Extra Space in Your Community

Next comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for — when you arrive at your storage unit with all of the stuff that you want to store. There is a method to packing a storage unit, if you want everything to be in the best possible condition, and easy to find, when you come back later to take things out again.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Before you bring your stuff over, check with the storage manager to find out the easiest route to use to maneuver your truck to your unit.
• Depending on what you are storing, you may want to cover the floor with protective canvas sheets, cardboard, or wooden boards. Many people prefer to store certain items, such as upholstered furniture or mattresses, on wooden pallets.
• As you unload, place items in a “U” shape, where the open end of the “U” is at the door to the unit. That will make it easier to get access to each part of the unit.
• Before unloading large items, check with your facility manager — some Extra Space facilities have dollies or machinery that you can use to make unloading large, heavy items a little easier. We don’t want you to hurt yourself unloading and packing things into your unit — we’d much rather help if at all possible.
• Place the items that you won’t need to pull out very often, such as old, archived business documents, against the far wall. Place the things that you expect to need to access regularly toward the front.
• Tie long-handled tools such as rakes and brooms, or the slats of bedframes, together in a bundle. Or, store them inside garbage cans or buckets to keep them neat.
• Stack boxes of similar size and shape together — you will save space that way.
• If you are storing wardrobe boxes, remember that a wardrobe box can be a good, safe place to store a box of fragile items — you can next your box of fragile things on the bottom of the wardrobe box under the clothes.
• If you are storing a washer or dryer, you may want to place linens such as pillows and blankets inside the washer or dryer.

Packing your storage unit is a big project. But when you are finished, you’ll find that it is well worth the effort. The real payoff comes when you return later to find something — and you find it right away because your unit is so nicely organized and everything is labeled. One last tip: you may want to store a stepping stool in the unit. That way, you’ll always be able to reach the items that are up high.

Once you’ve gone through the stuff you want to store, and made sure that nothing is in there that could easily, instead, be sold, given away, recycled, or reused in some way, the next step is to pack your unit. You’ll thank yourself later, when you need to find something, if you organize it now.

Packing your self-storage unit is a little different than organizing your closet or basement at home. First of all, you must make sure that you are not storing anything that is on our list of unacceptable items to store. This includes combustible, flammable, hazardous or toxic materials. Check our list to make sure. Bear in mind that when we say, do not store gasoline, we are not referring only to chemicals that are in their original containers and labeled as such — we also mean chemicals that may be in places that you have forgotten about, like  the gasoline in the fuel tank of your motorcycle and the kerosene in your old emergency hurricane lamps. You will need to drain that.

Box anything that you can, and put everything in standard-sized boxes — they are easier to stack. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — make sure that you label those boxes. Use a dark permanent marker and write a list of the items in each box on one end, or, preferably, on both ends. You’ll be glad that you did, later, when you are looking for something. Using a box is especially important when you are storing items that could be damaged by dust, such as computers. In your box, make sure that you wrap each item separately. It’s sad to see a nice set of plates destroyed because they were plopped in the box unwrapped. Each dish, each glass, each fragile Christmas ornament, should have its own wrapping. You can still stack the dishes — just wrap them first.

Personally, I am a big fan of bubble wrap. It’s clean, and you can see through it to quickly tell what something is. But, if you really need to save space, and if you are packing a lot of personal items, you can use clothing and linens as padding around fragile items. Those plates you are packing could have a dish towel wrapped around each one. You can slide small fragile items into socks, although you may want to wrap something else around them first if they are very fragile. You can also save space by nesting small fragile items (each one individually wrapped, of course) in furniture drawers. Here are a few other tips to keep in mind:

• When you pack books, be sure to lay them flat to avoid damaging their spines. Keeping them flat will also reduce aging of the pages.
• Wrap mirrors and pictures in bubble wrap, putting cardboard corners over sharp corners of their frames. Mark them “fragile.”
• Separate lamps from their lampshades, wrapping and packing them separately. If you have several, you may be able to nest the lamp shades together.
• If you can afford to, cover upholstered items such as mattresses and furniture with covers or bags that have been made for this purpose.
• Take furniture apart before you store it, wrapping each piece to protect it. Here is where labeling will really save you. When you take screws out of a piece of furniture, put them in a bag, label it, and if possible, keep the bag with the furniture. If you are organized enough to still have the instructions that show how to put the furniture together, put them in that bag too! You’ll be glad you did…

Tomorrow…organizing your storage space, part 3: arranging items in your space.