LOGAN (AP) — Life in college student housing is a riot — when you're a 20-year-old college student with little more to your name than a couple of posters, a TV set and one plastic cereal bowl. But what if you're over 60 and used to living in a whole house full of your stuff? How do you downgrade?
For the summer citizens who migrate to Logan for several months each summer to escape the blistering Arizona heat, this is the challenge they face: leaving behind comfortable, coordinated homes for bare white walls, naked mattresses, curtain-less windows and one (usually) sagging couch.
"It's like camping out," said Jack Parkinson of Sun City, Ariz., who has been coming to Logan for three years with his wife, Bettye.
Sure, it's cleaner, and you've got indoor plumbing, a refrigerator and, if you live in Oakridge Apartments like the Parkinsons, access to a swimming pool, but there are a lot of the comforts of home that summer citizens go without. Opting to make their trips to and from Logan as simple and manageable as possible, most only bring their can't-live-without necessities, which basically amount to clothes and golf clubs. Everything else they pick up while they're here. "Everything else," however, can end up being more than you'd expect.
"It takes quite a bit of things," Jack said, to make a place livable.
Items like coffee pots and dishes and bedding are simply must-haves. And the Parkinsons have learned that they can be had for pretty cheap.
"We go to D.I. and dollar stores," Bettye said.
"And the USU surplus," Jack added.
But even with all the must-haves, a student apartment can still be pretty barren. Complexes do what they can to make them summer-citizen ready. Oakridge will put together two twin beds to make one king-size bed in the "master bedroom," move the extra two beds into one bedroom to make a guest room and put the desks into the third bedroom to create an office. But that still leaves blank walls and little color.
The Parkinsons home up their place with wall hangings, posters created by their artist son, pictures of grandkids and nature photos Bettye took a digital photography class at Utah State University. Jack has hung a large world map in the office and a framed poster of a Zion National Park-like rock formation that he found at the USU surplus in the living room. They have matching bedding on the two beds in the guest bedroom, tablecloths on end tables and night stands, place mats and even cloth napkins with coordinating napkin holders.
Betty says these little touches are absolutely necessary for her.
"I couldn't live here without it," she said. "You have to make it feel a little like home, even if it's not perfect."
But, obviously, they don't want to take all their new furnishings back to Sun City West with them. And herein lies the birthplace of several businesses that cater to this narrow-but-needy demographic.
There are several groups who will pick up boxes of summer home furnishings and store them all winter. They maintain contact with the summer citizens, who let them know when they'll be returning to Logan, and they drop the boxes off back at the summer apartment. All the summer citizens have to do is pack and unpack.
Amy Murdock saw this need while she was working in housing and food services at USU about five years ago. She and her husband, Brett, started providing the service for summer citizens and have continued to do so since moving to Dubois, Idaho.
"We spend one day (in Logan) returning them and one day picking them up," she said.
They charge $85 for five to eight boxes and $10 for each additional box. With a bit of hired help and partners in Cache Valley, Murdock says it's not difficult to keep things organized and running smoothly.
They currently provide the service for more than 70 households, and Murdock says it grows every year. They're actually thinking about expanding to the summer citizens who set up camp at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg every summer.
The apartment complexes also generally seem to appreciate the summer citizens' business.
"They're very particular about their apartments, which helps us keep good tabs on the apartments," Oakridge assistant manager Ian Bates said. "They're nice to have around."
But they're certainly a switch from Oakridge's school-year residents.
"They go to bed a lot earlier, that's for sure," Bates said.