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    What Should You Keep in Storage?

    By The reallymoving Team Updated 15th Mar, 2024

    Using a self-storage facility when moving house, or long term, can help you declutter your home but hold onto items that are important to you. But knowing what to put in to make the best use of the space is key.

    What Should You Keep in Storage?

    Moving house can open your eyes to all the things you have in your home. Some things you need, some have sentimental value, and some things are just clutter. Moving presents a good opportunity to purge yourself of belongings you don’t need anymore.

    However, even after clearing your clutter, you may find that you have too much stuff to transport to your new home. This is when self-storage units, come in handy. Offering a place to store possessions either temporarily or long term.

    But a storage unit has only so much space, so it’s helpful to prioritise what you’re going to keep there.

    Furniture

    Furniture is of course one of the bulkiest things you can put in a storage unit, and can take up a considerable amount of its space. But bear in mind that it will also take up space on a moving van. So, if you want maximum space on moving day, it can be helpful to free yourself of some furniture.

    You’ll want to decide what furniture you do and don’t need immediately after moving into your new home, in order to decide what to put in storage. For example, you will likely need a bed straight away, but arden furniture in particular is non-essential (depending on the time of year) and good for storage.

    Furniture that can be broken down can be useful for maximising space in your storage unit. You could also think about including items within the furniture you’re storing, for example a chest of drawers can go in, with some small items that you are happy to store kept in its drawers.

    Antiques and heirlooms

    You may have possessions that were given to you or inherited from close family and friends. Perhaps some Victorian china, or a landscape painted by a relative. Things that might have a lot of sentimental value, but don’t fit naturally in your home, either due to space or style.

    Items like this are perfect candidates to go into storageYou may be worried about the safety of items with this much sentimental value being kept in self-storage. That is why it’s very important to compare and choose a local storage facility that has satisfactory security measures in place and keeps the units in a good condition. It’s also why insurance is so important.

    Documents

    Many of us have at least a handful of files and documents lying around the home that we never look at, but need to keep just in case. This can be things like warranties for electrical goods, financial and employment records, even medical forms that you’re keeping just in case. Getting these into a storage unit and out of the way can help you focus on the stuff you really need to have with you in your new home.  

    Once again, you should make sure that the facility you are using has security measures and insurance in place when you are keeping documents there. But as theft or damage is never 100% avoidable, you must assess each document to see how important it is that you keep it with you, for example passports and other forms of identification are better off being close to you.

    Collections

    Its very human to enjoy collecting, in fact, according to The Royal Mint, over half of all Brits enjoy collecting certain items. This may be stamps, toys, collector’s edition books, coins or almost anything else. If you are one of those people with a collection, boxing and transporting it all on moving day may take up a considerable about of time.

    If you’re downsizing, storage can also be a good long-term way of making sure your collection is kept from cluttering up your home, without having to dispose of it and negate all those years you spent collecting.

    Seasonal items

    Christmas comes but once a year, and so do many other holidays and celebrations. Most of us have ornaments and decorations that we bring out every year for the holidays, but are hidden away for the rest of the year. When you have an attic or cupboard to keep them in you can ignore them, but when you’re moving house, you’ll realise how much space they are going to take up.

    These kinds of seasonal items are ideal for self-storage as they are designed to be unnecessary for great periods of time. Its is also growing increasingly important for people not to throw out ornaments and decorations after just 1 or 2 years, in the interest of sustainability and environmentalism. Keeping them in a storage facility means they can be out of your mind when moving and even long term, but you won’t have to waste money and space buying all new items when the season/holiday rolls around again.

    What NOT to store!

    As much as you can keep in a storage facility, there are of course some things which you will not be allowed to keep in most UK storage facilities.

    Perhaps the most evident is the storage of any items that have a changeable or volatile nature. Items that you can’t just leave alone for long periods of time without any repercussions. This includes:
    • Food
    • Flammable, combustible, or explosive items
    • Radioactive material
    • Firearms and weapons
    • Live animals and plants
    • Human beings (yes people have tried)
    One prohibited item you may be surprised to hear about is tyres. Because of their material, tyres are very expensive to dispose of. Some people have taken to leaving tyres behind when vacating their storage facilities, meaning the storage company had to waste money disposing of them. Because of this, most UK storage facilities will no longer allow you to store them.

    As you may expect, stolen or illegal items are not permitted at storage facilities.

    You also can’t keep any cash or deposit boxes in storage, for security and insurance reasons.
     
     A storage unit can make moving day easier – whether you’re moving into rented accommodation or staying with a friend in between move dates, or you just want to clear your clutter ahead of time. Many movers downsizing to smaller properties find that a storage unit can stop them from having to throw away items they aren’t ready to let go of yet, especially if the move is due to a separation or a bereavement.

    A storage unit can make life easier and buy you some precious time to sort through your belongings.

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