By Tori Linville and Ellen Coogan
The end of the semester is approaching for most University of Alabama students and with it, the moving trucks of May. However, students leaving for summer have many options for their moving needs.
Though students can sell furniture themselves using websites like Craigslist.com, they can also utilize University outlets by making a profile and using the message boards on the University’s off-campus housing website, offcampushousing.ua.edu.
The Attic, a furniture store at 2511 University Blvd., offers a different method for students moving over the summer. The store offers students chances to sell or consign any unwanted used furniture, with the knowledge that with consignment, the owner waits until the piece sells as opposed to selling immediately.
“The individual comes out a lot better with consignment. The consigner gets 60 percent of the sale, and the store gets 40 percent. When selling it outright, we can only pay 25 to 30 percent of what we think it will sell for,” Scott Parham of the Attic said.
The Attic resells indoor and outdoor furniture and appliances, while offering a $50 pick-up service. Other resale options for those interested include Almost Antiques and Thrift Store, and Nu-Beginnings Resale, located at 2301 Loop Road and 307 Skyland Blvd. respectively.
Students looking to store instead of sell can take advantage of the Collegiate Bed Loft Company’s summer storage service. New and exclusive to UA students, the program provides students with moving boxes. The students schedule a time for CBL’s movers to take their boxes to a controlled-climate storage facility for the summer. The items are then returned to the student’s new living space the following August, according to the company’s website.
With several different ways to move and sell their college belongings, some students simply do it themselves and pack their things with no outside help. Samantha Benedict, a freshman majoring in public relations, explained her plans for moving out for the summer.
“My parents are actually going to drive down and meet me because my car is here. So they’re going to drive down – they have a minivan – and they’re going to pack up the car, and they’re going to pack up my car, and we’re going to drive back together,” Benedict said. “It’s kind of just a waste of money [to use movers] when you can do it yourself, and they’re kind of expensive. It’s not that hard, and it’s not that much stuff.”
America’s Thrift Store, located at 1735 Skyland Blvd. East, offers a free pick-up service for donations.
“If it’s in Tuscaloosa, we can pick it up Monday through Saturday. Just call us a day in advance,” Maggie Herrera of America’s Thrift Store said.
The proceeds go to 13 different charities, but mostly to King’s Home, which provides women and children refuge from abuse, neglect, abandonment and homelessness, Herrera said.
