College & Dorm Move Guide: Crate Rental for KU, UMKC, Rockhurst, JCCC & More

If you’re a parent helping a college student move in or out, the August dorm rush is a special kind of chaos.

Hundreds of families converging on the same parking lots, freight elevators on tight rotations, RAs trying to keep things moving, and a packed move-in day window that you must fit your stuff into. The Kansas City metro is home to a dozen colleges and universities with student housing, and we deliver crate rentals to all of them. Here’s what works for dorm and college moves.

What you need for a typical dorm move

A standard double-occupancy college dorm room (UMKC, Rockhurst, William Jewell, MNU, Park University) packs into roughly 8–12 crates per student.

A single dorm room or apartment-style college housing (JCCC, KU Edwards graduate housing) is closer to 15–20 crates.

Our Studio package (20 crates, 1 dolly, $89/week) fits most dorm moves. For a fully-loaded single dorm room with bedding, clothes, mini-fridge, microwave, and personal items, the studio package covers it with room to spare.

Why crate rental works for college moves

Semester timing matches rental periods. Dorm move-in is a 2–3 day window in mid-August.

Move-out is a similar window in early May.

Standard 1-week or 2-week crate rentals fit both ends of the academic year exactly.

Sturdy enough for textbooks and electronics. College packing includes laptops, monitors, gaming systems, textbooks, and other dense items that destroy cheap cardboard. Plastic crates handle these without complaint.

Easy to inventory across roommate situations. When two students share a 12x15 dorm room, knowing whose stuff is whose matters. Labeled crates make it obvious; mixed cardboard piles don’t.

No storage between semesters. Many students who used boxes during freshman move-in then spend the next year storing flattened cardboard somewhere, or losing them in the rush of finals and graduation. Crates go back to us at the end of the rental — nothing to store.

Apartment elevators at college dorms. Many dorms (UMKC’s residential complex, Rockhurst’s Massman Hall, William Jewell’s residence halls) have freight elevators with tight move-in windows. Crates on dollies clear those windows faster than cardboard.

KC-area colleges we deliver to

University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) — Volker Campus and Health Sciences Campus.

Dorms include Johnson Hall, Oak Place, Hospital Hill Apartments.

Delivery to either campus is free; we coordinate around move-in week. Rockhurst University — Massman Hall, Corcoran Hall, and the Townhouses. Campus parking is tight during move-in; we typically deliver the day before move-in day to give students time to organize. KU Edwards Campus (Overland Park) — Graduate and continuing education campus with apartment-style housing. Same delivery as Overland Park (small fee). Park University (Parkville) — Multiple residence halls and apartment options. Delivery to Parkville is a small fee but we deliver routinely. William Jewell College (Liberty) — Residence halls on the historic Liberty campus. Delivery to Liberty is a small fee. MidAmerica Nazarene University (MNU) (Olathe) — Mabee Hall, Christy Suites, Snow Hall. Delivery same as Olathe (small fee). Johnson County Community College (JCCC) (Overland Park) — Limited on-campus housing but a large commuter and apartment-living student population. Delivery throughout JoCo same as Overland Park. Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) — Smaller residential community near the Plaza. We deliver to the Plaza area for free. KCK Community College — Small residential program. Delivery to KCK same as the KCK service area. Avila University — Residential campus in south KCMO. Delivery free if in the Kansas City metro, small fee otherwise. We also routinely deliver to off-campus student housing — apartments around UMKC (47th & Troost area), Rockhurst (Brookside), KU Med graduate housing, and the apartment complexes that cluster near every college.

Move-in day timeline

A typical college move-in day:

• Day before move-in: Crates delivered to your home or hotel.

Pack overnight.

• Move-in day morning: Arrive at the dorm/apartment with packed crates in the car.

Roll crates up on dollies (we include them) for the elevator or stairs.

• Inside the room: Open crates, unpack onto closet/dresser/desk.

Stack empty crates against the wall.

• End of move-in day: Empty crates ready for pickup.

Schedule pickup for the following morning or at your convenience within the rental period.

The whole sequence — packing the night before through unpacking — fits in a standard 1-week rental easily.

Move-out day timeline

Move-out at the end of the semester is even simpler because the gear is already in the room:

• Day before move-out: Crates delivered to the dorm/apartment.

Start packing.

• Move-out day: Final pack, load car, drive home or to summer storage.
• Pickup: We retrieve the empty crates the next day at your home address (or directly from the dorm if needed).

Standard 1-week rental fits this comfortably.

Most students rent for 1 week at $89.

Storage between semesters

Some KC colleges offer summer storage (UMKC, Rockhurst) at a cost.

Some don’t.

If you’re storing student belongings yourself over the summer, crates are NOT the best long-term storage solution — they’re rental-priced per week and would be expensive for 3+ months. For summer storage:

• Take items home and bring back in

August

• Rent a small self-storage unit ($30–$80/month) for items staying in KC
• Friends’ garages or basements if you have a network

For the move into and out of summer storage, crate rental works great — short rental, fast transport, return to us.

What parents should pack for kids

Beyond the obvious (clothes, bedding, electronics), parents tend to under-pack a few things first-year students need:

• A small toolkit — screwdriver, hammer, pliers, scissors.

For furniture assembly and small fixes.

• Cleaning supplies — paper towels, all-purpose spray, sponges.

Dorm rooms get gross.

• A first-aid kit and basic medications — bandages, ibuprofen, allergy meds, thermometer.
• An extension cord or power strip — dorm outlets are scarce.
• Stick-on hooks (Command strips) — for hanging things on walls without damage.
• An over-the-door mirror — most dorm closets don’t have one.
• Storage cubes or under-bed bins — small dorm rooms benefit from extra organization.

Most of these fit into one crate along with cleaning supplies.

Getting started

For dorm and college moves in the KC metro, see our packages — Studio package fits most moves.

For double-room shares (two students moving in together), consider the 1 Bedroom package (30 crates) for shared sizing.

Request a quote.

Mention which college and we’ll coordinate around move-in week scheduling.