By Vince Mancuso, Storage.com
Storage.com is your number one ally when moving to a new home. We’re here to provide you with useful moving tips and hacks, or additional storage whenever necessary.
Are you relocating before you have a new home lined up? It’s not uncommon to need a temporary place to store your household goods while you complete the details of a move, including starting a new job, selling your old home, finding a new home, or waiting for a new lease to start.
Self storage is the answer when you find yourself between homes while relocating. Rent a storage unit to store your possessions until you can move into your new home.
How to Plan Storage When Relocating
Once you know your moving date, you can search for a storage facility with a suitable unit and reserve it for your moving date.
Finding a Storage Facility: Rather than calling all over to track down storage facilities where you’re moving, use our website to search for available storage in any location in the U.S. and reserve a unit online in minutes!
Selecting a Move-In Date: It might seem convenient to move in on the weekend when you don’t have work, but it’s also convenient for everyone else. If possible, pick a weekday when the facility will be relatively empty so you won’t be tripping over other tenants.
Helpful Storage Features When Moving
Planning self storage for moving is a matter of finding the right unit size and much more. Look for these key storage features:
Unit Size: Are you relocating from an apartment? If so, chances are a 10×15 storage unit will be enough space to hold all of your stuff. Capable of holding the contents of three bedrooms, it can handle furniture, boxes, and any appliances you may be moving. For those relocating from a house, depending on the size, you’ll likely want to find a 10×20 or a 10×30 storage unit. For more information, use our unit size guide to determine how large of a unit you may need.
Flexible Lease: Hopefully your transition won’t last long, and you can find the ideal new home fairly quickly. Look for a storage facility that will give you a flexible, short-term lease on a weekly or monthly basis so that you don’t have to pay for storage longer than you need it.
Drive-Up Access: Does the storage facility you’re looking at have wide-drive aisles so your moving truck or trailer can fit? Does your storage unit have drive-up access for easy loading and unloading? The wide-drive aisles and drive-up access features makes your moving experience all the easier, so be sure to use these storage amenities during your relocation.
Climate Control: If you’re going to be moving to a hot and humid climate in the summer, find a storage facility that offers climate control. This feature maintains moderate temperature and humidity levels in your storage unit. It’s important to protect sensitive items, like wood furniture, electronics, books, and more, that may warp or become damaged during their stay in a muggy and overheated storage unit.
Facility Security: Lastly, and most importantly, find a storage facility with excellent security features so you’ll know your things are safe while in storage. While basic security such as gated access is great, be sure to look for more advanced amenities like video surveillance, onsite management, and alarmed units, especially if you’re unfamiliar with neighborhoods in your new locale.
Moving into a Storage Unit
Just like packing up boxes at home, how you go about packing your storage unit can also save you work and energy later on. Channeling your inner Tetris star, start by placing your largest items—couches, beds, tables, and appliances—toward the back of the unit. You won’t be needing these items while they’re in storage, so it makes sense to keep them out of the way.
At the same time, place the items you may need to get to closer to the door of your unit, like additional clothes or documents you may be storing. If space allows, it will also pay to leave an aisle in the center of your belongings, as it will make it easier access other items that are stored away.
Once all of your things are safely stowed away, you’ve got one less thing to worry about, meaning you can focus your attention on finding your new home! When you do find your new home, your storage unit will have everything ready and waiting to be loaded back up for its final destination.
FIND SELF STORAGE NEAR YOU
