Month May 2013
Beware of Short-Term Special Offers:
I’m sure you’ve seen the special offers available from some self-storage companies with a huge discount on the first month, or sometimes a month free, or 6 months for the price of 3, but it’s important to work out the total cost over the whole period you expect to be renting the storage unit, particularly if this is going to be 6 months or more. Also take into account when calculating costs any extras provided such as free collection – this can save you the cost of hiring a van as well as the time and effort to transport your possessions to the storage facility.
Many headline grabbing rates have hidden costs or work out significantly more expensive when the rental cost reverts to the standard rate. Check the minimum sign-up period, minimum size of self-storage unit and the terms and conditions so that you know exactly what you will be paying over the whole storage period. Also look for companies like storing.com that have a fixed price for 5 years so will not increase their charges over this term once you are renting one of their storage units. In the long run these sorts of deals can work out significantly cheaper than the “50% off” deals.
Compare Insurance Deals For Self-Storage Unit Contents: People choose to store all sorts of possessions in a self-storage unit and often they do not have much, if any, monetary value; sometimes they are items of purely sentimental value that we can’t bear to part with but don’t have room for in our homes. Of course, people also store highly valuable items in self-storage such as classic cars, family heirlooms or business stock, and when a family temporarily relocates overseas they may store the whole contents of their home. So whether items have only sentimental value, have a high individual value or the sheer quantity of belongings makes the total value high you should think carefully about what type of insurance to take out while the items are being stored. In the event of theft, fire or damage from another cause such as flooding you will want to be sure that you are adequately compensated. There is nothing worse after the upset of losing your possessions to find you cannot replace them with something similar. So do make sure you check the insurance options available both from the self-storage provider and by checking independently.
Don’t Store Your Clutter:
If you are thinking about renting a self-storage unit you are probably a bit of a hoarder; that’s fine, so am I, and I like to keep all those things that I might have a use for one day. I see it as my own personal recycling effort. Why spend money on something new when I could re-use something I already have? Many of us also like to keep things we have inherited or been given as a present but we might not necessarily want them on show in our home. So self-storage is a great idea for people like us, but if you want to keep your costs to a minimum then just make sure you are storing items that you genuinely want to keep and not clutter or rubbish. In fact, what is the difference between clutter and rubbish? Very little…
Large self-storage units are, obviously more expensive than smaller ones so it makes sense to clear out as much clutter as you can first. After all, what’s the point of paying to store rubbish? So sort through all your belongings first and try to sell what you can either through free ads in your local paper or on Ebay. If you have enough stuff you could even do a car boot sale. Anything you can’t sell can be given to charity or recycled or, as a last resort, thrown away.
So remember, a great money saving tip for your self-storage costs is to only store the things you really want to keep so that you can rent the smallest unit possible. Simple really…
One of the most important aspects of packing valuable or fragile belongings is using the right sort of packing boxes; no amount of careful packing will protect your items if the boxes are too flimsy so make sure you use sturdy boxes. Also get plenty of bubble wrap, paper, packing tape and marker pens to label the boxes. Now you are set to follow our top tips on how to pack your stuff so that it arrives at your new home in good condition.
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