How to pack a storage unit so you can still reach things
Most people fill a unit front to back in one afternoon, then spend the next year climbing over it. Twenty minutes of planning is the difference.
Leave an aisle. Yes, really.
The instinct is to use every cubic foot, because you are paying for every cubic foot. Resist it. Leave a corridor about two feet wide running from the door to the back wall, down the middle or along one side.
You lose perhaps ten per cent of the floor. What you buy is the ability to reach anything without unloading half the unit onto the drive. People who skip the aisle nearly always end up renting a bigger unit within the year — not because they ran out of room, but because they could not stand using the one they had.
If you genuinely cannot spare the space, you are in the wrong size. The size guide is honest about what fits.
Work out what you will want first
Before anything goes in, split what you are storing into three piles: things you will definitely need in the next few months, things you might, and things you are storing because you cannot bring yourself to throw them away.
The third pile goes to the back wall, floor to ceiling, and you forget about it. The second pile goes along the sides. The first pile goes nearest the door, at waist height, where you can get at it in thirty seconds with the engine still running.
Seasonal gear belongs in the first pile even if you will not touch it for four months. Christmas decorations at the back of a unit in July are a problem you have scheduled for December.
Boxes: same size, not too heavy, labelled on the side
Uniform boxes stack square and do not collapse. Mixed boxes make a wall that leans. Buy one size for books and small heavy things, one size for everything else, and stop there.
Heavy on the bottom, light on top, and nothing above shoulder height that you would not want to catch. A box of books is about as heavy as a box should ever get; if you cannot lift it comfortably twice, repack it.
Label the side, not the top. Once boxes are stacked you can only see the sides. Write what is in it, not which room it came from — “kitchen” tells you nothing when there are nine kitchen boxes.
Furniture, mattresses and the things that get ruined
Take the legs off tables and stack the tops vertically against a wall. Sofas can usually go on end, which frees a surprising amount of floor. Dismantle bed frames and tape the fittings to the frame itself, in a bag, because you will not remember.
Mattresses store flat or on edge with support — an unsupported mattress on its side bows and stays bowed. Cover it. Do not wrap anything in plastic sheeting for months at a time: it traps moisture and you will open it to find mould. Old cotton sheets breathe and work better.
Anything with wood, leather, electronics, paper or strings in it is a candidate for a climate controlled unit rather than an outdoor one. A Rogue Valley July gets hot enough inside a metal box to warp a guitar neck.
Off the floor, and a list on the door
Pallets or a couple of lengths of two-by-four keep the bottom layer off bare concrete. Concrete sweats, and the bottom box is the one you will not check for a year.
Last thing: tape a sheet of paper inside the door with a rough map of what is where. It takes four minutes and it saves an hour every time you visit. If you are using a drive-up unit you can usually read it from the truck.
Not sure what size you need?
Describe the load on the phone and we will size it in about a minute. We would rather put you in the right unit than move you twice.
Rent online, any hour
Browse what is open, pick your size and sign without waiting for the office to open. Already a tenant? Pay your bill in the same portal.