Storage when studying abroad

The offer has come, the visa is in progress, and the flight is in August. Between now and then a bedroom in Saigon has to be reduced to two suitcases, and everything that does not fit has to be somewhere for the length of a degree. This is the page for doing that once, calmly, with the arithmetic for a multi-year plan and the portal set up so your family can reach the things you left.

Updated September 2026

The piles

The test for the storage pile is the one we use everywhere: would you buy it again when you are back? A degree abroad changes people, and the thing that seems essential at twenty is often not wanted at twenty-four. So be strict. The things that survive the test are usually few and specific: an instrument, camera equipment, a shelf of books, an archive of school and family papers, a small amount of furniture that was a gift. For most students that is a Small plan; for someone leaving a whole flat behind rather than a room in the family home, a Medium.

The arithmetic for years

Collection is paid once, from 3,300,000 VND for a Small one way, or 5,100,000 VND with the final return included. Against those figures, set what the pile is worth to replace and, more honestly, what the room is worth to the family for four years. A bedroom in a Saigon family home that becomes a study, a nursery or a room to rent is worth more than the plan. The plan is how the room is given back without the things being lost.

Setting the plan up for family

The plan is booked in your name and paid by card from anywhere, but the practical access belongs to whoever is in the city. Invite a parent or sibling to the plan as a team member. With the viewer role they see the catalogue and every photograph; with the orderer role they can request a delivery of a single item to the family address, which is how the winter coat you did not think you would need gets to you by post in your first November, and how the sister who wants the guitar gets it without you flying home. Everything they do appears in the movement history, so you can see what has left and what remains.

Preparing things for years, not months

1. Wash and dry every textile completely. Mould in the first wet season is the one thing that ruins a long stay, and it starts in a damp collar.
2. Books and paper upright, in the air-conditioned section. Two to four years in the standard section is fine for furniture and kitchenware; it is long for paper in this climate.
3. Instruments in cases, strings loosened, in the air-conditioned section. Cameras and lenses the same, with silica gel in the case.
4. Electronics with batteries removed where they can be, in the air-conditioned section. A laptop or phone left for years should be charged to about half before it goes.
5. Scan the documents you are leaving. The originals go in one box, named clearly in the portal, in the air-conditioned section; the scans go in your cloud storage.
6. Name things for your future self, not your present one. "Box 3" means nothing in three years; "school archive, years 10 to 12" does.

Coming back, or not

The degree ends and one of three things happens. You come back to Saigon and the plan is returned to your new address on one delivery, the next day at the earliest, with the crew carrying it in. You come back to a different city and the plan is delivered to family, who send it on, or you collect it on a visit. Or you do not come back, and the plan is worked through from the portal: a few items delivered to family, a few to friends, the rest disposed of on request, one line at a time, until the plan is empty and closes. All three are normal, and none needs a decision now.

Frequently asked