Self-storage units have absolutely shot up in popularity over the past few years. Not only are they a great way of optimising your approach to storage, but in the current property market crisis, self-storage solutions can also end up saving you a lot on rent.
As with anything else, however, it’s important that you take a well-thought-out approach to ensure you get the most effective solution for your needs. If you’re struggling to work out how to get started with this process, then read on for our top three tips.
1. Don’t pay for more than you need
Perhaps the most important thing to realise about self-storage units is just how flexible these kinds of solutions are supposed to be. When using a self storage provider, the whole point is that you only pay for the amount of storage space that you actually need, no more and no less.
To make sure that this principle actually works out in practice, you need to make sure that you commit to a bit of forward planning.
Try to take an inventory of all your belongings, and then see if you can get rid of any of those items. By using an online storage calculator, you should then be able to come up with a good idea as to how many cubic metres of storage space you’ll need, providing you with at least a rough target.
2. Ensure adequate accessibility
In a lot of situations, you won’t just want to put your items into storage and just forget about them – you might also require ongoing access to those items. If this is the case, then you’ll need to make sure that the self-storage unit you choose to go with can provide you with adequate access.
This means choosing a location that’s easy to get to with whatever means of transport you have access to, and that’s open at the times you’ll need access to your possessions.
You might be able to find cheaper solutions that are further away and with more restricted opening hours, but if you can’t actually get to your stuff when you need it, it won’t be very useful to you.
3. Regularly go through your stored items
Lastly, you need to make sure that the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ principle doesn’t come to work against you. If you’re going to use your self-storage unit for a long period of time, that’s absolutely fine, but make sure that it’s an intentional usage and not just a way of putting off sorting through your things.
Try to go through your stored items reasonably regularly, making sure that they’re still relevant to your life and future plans. If you can thin things down a little bit, you might be able to go with a smaller storage unit and save some money!
These are by no means the only things you’ll need to do to optimise your approach to self-storage, but it’s definitely a good start. Make sure that you remain diligent as the weeks go by, and don’t allow your storage expenses to become just another cost that leaves your bank account every month.