If you are thinking about renting some storage space or already have space and wondering if you are making the most of it, this definitive guide to storage hacks is here to help. It will change the way you use your storage unit for the better.
There are so many reasons for investing in a storage unit, whether you’re in Jacksonville or anywhere in the US, as thousands of people are contacting us are in the same position as you, wondering how they can get the most out of their storage unit and the space they are renting. Choosing to go with a storage unit for your treasured possessions, even in the short-term such as moving house, is not something to be taken lightly. There is the added expense, and if you don’t use all of the space in your storage unit adequately, all you’re doing is wasting time and money that can be better used elsewhere.
Therefore, here are our six hacks to make the most out of your storage unit.
1. Make and Keep and Inventory and Floorplan
It may seem a little bit over the top to arrange your storage unit according to a floor plan, but it does make sense! Keeping an inventory and a floor plan serves two important reasons. The first reason is that you want to know where everything is and how to get to easy in the event that you need an item you were storing.
The second reason for keeping inventory is actually something that many people don’t consider. This is that you can easily keep track of perishable items that have a use-by date. In most circumstances, most storage units do not allow you to store canned foods due to the risk of explosion under hot or cold conditions, but if your unit is not quite as strict on these rules, you may be able to store things like long-term food storage in tins, cans, and even mylar bags.
The problem with this is, of course, when things get out of sync, and you end up having lots of food items that have gone bad. This is why we suggest making a floor plan and working with an inventory that you can regularly update when you swap things in and out.
2. Keep A Supplies Box Handy
Being tidy in your storage unit is one of the best ways to both save space and maximize the space that you have. One of the easiest ways to stay tidy is to actually keep a box of essentials, such as tape, labels, and Sharpie pens, right by the door of your unit, which is easily grabbable.
The reason that you should keep this box near your door is so that you know exactly where it is as soon as you come into the unit and leave the unit. You don’t want to mix them up with all your other bits and pieces. However, why specifically these items?
Every time you bring a new item in or out of your self storage unit, you can be certain that you can keep on top of labeling them appropriately and adding these to your floorplan. By keeping your floorplan with your box of essentials, you have everything you need when keeping track of what you have in your unit.
3. Use The Spaces In Drawers and Cupboards
It always amazes us the number of times we see people storing furniture in their storage unit and then not being able to store much else in there. If you are storing pieces of furniture such as a chest of drawers or a divan bed frame, then you will be used to the fact that these pieces of furniture take up a lot of space.
However, there is one very simple trick to maximize your space. You can use the space inside furniture, such as that chest of drawers, to store lots of smaller boxes, and this makes a great place to keep hold of any clothing you would wish to save that didn’t make it into your huge suitcase.
4. Try To Use See-Through Boxes
Using see-through boxes is one of the easiest methods to keep your storage unit organized and tidy; it’s a lot easier to see what’s going on and to know what is in a box if the box itself is see-through.
Even though your boxes may be strong and see-through, we would still recommend that you tape them down with strong tape to ensure that they cannot come undone, especially if you are going to be using a storage unit for a limited amount of time while you move house, for example.
We also suggest that you use a labeling system, even on see-through boxes, just to ensure that everything is kept secure and you know exactly what is in the boxes that you are storing.
5. Take Pictures and Stick Them To The Boxes
Don’t have any see-through boxes? If this is the case, the problem can be easily solved by using your smartphone to snap a picture of what is in the box, printing the photo out, and sticking it to the outside of the box using tape or Blu-Tack.
Doing things this way means that you always know exactly what is in your boxes every time you come to use them and move them around, and it will help to make your layout and packing system much more efficient.
6. Re-Flat Pack Furniture (but keep the screws together)
If you can get it right, this hack is absolutely brilliant and will save you so much space that it can be funny to see how simple it really is. We are, of course, talking about flat-pack furniture and how to store it in your storage unit.
Flat-pack furniture should be disassembled, and the fixings (such as screws) should be kept together in a bag that is taped to one of the pieces of flat-pack furniture. Also, make sure to label this bag just in case and write down how many pieces the furniture has.
This attention to detail ensures that you will always have the right number of screws and fittings to put the piece of furniture back together again when you eventually take it out of storage, perhaps when you’ve moved house or when it’s time to put that piece of furniture to use.