How Temporary Storage Works in a PPM Move: SIT, the 90-Day Clock, and the Paperwork

The scenario is ordinary: your household goods are packed, the truck is loaded, and the house at the new duty station is not ready. Closing delayed, housing waitlist, orders changed mid-move. In a government-arranged move, storage in transit is handled for you. In a PPM, you arrange it yourself, pay for it yourself, and then get reimbursed, up to 90 days of it, under a specific set of rules that are worth knowing before you sign a storage contract.

Here is how temporary storage works in a PPM move. SIT, storage in transit, is authorized when circumstances prevent direct delivery of your household goods to your residence. That word, circumstances, matters. SIT is not an automatic entitlement and it is not free extra storage for convenience. It is contingent on necessity: something has to actually prevent the delivery. A delayed closing counts. Wanting to renovate before you move in is the kind of case you should clear with your transportation office before assuming it counts.

How temporary storage works: the 90-day clock

You are authorized up to 90 days of temporary storage, not to exceed the government constructed cost, which is the amount the government would have paid to move you. You pick the facility, and it has to be a commercial storage facility used by the general public to store personal property, a regular self-storage place, not your buddy's garage and not a container parked on your cousin's land. Portable storage containers from companies like PODS count when they function as storage; the requirement is commercial, documented, and open to the general public.

You pay the facility directly and coordinate everything yourself. Then you claim reimbursement, and the payment is calculated at the applicable government rate schedule with your transportation office's approval. Keep every weight ticket and every storage receipt and contract. The reimbursement math runs on documentation, and storage without receipts is storage you paid for twice.

SIT vs NTS: the expensive confusion

The mix-up that costs people real money is SIT versus NTS, non-temporary storage. SIT is temporary storage during a move: up to 90 days, extendable toward 180 in some cases, located at origin, in transit, or destination. NTS is long-term storage instead of shipping your goods at all, typically for the length of a tour, and it draws from the same total weight allowance as everything else you ship. They can convert into each other if your orders change, but they are different entitlements with different clocks. If you need your goods held for a year while you are stationed overseas, that is NTS, not SIT, and claiming it as SIT is how claims get denied.

A few practical notes from the reimbursement side. First, the weight allowance still applies. Your PPM payout is built on certified weight, so get empty and full weight tickets for the truck or for each container, including the ones going into storage. Second, the clock is real. Ninety days runs out, and storage beyond the authorized period becomes your bill. If your housing situation is genuinely uncertain, talk to your transportation office early about extensions rather than hoping the days stretch. Third, insurance is on you in a PPM in a way it is not in a government move. Check that your policy covers household goods while stored, because the storage facility's coverage, if it has any, will not match what is in the unit.

Run the numbers through the PPM calculator on this site before you commit to the storage plan. The calculator works from the current DoD rate tables, and seeing the reimbursement ceiling next to the storage facility's monthly rate tells you quickly whether 90 days of storage still leaves the move profitable. That is the question that matters: not whether storage is authorized, but whether the whole move still pays after it.

One thing I will leave open: the necessity standard is applied by humans at transportation offices, and humans vary. Two offices can read the same delayed-closing situation differently. When in doubt, get the answer in writing before the goods go into the unit, not after the claim comes back short.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: How Long Does PPM Reimbursement Take? The Timeline and What Slows It Down · What Receipts Do You Need for a PPM Move? · Partial PPM Move: Keep the Government Movers and Still Get Paid