Sometimes when you’re planning to move out of town, downsizing, or decluttering your home space but you are not prepared to let go of some unnecessary items that can prove to be potentially worthy in near future, you can go for the option of a temporary storage facility. The storage option facilitates you with the opportunity to store things for the short-term and long-term as well.
Whenever you’ll plan on moving, you’ll face the same question, whether you should dispose of some belongings or store them for an unprecedented duration. There are warehouse facilities available that help you to store your most cherished belongings and possessions while keeping them safe at the same time.
Especially, when it comes to long-term storage, you should always opt for self-storage units as they provide you with the facility of accessibility, efficiency, and convenience, consequently allowing you to be free of any worrying thoughts. Not only that, but it will also help you save a lot of trouble of storing things in the right manner without any problem at all.
How To Use Long-Term Storage?
However, as soon as you plan on using the storage facilities, don’t just walk around to any random storage house to deposit or store your beloved possessions there. It’s quite foolish to walk away to any random storage facility to throw your belongings in the first empty cell you find there. Since it can severely backfire as not all the storage facilities are trustworthy. While the search may be tiring but it can help you safeguard your personal belongings.
Long-term storage is quite different from short-term storage as you need to ensure the proper safety and security of the products if you’re looking to store them for the long-term. Since you can’t compromise on the product’s safety or even you don’t want your product to lose its appeal. Therefore, you can use a long-term storage facility of different storage units to make your beloved possessions secured.
These storage units can be rented by you for the short-term or long-term. But both the type of storage requires different kinds of treatment for the products they’re storing.
Is Long-Term Storage Worth It?
The million-dollar question is whether the service of long-term storage is worth the efforts or not? Since one can’t predict where life takes you in the future, so getting the security of your unneeded item with a future potential becomes comparatively significant. But it can help you in several ways.
- It can help you get free of worries and travel with ease for longer durations.
- Using the option of storage can help you secure your possessions as well.
- Long-term storage can facilitate your business assets as well as it also allows you to store your vital documents, business equipment, and other important things.
- The best feature that makes the long-term storage facility the people’s favorite is its ability to downsize your home since it allows you to store your essential items without worrying about their safety or getting them to dispose of.
While long-term storage seems to be an interesting and useful option, if you fail to make the right choice at the right time, you can face severe consequences. Trusting your belongings on someone else requires a big heart and you don’t want someone else to ruin it, therefore, follow the following essential tips to get the best long-term storage facility.
1. Decide on items you’re looking to store
The most important advice or tip that can work wonders for you if you fully understand is to decide on the items that are going to the storage house. Since you must be traveling or going somewhere else, you may want to downsize your house but even don’t want to throw off your personal belongings. This is a pretty dicey situation as one can’t decide upon what to do and what to store. However, you also need to understand that storing any item comes at a cost and every item you’re looking to store is not worth the cost.
Therefore, it ultimately depends upon you and how you will choose from the stock to store the unneeded things that can prove to be beneficial in near future. So before going for safekeeping of any possession, assess the significance of that belonging, whether it’ll be useful in the future or not, and is it durable enough to sustain the toughness of storage. If the answer is yes, then go for it. But remember to assess your possession from every aspect before going for storage.
2. Find the most suitable storage solution
As soon as you decide on the items you want to get stored, the next step is to find an adequate storage solution for that particular item. Since you’ll be aware of the item you’re going to store, you can assess every important parameter whether it’s the storage space or the type of storage conditions that’ll suffice the requirements of the particular item. However, this isn’t an easy task since there are many storage units available for renting purpose.
However, you need to have a clear idea of what you want, so it will help in choosing the right storage unit for your belongings. Renting a storage unit can be risky but you can only place a bet on this solution as it is the only better option for long-term storage. There are some key points that should be considered before opting for storage units.
- The size of the storage is one of the important factors that should be considered. The size of the storage unit should be large enough to accommodate your belongings but it shouldn’t be bigger since you can end up paying for extra useless space.
- Optimum facility condition is another factor that needs to be taken care of. The buildings used for storage should be well-maintained and clean enough. Moreover, it should have adequate spacing, well illumination, and well-repaired so any sort of contamination couldn’t occur.
- Climate-controlled units are an important factor to be considered. Since the harshness of the climate can severely damage your belongings. Temperature and humidity still remain the most pivotal climatic factor which needs to be always looked after. For instance, fluctuations in temperature can lead to damage of certain products that can cause a sudden expansion or contraction. Moreover, humidity can severely damage the paper products as an increase in humidity leads to fungus growth that can damage the paperwork.
- Last but not the least, security should be top-notch because the safety of the product is the top-most priority. If a certain storage unit fails to address security, try moving for a better alternative.
3. Packing materials for storage
One of the most important tips for long-term storage is to choose the best packaging materials for your belongings. As time passes the packaging boxes can loosen up and your precious belongings may get damaged, so it is really essential to choose the best packaging materials for your storage. The boxes used for packaging should be clean, durable, and of excellent quality. For an instance, you should use bubble wrap for fragile items because they can break easily during movement.
4. Items should be clean and dry
It is one of the most debated and important requirements for items that need to be stored. Arguably, the most important tip is to make sure your items are clean and dried. Since the items which are having dust or mud on them, they can attract every sort of pest which can lead to damage to your precious items. If you’re using water to clean the items before storing them, then make sure that you have also let the items dry as well.
5. Arrange and label the boxes
Before you start to place your box into the storage unit, it is really necessary to arrange them in order. Since the sorting can help you work more swiftly without any confusion. While before sending the boxes to the storage unit, the boxes should be properly labeled as well. Consequently, labeling help in sorting and determining the type of items.
6. Choose a reputable storage company
Choosing a reputable and trustworthy storage company still remains the most essential advice. You can always pay more but at least avail the services from a reputable company as they may charge comparatively more but provide the best services. None want their beloved possessions to fall prey to damp conditions and become damaged. While there are many removal companies that provide quality storage services as well, so you can always choose a reputable removal company for the safekeeping of items.
Long-term storage of your beloved possessions is a tough task and finding the best service company for this purpose is even tougher. However, by keeping the above tips in mind, you can easily browse through your local providers and choose a perfect storage unit for your needs.
As local removalists on The Sunshine Coast, we also have storage available before, during and after a small move or for our interstate removal clients too.