How to Minimize Your Self-Storage Costs
Posted on: 17 February 2017
Do you want to store lots of things but don't want a huge storage bill? Fear not; there are tips you can use to minimize your storage costs. Here are a few of those tips:
Get Out of Town
Location plays a factor in storage pricing just as it does with other forms of real estate. Facilities located in urban centers tend to cost more than those situated on the outskirts or suburbs. You may find yourself focusing on facilities in the urban center, probably because they are the ones you are familiar with if they are near your place of work. As long as you won't be making frequent trips to the storage facility, you will do just fine with fairly-priced, out-of-town facilities.
Maximize Space Use
Storage units are priced per square feet. Therefore, the more things you can cram in a small place, the lower your effective rental price will be. Here are a few tips to organize your storage unit for maximum storage:
- Make sure all the boxes are full; half empty boxes waste space.
- Pack fragile and non-fragile things separately so that you can stack the fragile boxes on top of the non-fragile ones.
- Dismantle furniture.
- Make use of hollow areas of furniture; for example, you can store smaller things in fridge compartments.
- Make use of walls and the ceiling by using them to hang things.
Avoid Features You Don't Need
Storage facilities come with all kinds of features, which are useful to some people but not to everybody all the time. Therefore, consider what you are storing, and get a storage unit that offers just what you need, and nothing more. For example, some storage facilities provide internet connection, climate control, and mailing services to their clients. You don't need any of those things if all you just want to store are outdoor tools that you could probably store in a basement or garage without any problem. However, be careful not to opt for cheap storage at the expense of other important considerations, such as security.
Only Store Things You Need
Lastly, you can drive your storage costs down by de-cluttering so that you only store what you really need. There is no need to pay storage space for things you will just throw them away later on.
Hopefully, the above tips will lead you to affordable storage the next time you want to use a self-storage facility.
Share