If you come across some items in your attic or basement that you forgot you owned and cannot take with you during a move, you may have to book and use a unit at a self-storage facility at the last minute. Here are two tips that might alleviate some of the difficulties associated with doing this.
1. Find out if the storage facility sells the type and quantity of packaging supplies you require
Some of the things you have to put in this unit may need to be covered in bubble-wrap and boxed up prior to being stored in it. Things like fragile oil paintings or valuable crystalware, for example, may need some extra protection to ensure you don't tear or break them during future visits to the unit. If this is the case and you don't have the supplies you need for these items, then you will need to buy the supplies. Many self-storage businesses sell packaging supplies, and so you might be able to buy them on-site when you get to the unit with your belongings in tow.
However, you shouldn't assume that they will have what you need. Instead, you should call ahead and have them confirm that they sell the specific packaging supplies you require (for example, you might need waxed, water-resistant cardboard boxes if the perfume bottles you need to store in them are old and might leak) and that they have those particular supplies in stock, in the required quantities.
If they don't happen to have the type or quantity of items you need in stock at that time, you can then look around your current property for some temporary, makeshift supplies before you leave, which should keep your things safe until the storage facility restocks the supplies you need.
2. Don't panic if the only unit available is on the smaller side
If you call up a storage facility and ask for a unit at the last minute, you may find that they only have fairly small units available. If this happens, and you have some bigger items that will barely fit into the available unit, you might start to panic and think that you'll just have to find a way to take those things to the new property (or even just leave them at the old house) instead of putting them in this unit.
However, you should not reject the idea of using a small unit. Instead, you should brainstorm some ways to squeeze your larger items into it. For instance, if you have a double bed that will span the entire length of the unit, you could either dismantle it beforehand or turn it on its side and lean it against the wall of the unit. Likewise, if you have several king-size duvets, you can put them in vacuum-pack bags so that they use up a fraction of the space that they usually would.
Share20 November 2019
My dad was a huge collector of old books. He had such a beautiful collection when he passed away, and he left it all to me. I don't have enough space to display them yet, but I do want to hold onto them so that when I have enough space I can set up a library at home and really enjoy them. This blog is all about how to store old books for a long period of time, so that they stay in great condition. I hope it will be useful for other people with big collections of vintage books.
