The Dos and Woes of Storage

Making the big move to New York City means downgrading in the amount of space that you’re accustomed to, especially if you are coming from the suburbs where those living rooms are the size of your average studio. If you tend to hoard and have a difficult time in purging what to bring with you, you may want to consider a storage company to revisit your belongings without severing your attachment just yet. The latter scenario would be that your new space cannot accommodate everything you had anticipated despite the accurate estimates your movers gave you.

Self-storage or Full-service?

Do you already know which storage service you’ll invest on off the bat? The

most well-known and affordable option is self-storage. It’s undoubtedly the most autonomous option where it entails the customer being fully responsible for packing and moving the boxes into the unit themselves. This includes the most exciting part, which is the paperwork and documentation! However, this option gets trickier when you make the move to urban areas as your main obstacle is overcoming traffic (if you have a car) and high-rise buildings. Urban areas will push you towards full-service.

For those of you who do not have the time and energy to do it yourselves or you are moving into a city, storage companies offer a full-service option. The only thing you have to do on your end is pack everything accordingly (you can do that at the very least, right?). This is like investing for a personal valet for your storage process, where services extend to picking up and delivering your belongings for you. The workers will also handle the documentation for you, along with the paperwork and taking pictures.

Find a Reliable Company

If you haven’t moved yet, try looking for a moving company that doubles down as a hybridized storage company. Of course, you don’t have to, but it does make it easier to contact only one company than juggling two. The most important part is investing in a storage company that is reliable. Yes, you want to be cost-efficient with your rates, but you don’t want to end up having to post a scathing review about a sketchy storage company that stole and/or damaged your belongings. Even if you’re storing things that may not be of major value to you, you wouldn’t want to pay for damaged or stolen goods.

Picking the Unit

Much like your experiences with moving, you should be planning and organizing as you pack your belongings with the right labels and categories. You can never go wrong with labeling your boxes. No matter how much you swear you’re able to remember the third box of the second tower contains your office supplies, I promise that you’ll forget once it’s packed differently in the unit.

If something has a priceless value to you, you can’t afford to lose it. No heirlooms, valuable art pieces, and jewelry should ever be wagered when it comes to storage; keep those belongings with you or with someone you trust.

What Size Should You Choose?

This is dependent on how much you want to store. Your range of options generally goes: 5’x5’, 5’x10’, 10’x10’, 10’x15’ and 10’x20’ storage units. You’re not limited to these options as there are companies that have bigger ones for people looking to keep their boat(s) or larger appliances. Sizes will inevitably vary by facility, so be sure to check with your provider and inquire all the sizes available.