10 Helpful Tips to Maximize Your New York Storage Unit
When you use a self-storage unit, it’s important to know how to make the most of the space so you can store more things and keep them safe. Companies like Moishe’s Self Storage let you store things you don’t need for a few weeks, months, or even years in different-sized units. But it’s important to make the most of the space you have, no matter what size unit you rent.
Making the most of the space you have means maximizing how much you can fit in, as well as making sure the things you need are accessible and everything is safe, dry, and secure. Here are 10 ways to use the space in your self-storage unit to its fullest:
1. Determine If You Need Items
Before you start putting things in your self-storage unit in Bronx NY , you should first think about what you need to store. Make sure that the things you put in self-storage are things you need to keep but don’t need in your new home. This can be a great time to go through everything you own and get rid of anything that doesn’t mean anything to you or is no longer useful to you. You won’t waste space if you make sure the things in your unit are the ones you need. It can be hard to get rid of things, but it will help you in the long run.
2. Make a Storage Plan
As with most things in life, having a plan can make things go much more smoothly. Before you put anything in your storage unit, you should have an idea of where you want to put everything. You should try to draw a map of the unit and put labels on it. When moving things into the storage unit, you and anyone who helps you can look at the map. Keep this map because you might need it again in the future. Keep it in your unit so you’ll always know where you put things if you ever need to go back and get them. You should also make sure that all your boxes have clear labels.
3. Store Items Vertically
Your first thought when putting furniture and other things into storage may be to lay them out flat as a sofa would be in a living room. But you should know that if you do this, you won’t be able to use all the space. If you can, turn furniture that is wider than it is tall, like a sofa, on its side to use the vertical space and give you more room to put things on the side. Just wrap it up and put it somewhere safe so it doesn’t fall and hurt your other things. Some things can be taken apart so they can be stacked more easily vertically. For example, the headboard, mattress, and posts of a bed can all be stacked vertically against the wall.
4. Use Shelving
Another way to make use of vertical space is to buy some simple but sturdy shelving units to put in your storage unit. You might think that adding these shelves will take up more space, but in the long run, it will be better for your things.
With shelves, you can stack things higher without worrying that they will fall or become unstable. Also, you won’t be able to stack boxes or other things on top of each other, which could cause damage. It might also make it easier to organize your things if the shelves are set up by size or type.
5. Strategize
People often say that the best way to fill a storage unit is to start putting things against the walls on the outside and work your way in. By putting things along the walls of your unit first and remembering to stack as much as you can, you’ll be able to leave more room in the middle.
This will make it easier for you to get into the room. Putting everything in the middle will make it harder to get things out than if there was space in the middle to move around and get to the things on the sides.
6. Leave Walking Space
It’s important to leave space for people to walk through your storage unit. These aisles don’t have to be very wide. They just need to be wide enough for you to walk down them easily. Leaving space may seem like it would be bad for storage, but the key is making things easy to get to. If you do need to take something out, you need enough room to get it to the exit without hurting your other items or starting an avalanche. Keep in mind that storage is for things you want but don’t have room for at home. If you don’t want to access or look at something later, go back to our first point and ask yourself if you need to store it.
7. Store Small Items in Large Items
To make the most of your storage space in New York , it can be fun to think outside the box, or inside it, depending on the situation. Try to think of ways to nest things, which means to put some things inside of other things. A chest of drawers is a good example of this. If you are putting a chest of drawers into your storage unit, try to put some of the smaller things you want to store in the drawers. This will give you more room in the boxes you would have used to store the smaller things. You can get creative with this method. Look for places on your furniture where you can put other things. For instance, a refrigerator-freezer has a lot of room inside. Why not store some things in a microwave? When you put them away, you will need to turn off the power. And don’t forget to look inside things when you take them out of storage!
8. Clean Everything Before Storing
No matter how long you plan to keep your things in storage, you will always leave them in your unit for a long time without checking on them. Meaning, if their conditions change, you will not know about it. This is why you can’t keep things like food and chemicals in a storage unit because they go bad. But you still have to make sure that the things you can put in won’t start to break down too. Storing things like refrigerators and freezers is a good example. Even though they won’t be plugged in while they’re in your unit, if you don’t clean and defrost them well before you put them in, they could leak and get the things around them wet, which could cause them to break.
Make sure that everything you put into storage is clean and dry.
9. Store Important in Front
When deciding where to put things, it’s helpful to think about what you’ll need to get to more quickly or more often. Try to put them as close to the front of the unit as you can so you can get to them quickly and easily without moving or disturbing the rest of your things. Also, make sure that the things you want to get to often are in containers that are easy to open. You should be able to find plastic boxes with lids that are easy to lift in a store or on the web. When you want to get something out of a cardboard box, you must take the tape off and reseal it every time.
10. Invest in a Toolbox
It’s really up to you what you put at the front of your unit. But there is one thing that everyone should keep in their storage unit: a toolbox. You never know when you’ll need to take something apart or put it back together, cut a box open, or fix something that fell when you moved something else. You can deal with any of these problems if you keep a few tools in your unit at all times and keep them in an easy-to-reach place. It also saves you time because you won’t have to go home, fix something, and then drive back to the facility. No matter how long you use self-storage or how big your unit is, these tips can help you get rid of more clutter and make sure all your things are still safe and easy to get.
Moishe’s has been a leader in the moving and storage business for over thirty years, and their services are the best in the business. Since we started in New York City in the early 1980s, we know what real New Yorkers need. Call us today to reserve your unit!