In the river Houses, where rumors of flooding were rampant over the summer due to unusually heavy rainfall, House storage was relatively safe.

"At Eliot House, we kept stuff up on pallets," Larson said. "We had a little bit of water, but we made it through."

Houses usually end up with unclaimed boxes and furniture after the set number of days for students to gather their belongings.

One condition of House storage is that all unclaimed boxes and items become College property after seven days following registration. The College can then decide if it wants to use, sell or throw out the left-overs physics notes and lampshades.

Most House superintendents, however, givestudents another chance to claim their propertybefore it gets to the College.

"We have five or 10 boxes left over," MatherHouse Superintendent Miguel Casillas said. "I'llcall the students to let them know."

In Eliot, Larson said most leftovers wereclaimed, but that he is willing to store remainingitems in the short-term.

"I'll hold on to them for a while," he said.

Those unsure about using House storage nextsummer should investigate the options.

For House storage, College policy dictates thatstudents are allowed to store up to six boxes ofone by one by two-foot size. In addition,oversized items such as couches, lamps and chairscan be stored to an unspecified amount.

Bob Phinney, manager of Cambridge Self Storage,445 Concord Ave., said he often gets 35 to 40students storing items over the summer.

"I'm usually pretty full, though," Phinneysaid.

Located near Fresh Pond, the storage companyoffers as its smallest unit a four by five byeight-foot room at $75 per month.

At The Storage Depot, 264 Monsignor O'BrienHighway, manager Martin Minerva said many requestsarrived last season for student storage--so manythat they had to refer many to a sister store inQuincy.

"We had about 30 to 40 students and we didn'thave a lot of space open," Minerva said.

The Storage Depot, near CambridgesideGalleria, rents a four by five by eight-foot spacefor $67.50 per month.

The Metropolitan Moving and StorageCorporation, 134 Massachusetts Ave., near KendallSquare, rents a five by seven by 10-foot room for$55 per month with a four month minimum.

"We get a fair amount (of students)," ownerNeil Mizner said. "It's not our primary business,but we do get a surge in the summer.