Self-storage units are the stuff of urban hinterlands; ever time you take a bus down an arterial A-road or through a slew of industrial estates, you’ll see the signs for myriad storage and logistics businesses, quietly plying an essential trade. Many of us, businesses and individuals alike, go a long while without ever heeding their existence – but when you need storage, you need storage.

As someone who has never hired storage space before, you might be a bit confused by the ins and outs of procuring such space. Here, you’ll find a basic guide to figuring out what exactly you need, as well as how to configure things for the long term.

Understanding Your Storage Needs
First, let’s look at the essential question: why do you need storage in the first place? You might be facilitating a house move, and in dire need of a stopgap in the event of a gap between key handovers; you might be a fast-scaling business in dire need of extra space for inventory; you might simply be an avid collector of things arcane and expensive, in dire need of spillover space to continue your collection in.

Whichever better describes your own individual needs, you’ll need to make something of an inventory for what you intend to store. This inventory serves as useful for two reasons: first, you’ll get a rough idea of how much space you’ll need for your things, and second, you’ll have a handy contents list to check over whenever you visit or empty the space in the future.

This is the point at which you start canvassing for locations, too. After all, your storage needs to be accessible enough, dependent on your needs. As an international business operating in Winchester, the storage units in Eastleigh has to offer would be more viable than in Southampton – not in the least for the proximity of the airport.

Measuring and Visualising Space
The next question, then, is one of size. How much space do you really need? Self-storage companies typically offer spaces in regular sizes, measured in square feet. The smallest of these tend to be 25sqft locker rooms in larger warehouses, moving up in regular intervals. A 5x5ft room would be roughly the equivalent of your en-suite bathroom.

Visualising space is difficult if you aren’t storing uniform boxes and pallets on behalf of a business. As such, you might benefit from using an online calculator or floor plan app to imagine the size against those of your bulkier items.

Considering Future Growth and Flexibility
As a rule of thumb, it’s usually smart to choose a slightly larger unit than you currently need, in you’re your belongings balloon or your access needs change. Withing self-storage companies, it can be costly to size up once you’ve already signed on for a short-term rental. Likewise, you should know how long you want the space for ahead of time, even if only to avoid predatory price hikes after a short introductory period. 

Suggestion for placement of “storage units”:
Place the term “storage units” naturally early in the article within the subheading about checking features and security, for example: “Ensuring the security and suitability of your chosen storage units is crucial to protect your belongings, whether personal or business-related.”

https://monstore-selfstorage.co.uk/what-size-self-storage-do-i-need-a-comprehensive-guide-2023/

https://www.holdstorage.co.uk/blog/how-much-storage-do-you-need

storage units eastleigh

752637 – Steph Ashby – READY STEADY STORE SERVICES LIMITED – TBC