Storage between leases

A move gets half as hard if you decide in advance what genuinely has to come with you.

Most of the cost and misery of moving comes from volume. More vans, more people, more hours. And a good share of what gets carried up the stairs will sit in a box in the new place for a year.

Sort into three piles

1. Comes with you. What you use weekly.
2. Goes into storage. What you will certainly want again but not now: seasonal things, surplus furniture, books, keepsakes, the children's early years.
3. Leaves your life. What you keep only because deciding is hard.

The middle pile is what storage solves, and it is also what makes the move visibly cheaper, because the van is smaller and the day is shorter.

How to store it well

• Store item by item, not as "one box of miscellaneous", so you can find things later.
• Choose climate control for wood and leather.
• Unplug electronics and wrap the cables separately.
• Photograph before wrapping, or let the crew do it.

Why not just rent a unit

A self-storage unit sells you an empty box. You hire the van, you carry it, you pack it, you try to remember which carton the thing went into, and every time you want one item back it costs you an afternoon.

This sells you the work instead. We come to you, pack, photograph each item and take it away. When you want something, you look at a picture of it, tap once, and it arrives. You never need to know where the warehouse is.

Frequently asked