Chicago's climate is brutal on stored belongings, and it cuts both ways. Winters drop below zero with wind chills that crack wood and freeze liquids. Summers swing to the 90s with Lake Michigan humidity that breeds mold and warps anything made of paper, leather, or fabric. A non-climate-controlled storage unit on the North Side can go from 5 degrees in January to 100 degrees in July.

Storage Scholars' summer storage keeps your belongings in a climate-controlled facility that maintains consistent temperature and humidity all season. Electronics, textbooks, bedding, furniture -- everything stays protected whether it's a polar vortex or an August heat wave.

We schedule pickups during each school's specific move-out window. DePaul's semester typically ends in mid-May, Loyola wraps around the same time, and Northwestern's quarter system pushes finals into mid-June. We coordinate with each calendar so your pickup aligns with your last final, not some arbitrary storage company schedule.

Flying into O'Hare or Midway for your first year? Shipping your belongings to Chicago ahead of time saves you from the baggage carousel scramble and the $200+ checked bag fees. Our ship-to-school service provides a direct address for your shipments. We receive and hold everything, then deliver it all to your dorm room on move-in day.

This is particularly popular with students heading to DePaul's Lincoln Park campus and Northwestern in Evanston, where move-in day parking is so limited that families often circle the block for 30 minutes trying to find a legal spot.

Chicago apartment move-outs are notoriously difficult. The city runs on a September 1 lease cycle, and students switching from dorms to apartments (or between apartments) face the same logistics everyone in the city dreads: narrow stairwells in vintage walk-ups, no elevator access in three-flats, street parking that requires a city permit, and the constant threat of a parking ticket from the Chicago DOF if you leave a U-Haul unattended for ten minutes.

Our team handles moves between dorms, off-campus apartments, and storage. We know which buildings have freight elevators, which ones require stair carries, and which blocks are hardest to park on. Whether you're moving from Clifton Hall at DePaul to a Wrigleyville apartment or from a dorm at Loyola to a place in Edgewater, we manage the logistics.