There are many reasons for using a self-storage facility to store your household contents. You may need short-term storage when the moving-out day from your current home does not coincide with the moving-in date at your new home; or it may be for a longer period of time when you are moving into furnished, rented accommodation after selling your old house but you have not yet completed the sale of your new home (or even found a new home yet), which is becoming increasingly common. You may be relocating overseas and don’t want to take all your belongings with you.

Whatever your reasons for needing self-storage, the most important factor when deciding which company to use is the security of their self-storage site. Of course price and convenience are also factors but don’t let them be the deciding factors.

Storage containers and storage rooms are secure and should have inbuilt locking bars and locking handles, but you should supply your own high-security padlock (that way only you have a key) with a shroud to prevent the lock from being tampered with. But still a very determined thief could probably break-in so it is more important that the overall site security prevents anyone gaining unauthorised access in the first place.

The reputation of self storage companies rests on the security of their storage facilities but always check the details of the security levels provided so that you are completely confident that everything is being done to keep your belongings secure.

Typical security measures that you should expect to find from a reputable company include gated access either via a keycode, a magnetic swipe card or by showing identification to a member of staff to gain admittance. Alarms and CCTV surveillance are standard security measures to expect but check whether the cameras, in particular, cover all main areas of the site. For additional security some sites also have 24-hour security guards.

Many companies, particularly those offering self storage in London have increased their security over recent years so that their customers can have complete peace of mind. Most of them actually have far better security than an individual would have at their own home.