UniMove collects boxes, suitcases, and furniture from your Bristol student house or flat, stores everything at the Plover Barn depot in Oxfordshire while you go home for Easter, and delivers it back on the date you choose. One collection from your front door, one delivery back: no van hire, no depot trips, and no need to drag belongings across the country on a busy train.
Why Bristol students store belongings at Easter rather than taking everything home
Bristol’s Easter break runs for around four weeks in most years, spanning the end of the spring term in late March and the return to lectures in late April. That gap creates a practical problem for students in private rented houses.
Going home to the Midlands, Wales, or South East London with a month’s worth of belongings is not straightforward. Trains from Bristol Temple Meads fill up quickly in late March and luggage space is limited. Most students do not have a car, and hiring a van for a single one-way journey to another city costs more than several weeks of professional storage. The alternative, leaving laptops, cameras, and other valuables in an empty shared house for a month, carries clear risks in a city where student houses in Redland and Cotham are a known target for opportunistic break-ins during holiday periods.
UniMove removes that dilemma. Your items are collected from your front door, held securely at the depot, and returned to the same address on your chosen date. The process takes about an hour at each end and you do not need to be present for the delivery if a housemate or keyholder can receive the items instead.
University of Bristol students: where you live and what to store
University of Bristol’s main teaching buildings are concentrated around Park Row, Queens Road, and Woodland Road in Clifton, with the Students’ Union on Queens Road. Most undergraduates move out of University-managed halls after first year and into private rented houses in Redland, Cotham, Montpelier, and Stokes Croft. These are dense Victorian terraces where storage space inside the property is typically limited to under-stairs cupboards and small sheds, and there is rarely a driveway for a self-hire van.
Redland and Cotham in particular have long streets where students make up a large share of residents. Returning from Easter coincides with the start of exam preparation, so the last thing anyone needs is the additional stress of managing possessions across two cities. UniMove’s delivery service brings everything back on the date you specify, usually within a two-hour arrival window.
Students living in University of Bristol residences, including Clifton Hill House and those covered on the Bristol summer storage page, sometimes need to vacate their room at Easter if the university uses it for vacation conference bookings. A short-term storage booking of three to five weeks covers that gap exactly. Collection from hall receptions is possible where the university permits access.
UWE Bristol students: Frenchay, Bower Ashton, and Glenside
UWE Bristol’s main campus at Frenchay sits around four miles north-east of Bristol city centre and approximately three miles from Redland, where many UWE students in second and third year rent houses. Fishponds, Stapleton, Horfield, and Lockleaze are also popular for students who prefer to live near the Frenchay campus rather than in the city centre.
Bower Ashton campus, home to arts, visual communication, and film courses, sits on the south side of Bristol near Bedminster and Southville. Students from those creative programmes typically rent in Bedminster, Southville, and Totterdown. Getting from any of those postcodes to a city-centre self-storage facility involves a bus journey, a taxi, and then the problem of loading and unloading large items, which is why door-to-door collection tends to be the more practical choice.
Glenside campus in Stapleton handles nursing and allied health programmes. Students there face the same logistical challenge as other UWE students: limited time at the end of term, typically no car, and a shared house where leaving valuables unattended for a month is not a sensible option.
What to include in an Easter storage booking
Most Bristol students store a consistent set of items at Easter. Common inclusions are a desktop computer or monitor that is too large for the train, a bicycle that cannot reasonably stay in a small terrace for four weeks, large instruments such as a guitar amplifier or keyboard, boxes of books for modules completed in the spring term, and winter bedding no longer needed in April. A typical Easter booking is four to eight boxes plus one or two larger items.
Items worth taking home regardless: prescription medication, important personal documents, your primary laptop if you need it over the break, and any coursework in progress. Items not worth the effort: kitchen utensils, spare clothing already kept at home, and anything you are not actively using.
If the exam period in May or June will coincide with moving out of your house, it can be worth booking storage at Easter and extending it through to the end of the academic year. That approach covers both the break and the end-of-tenancy Bristol move-out in a single booking, which many students find simpler than arranging two separate collections.
UniMove versus other Easter storage options in Bristol
| Option | Collection method | Typical added cost | Main drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| UniMove door-to-door | Collected from your front door in Bristol | Quoted per booking by volume | Book at least 2 weeks ahead in peak periods |
| Bristol self-storage facility | You drive or take a taxi to the unit | Van hire of £80 to £150 on top of unit cost | Two trips needed, unit sizes fixed, no home pickup |
| Leave it with a friend | You move it yourself to their place | Usually nothing upfront | Takes up their space, harder to retrieve if plans change, awkward if they also move out |
| Take everything home by train | You carry it to Bristol Temple Meads | Taxi to station plus possible second train fare | Volume limited by what you can carry; items still left behind anyway |
How to book Easter break storage in Bristol with UniMove
Start at studentsummerstorage.com/get-a-quote. You will be asked for your Bristol postcode, a count of boxes and larger items, your preferred collection date, and your expected return date. UniMove sends a confirmed price and the booking is secured once you accept.
Collection slots for late March fill from February onward. If your last teaching day is a Friday in late March, booking by early February gives you the widest choice of available dates. Payment is taken when the booking is confirmed rather than on the day of collection.
On collection day a UniMove team arrives within the agreed window. Every item collected is listed on a receipt which you keep. The same list is checked again at delivery. If you need to change your return date, email smile@unimove.org as early as possible: Bristol delivery routes are scheduled in advance and date changes requested close to the original slot may not always be possible.
Frequently asked questions: Easter break storage in Bristol
How early should I book Easter break storage in Bristol?
Book at least two weeks before your preferred collection date. Late March is the busiest period, as most Bristol students finish the spring term at roughly the same time. Booking in February means you have the widest choice of collection slots and are less likely to find your preferred date already full.
Do you collect from UWE Frenchay campus as well as city-centre student houses?
Yes. UniMove collects from addresses across Bristol, including Fishponds, Stapleton, and Horfield close to Frenchay campus, as well as Clifton, Redland, Cotham, and Stokes Croft where most University of Bristol students live. Bower Ashton, Bedminster, and Southville are also within the collection area.
Can I store a bicycle as part of my Easter booking?
Yes, bicycles are accepted. Note the bicycle in your quote request and UniMove will account for it in the collection. Bikes should have the pedals removed if possible and handlebars turned to reduce the width. There is no additional paperwork beyond the standard item receipt issued on the day of collection.
What if I want to return my belongings earlier than planned?
Contact smile@unimove.org to change your delivery date. UniMove schedules Bristol delivery routes on a rolling basis, so the earlier you ask for a date change the more likely a slot is available on the new date. Changes made fewer than five working days before the original delivery date may not always be possible.
Is Easter storage cheaper than summer storage?
The price depends on volume, not the time of year, so a four-box Easter booking costs the same as a four-box summer booking for the same duration. Easter bookings are usually three to five weeks, while summer bookings tend to be ten to fourteen weeks. A longer storage period costs more in total but the rate per week is consistent.
Do I need to be present at my Bristol address for collection and delivery?
You need to be present for collection so you can hand over the items and sign the receipt. For delivery you can arrange for a housemate or keyholder to be there if you haven’t yet returned to Bristol. Agree this with your housemate and let UniMove know in advance so the team can hand the items to the right person.