Places house contents into storage

[shaithis]

Looking for a bit of advice from anyone who has done something similar.

Basically, I am awaiting to be made redundant some time early in the new year and will be re-locating back to my hometown after 13 years in London....

When I moved to London my worldly possessions half-filled a transit van, so it was an easy job.....13 years later I have amassed a lot of stuff....I have a 2 bedroom flat and it is FULL.

Now, when I move back home I will not be getting my own place immediately, as I have been offered a flat to stay in until I find a job....unfortunately there isn't much room there so I will need to place my possessions in storage until I find my own place.


So, what's the best way to go about storing all this stuff? What kind of prices should I expect to get charged?

I have had a look around a few sites and they are all very vague and work on a quote basis......which doesn't really help with getting "ballpark figures".

Any recommendations for companies to perform the work? Or prefer to do it yourself and just take advantage of self-storage locations?

TIA

[GheeTsar]

I've not had any experience in this area myself, but a friend of mine was telling me how you really have to look out for the cost of the insurance that these places insist on. He was saying the price of the storage was relatively cheap, but the cost of the insurance was very expensive and that these costs were not immediately obvious when shopping around.

[jim]

Also, it is seriously expensive imo - the more stuff you can dump or sell the better in my eyes.

Obviously you're not going to just chuck/sell your music collection, but I know of people who didn't have enough space and put collectables into storage - not ones that they wanted, but ones they intended to make a profit on. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that any potential profit was more than wiped out by the cost of the storage, so they may as well have sold them on in the first place - even if it wasn't a great time to be selling them.

If you've got something bulky, it might even be worth selling it off and then buying a replacement when the time comes around - with things like televisions you'll get more for your money in a few months' time anyway so it can be a fairly beneficial process.

[menthel]

When we were getting our house renovated and were living in a 1 bedroom flat we used a company called kelly's. They picked up our stuff and then stored it for around £150 a month in a warehouse. They have a fee at either end for packing and unpacking etc but were very professional and great value for money. Look them up!

[shaithis]

When we were getting our house renovated and were living in a 1 bedroom flat we used a company called kelly's. They picked up our stuff and then stored it for around £150 a month in a warehouse. They have a fee at either end for packing and unpacking etc but were very professional and great value for money. Look them up!

Damn £150 for a 1 bedroom.....looks like I had better have a clear out in the new year!

THanks for the information all, looks like it time to get quotes from various places.......and I am looking Kellys up right now

[menthel]

Damn £150 for a 1 bedroom.....looks like I had better have a clear out in the new year!

THanks for the information all, looks like it time to get quotes from various places.......and I am looking Kellys up right now

Actually it was most of our 2 bedroom in storage whilst we lived in a 1 bed. So it was probably about 1 1/2 bed in storage!

[peterb]

Clothes and soft furnishings, bedding etc can be put in vacuum bags (sealable bags with a valve that allows you to use a vacuum cleaner to suck a lot of the air out). That compresses them to about half the volume (or less).

But no point in paying to store junk, so as you say, time for a clearout/car boot sale/Hexus FS listing.

[JPreston]

Yeah I'm paying about £50 per month all in to store junk . It's a self-storage unit, there's a whole range of sizes and this is one of the smaller ones. Enough space to store everything* from a 2 bed flat if you are reasonably good at tetris, but it's not much more expensive to get larger ones. There's no minimum rental and it's very easy and convenient.

It contains all my stuff from the house that the former Mrs JPreston turfed me out from, that I don't have space for or need of in the room I moved into subsequently. I think of it as an extension to my rent, which is dirt cheap and shared with the new younger and hotter Mrs JPreston anyway, but it is a total waste when I think about it.

This thread has inspired to go down there and begin to clear it out, so thanks

*EDIT: not furniture obviously. Unless you are very attached to your sofa and mattress etc it's probably best and cheapest to buy new ones when you get a permanent place.

[Zak33]

When I moved and Sair moved, in together, we needed to seLl two houses and buy one.

My house sold fast, and I moved into her house and put mine into storeage.

It works like this:

A removal truck arrives and inside it will be a set of vast wooden crates, some are half height of the lorry, some full height.

In advance the bloke will have valued the stuff and worked out how much room it will need, and it'll go into one or two of these vast packing rates. The rest will go into the lorry like normal and they'll move you to your new home, and take the other crates off to storeage.

I had two massive crates with everything from a vast 3 seater leather sofa, to a lawnmower, TV's and other electrical stuff, a fridge etc etc....

It cost me £80 per month and once I was ready to have it delivered, the price I'd paid to move home (£550 + VAT) already dealt with it.

[menthel]

When I moved and Sair moved, in together, we needed to seLl two houses and buy one.

My house sold fast, and I moved into her house and put mine into storeage.

It works like this:

A removal truck arrives and inside it will be a set of vast wooden crates, some are half height of the lorry, some full height.

In advance the bloke will have valued the stuff and worked out how much room it will need, and it'll go into one or two of these vast packing rates. The rest will go into the lorry like normal and they'll move you to your new home, and take the other crates off to storeage.

I had two massive crates with everything from a vast 3 seater leather sofa, to a lawnmower, TV's and other electrical stuff, a fridge etc etc....

It cost me £80 per month and once I was ready to have it delivered, the price I'd paid to move home (£550 + VAT) already dealt with it.

Sounds like what Kelly's did for us really!