It All Depends Upon What You Want to Store
People need storage units for different reasons and at different times. For some, a storage unit is a temporary solution employed to relieve stress during a moving situation that takes longer than one day to complete. For others, a storage unit is a permanent answer to keeping track of possessions you want to keep, but you don’t need to have around all the time.
This all begs the question – What size storage unit do you need? The not-so-obvious answer? It depends.
Standard Sizing Makes Planning Easy
Most of your storage facilities feature the same basic sizes of storage units. Thanks to this uniformity of sizing, your task of determining which unit you need becomes much simpler, since each room will only hold so much of your stuff.
A basic guide is as follows:
- 5×5 – Your average hall closet, this is your best option for storing small furniture, boxes of books, and random items
- 5×10 – A typical walk-in closet, this is perfect for the contents of a studio apartment.
- 5×15 – A large walk-in closet, we recommend this for the contents of a 1-bedroom apartment, minus any large appliances.
- 10×10 – The size of your most basic bedroom, this unit is great for a large 1-bedroom apartment, including large appliances.
- 10×15 – Just a bit smaller than your average one-car garage, such a unit can store the typical contents of a home or apartment under 1,200 sq ft in size.
- 10×20 – Comparable to a nice one-car garage, this unit can hold the possessions of your average 3-bedroom home, including appliances
- 10×30 – Almost as large as a two-car garage, you can store the contents of a fully furnished 4-bedroom home.
What Size Do I Really Need?
We can hear you now: “That guide is helpful, but I’m not necessarily the best judge of how much stuff I have. Can’t you just tell me what to get?”
We get it. You’re most likely busy preparing for Moving Day, so you don’t really have the time to measure your possessions, much less shop around for storage units. You need a storage unit to help you make sense of what you have and how you’re going to take care of your stuff.
The short answer? Get more space than what you expect you’ll need. Look at the guide above, see what we recommend for the approximate size of what you want to store, and rent out a storage unit one level larger. This strategy is great for two specific reasons:
- It gives you the peace of mind you need that everything will fit in your storage unit.
- It provides you walking-around room in your storage unit.
Final Tips When Selecting Your Storage Unit
The point of a storage unit is simple: you have more stuff in your home than you have space. This “stuff” could be furniture, exercise equipment, tools, an extra car, a boat, family heirlooms, or anything in between – and you still need all of it, even if just for sentimental reasons. We completely understand, which is why we offer these remaining tips on choosing the right size storage unit for your needs:
- Measure your big items in advance. As in, if you need to store large appliances or furniture in a storage unit, be aware of those dimensions when looking at storage units. If an item can’t fit through the door, it won’t matter how large of a unit you have.
- Prepare your possessions for your storage unit like you’re moving them to your new home. The better contained your stuff is, the less room they’ll take up in your storage unit, and the better idea you’ll have about the size of unit you’ll need.
- Talk to people with experience. While this includes friends who have used storage units before, you should really talk to the people running the storage facilities before you rent. Sure, the latter group wants you to rent from them, but they also want to be helpful so that you leave the facility a good review and recommend them to your friends.
- Look at the units that interest you. As in, don’t rent anything blindly. You want your stuff to fit in the storage unit you rent. And if you aren’t the best at judging dimensions, bring along someone you trust to help you.
Ultimately, renting a storage unit shouldn’t be stressful. It should be the exact opposite, a chance for you to store some of your stuff so it doesn’t clutter your home. With these tips, you should be able to rent out the size of storage unit you need with relative ease.
