How To Choose The Best Storage Unit For You

I feel like I’ve been banging on about my move for ages (and I probably have) so apologies about that but I want to document as much as I possibly can about the process and today I’m here to talk about storage units and how to choose the best storage unit for you. We have A LOT of stuff and while we’ve sold some furniture, thrown or given a lot of stuff away, and will be taking quite a bit to my parents with us we still have enough that we need to get a storage unit. There’s so much to think about when it comes to storage units but how do you know which one is best for you? Here are some tips on how to choose the best storage unit for you.

Choosing a storage unit- How much space do you need?

It can be really hard to visualise how much space you need when you look online, how do you whether you need 50 square feet or 100 square feet? The most important thing is to know how much you want to store, everything might not be packed away but have an idea. For example, we knew it would be a bed and wardrobe flat packed, a king-size mattress, a large L shape sofa, a shoe rack unit, and a dozen or so boxes, but knowing this we had an idea in our head of what we wanted. The next thing to do is actually go and visit a few storage units, a 50 square foot unit will pretty much be the same everywhere you go but you’ll be surprised of the sizes when you go and visit.

Find out if the storage unit offers insurance

Insurance is so important as most units won’t guarantee your items if anything was to happen so you will need to look into some. Some units offer a certain value of insurance as standard whereas others you need to purchase this depending on the value of your items. It’s worth taking this into account as the unit price might seem cheaper in one place but once you’ve added in insurance it might push it over. The best thing to do with this makes a note as you’re putting items aside/ packing them to get an idea of how much you need to help you choose the best storage unit for you.

Find out if the storage unit offers longer-term discounts

This won’t be as relevant if you know you’ll only need storage for a month or two, but if like us you know you’ll need it longer term (around 12 months for us) it’s worth calling or going into your shortlist storage units and enquiring whether they have any discounts for long term storage. Storage units are businesses as they’d rather guarantee a unit will be filled by giving you a slightly cheaper deal than risk it going empty. Most people don’t know for sure how long you’ll be there so try and be realistic. We know that we want to save for a year so that’s our minimum, it could go a bit over this but we can’t guarantee that as we don’t know the circumstances.

Think ahead of the starting discounts

Starting discounts are there to entice you in and offer you great prices for the first 4-8 weeks but think ahead of this as what might seem great for the first 2 months might end up being more expensive in the long run. We’ve decided who we’re going for and the first 8 weeks is more expensive than a competitor but over a 12 month period it works out much cheaper. Of course, if you only need a unit for 8 weeks then go wild with the starting discounts, you’ll find so many great ones out there and choose the best storage unit for you this way.

What do you need from your storage unit? Check opening hours and ease of access

Depending on your needs for a storage unit will depend on what’s important to you when it comes to opening hours. We know what’s going in our unit pretty much won’t be touched by us until we move so having extended opening hours wasn’t important to us, whereas if you’re using it for business stuff or things you may need to get on a weekly/ monthly basis make sure you know they’ll be open when you need it. Easy access is very important for us because we have some large furniture (the sofa) which needs a certain amount of room to be moved in so having a storage unit you could drive right up to, or a lift you could drive right up to was super important. Thinking about this helped us to eliminate some of the competition.

Does the storage unit have 24/7 security?

We won’t be putting any super high-value or important items in our unit as we’re lucky enough to have my nan’s and parents to put those bits such as tech, jewellery, etc but this doesn’t mean security isn’t important. I didn’t like the idea of having my items in a unit with just a lock to protect it and not having 24/7 security so this was on my must list and helped us to narrow down the unit best for us.

Have you ever used a storage unit?

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