Many people seek storage unit tips to optimize their available storage space. After all, the goal is to ensure that such a space is being utilized in the most efficient way possible. It’s not simply a matter of dumping your belongings haphazardly. A proper arrangement of items is key to ensuring that your storage space is giving you value for your money. It can be frustrating to look for things inside your storage unit if they’re placed randomly without any order. That’s why arranging your items in a neat and organized fashion is key to maximizing your storage unit. It also helps you to have enough space inside the storage unit for movements.
The following are crucial steps to ensuring that your storage space is well-optimized.
- Choose the Right Storage Unit Size
Before thinking of renting any storage space, it helps to take inventory of your belongings. You need to know the exact number of items that will need to be stored. Start by sorting out everything that you want to keep in storage.
This ensures that you get the appropriate size of a storage unit for your needs. If you choose one that’s too small, you’ll end up with numerous items at your residence, meaning they’ll take up more space. Choosing a very large storage unit may leave more than enough room. However, you’ll be left to foot the bill for the extra, unused space. Choosing just the right storage unit size, therefore, becomes paramount. It helps to draw a sketch of how all the items will be placed inside a particular storage unit. A schematic helps to visualize this better. Of course, you want to be mindful of sensitive items, electronics, or artwork. Such items may require a climate-controlled storage unit.
2) Pack Efficiently
This may seem obvious, but many people renting storage units tend to take it for granted. Proper packing of items goes a long way toward saving space, ensuring that you can fit as many items into the storage unit as possible. To accomplish this;
i) Getting the right supplies: To utilize every available inch of storage space, ensure to pack as many items as possible. Getting the right packaging materials is key. You’ll need boxes, bubble wraps, and duct tape, among others. Pack similar items in one box to make it easier. For example, books, magazines, and stationery can all go in one box. After wrapping the boxes, ensure to label them clearly for easy identification.
ii) Fill hollow items: Numerous household items like desks and bureaus have spaces inside them. These spaces can be used to store some items. Find as many small items as you can to fit in these spaces.
iii) Get creative with versatile items: Clothing and bedding are soft items that can be stuffed into drawers or between boxes. You can leave such items unpacked and squeeze them between hollow spaces when all the boxes are in the storage unit.
3) Mapping Out Your Storage Space
A big part of maximizing your storage unit space is ensuring that things are arranged in an orderly fashion to leave space for movements. Mapping out how the different items will be placed inside the storage unit goes a long way toward accomplishing this. It helps to sketch out a diagram of what that arrangement would look like. Of course, if you have a good memory, you can simply map out where each item will be placed.
A general rule of thumb is to group similar items in the same area. For example, furniture like chairs and tables could be placed in one corner of the storage unit. Boxes and other such compact items can be placed in another corner. You can always come up with creative ways to save space. For instance,
i) Ensure proper navigation aisle: The goal of arranging your items properly inside your storage space is to ensure enough space for movements. A big part of that has large enough aisles to ensure that you can reach every corner of the unit. While it may seem counterproductive, the extra storage space taken up by these aisles will pay off in the form of convenience and ease of movement every time you want to get something from inside the storage unit.
ii) Keep less-used items at the back of the storage unit: It doesn’t make sense to cram items that you’ll likely not use for years at the front end of your storage unit. It’s best to keep them in the farthest spaces. This leaves the front areas for items that you’ll likely need to fetch on short notice.
All in all, following these tips ensure that you get more bang for your buck as far as storage units go.
