Service
Student Removals across Dorset, Somerset & Wiltshire
A student move is one room, not one house, and it does not fit either end of the usual removals market. A car boot will not take it and a full house removal is more than you need. Marley Moves runs these as a small van and a two-person crew, at a fixed price agreed in writing before the day, across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire and back up the country when term ends. Third-floor rooms with no lift, twenty-minute loading windows outside halls and a September fortnight when everyone is moving at once are the normal conditions rather than the awkward exceptions.
Get a written quote within the hour
5.0 ★★★★★ Google rating · Family-run · Fully insured · Or call 01747 637070
What's included
What a student move includes
One room, priced as one room
A small van and a two-person crew, quoted on what you actually have rather than on a minimum house-move charge.
Halls, house shares and top floors
Stairs with no lift, narrow landings and short loading windows outside halls. Tell us at booking and we send the crew for it.
Storage between terms
We collect at the end of term, keep everything in a container at our own site over the summer and deliver it wherever you are living next.
Boxes and materials
Proper boxes, tape and paper dropped off before the day, so a term's worth of belongings is not going into carrier bags.
A fixed price, not a running meter
One figure agreed in writing beforehand. If the job takes longer than we judged, that is our problem rather than an extra line on the invoice.
Term dates and tight windows
The September and late June weeks fill from both ends. Book the slot early and tell us if the date is still moving.
Who it's for
Who books a student move
- First years moving into halls for the start of a course
- Second and third years moving into a house share
- Anyone shifting one room's worth rather than a whole house
- Parents who would rather send one van than do three car trips
- Postgrads and researchers relocating for a placement
- Students needing things kept safe between one term and the next
What a student move actually involves
The volume is small and everything else about it is awkward. Halls hand out loading slots measured in minutes and enforce them, house shares tend to be terraced with nowhere to park, and the room is rarely on the ground floor. Add a mattress, a desk lamp, six months of kitchen equipment and more books than anybody expects, and it is a job that rewards turning up with the right van and two people who have done it before. We quote on the room and the access rather than on a template, which is why a top-floor room in a Bath terrace and a ground-floor room off a car park do not cost the same.
Storage between terms, without you lifting anything
The summer gap is the part most students get caught by. A tenancy ends in June, the next one starts in September, and three months of belongings have to live somewhere that is not a parent's spare room two hundred miles away. We collect from your room, load into a container at our own site and bring it back when the new place is ready. It is worth knowing that the container is not somewhere you can drop in on, so anything you need over the holiday has to come out before it is sealed. That is the trade for it being less hassle than a unit you have to visit and load yourself.
Booking around term dates
Two fortnights a year account for most of this work, the September intake and the end of the summer term, and in those weeks the diary fills from both ends at once. If your dates are firm, book early and it is straightforward. If they are not firm yet, book anyway and tell us they might move, because shifting a date we already hold is far easier than finding a new one in the same week. Outside those two windows there is usually plenty of room at a week's notice.
Free fixed quote
Like the sound of us?
We send every quote back within the hour. It is usually fixed straight away; if a survey is needed, we confirm the fixed price afterwards. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.
How it works
How a student move runs
- 01
Tell us the room
Roughly what you have, which floor it is on and whether a van can get near the door. Photos on WhatsApp are usually enough.
- 02
Fixed written quote
One price in writing within the hour, covering the van, the crew and the mileage. No hourly rate and no call-out fee.
- 03
Boxes before the day
Materials dropped off in advance if you want them, so packing happens across a few evenings rather than in one panic.
- 04
Loaded and delivered
In and out inside the loading window, and either straight to the new address or into storage until you need it back.
Frequent questions
What students and parents ask us
That is most of the student work we do. One room of belongings is too much for a car boot and nowhere near a full house move, so it goes on a small van with a two-person crew and takes a couple of hours rather than a day. You get a fixed written price for it, the same as any other job.
Yes. We collect from your room, put everything into a container at our own site and bring it back to wherever you are living next term. The container is not somewhere you visit, so pack it as though you will not see it again until delivery day, and keep anything you need over the holiday out of it.
No, but tell us when you book so we send the right crew. Stairs are a normal part of student moves and they change how long the job takes rather than whether we will do it. Halls often have loading restrictions and short parking windows too, which is worth mentioning at the same time.
As early as you can for the September and late June weeks, because everybody moves in the same fortnight and the diary fills from both ends. Outside those two windows a week or so is usually plenty. If your dates are still uncertain, book the slot and tell us, because moving a date is easier than finding one.
Yes, that is common. Whoever is paying gets the written quote and the invoice, and we take the move details from whoever is actually there on the day. Just make sure we have a mobile number for the person who will meet the crew.
Further reading
Related services
You might also need
Council & Housing Association Moves
Resident decants, managed moves, packing, storage and relocations
Marley Moves provides council and housing association removals, resident decants and managed moves across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. We move residents and can quote for housing teams and supported-housing providers on temporary decants during repairs or refurbishment, permanent transfers, rightsizing and downsizing, moves between tenancies and temporary accommodation, plus packing and storage where needed. From our Shaftesbury base we cover North Dorset, South Somerset and south and west Wiltshire, with regular routes through Gillingham, Sherborne, Yeovil, Warminster, Salisbury, Dorchester, Bournemouth and Poole. We quote one-off resident moves directly and can work with purchase orders. Every move is privately arranged and set out in a written scope.
Learn more →Packing
Full or part, proper materials, careful crew
Marley Moves provides full and part packing services across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, using a methodical room-by-room approach and appropriate protective materials. Crockery and ornaments are wrapped carefully, boxes are labelled by room, and furniture is protected for the journey. Many customers ask us to handle the kitchen, glassware and other fragile items while they pack books, clothes and bedding themselves. Full packing is available when time is tight or when a home contains a larger volume of fragile, antique or specialist items. Packing is quoted clearly as part of, or alongside, the removal.
Learn more →House Clearances
Sensitive, licensed, properly insured
Marley Moves provides sensitive house clearances across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire for probate, downsizing, end-of-tenancy, post-bereavement and hoarder-property situations. We agree what must be kept before work begins, separate usable items for donation where appropriate, recycle what we can and use licensed disposal routes for genuine waste. Probate and estate clearances are planned around the executor’s or solicitor’s timetable, with photographs and family-kept items handled carefully. Where a visit is useful, we inspect the property before quoting so the written price reflects the access, volume and agreed scope. Many clearances are completed in a day; larger properties can take longer.
Learn more →Areas we cover
Local to your move?
Free fixed quote
Like the sound of us?
We send every quote back within the hour. It is usually fixed straight away; if a survey is needed, we confirm the fixed price afterwards. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.