4 Essentials for Moving Belongings Into a Storage Unit

By Kaitlin Hurtado on August 14, 2017

Between all of the changes in housing situations you may face during your college years, one thing that is almost always guaranteed to change between living spaces is the difference in storage space that you have for your belongings.

As you progress from small dorms to apartments and/or houses, you are bound to collect more belongings, such as more kitchen supplies as you move from on-campus meal plans to fend for your own in your apartment’s kitchen, furniture as you face a change from fully-furnished dorms to unfurnished apartments, etc.

Instead of selling or buying items you need as you change apartments, you may consider renting a storage unit to keep your belongings as you face varying levels of storage space in different living spaces. Before renting out a storage unit and moving your belongings to the unit, consider the following supplies to ensure that your belongings come out of the storage unit in the same condition as when you put them in and that moving them out of the storage unit is as painless as possible.

Image via pixabay.com

1. Pallets and/or clothing racks

Keeping your belongings off of the floor of the storage unit will help you avoid getting your belongings affected by any leakage from outside of the storage unit. Melting snow, heavy rainfall, and/or leaks from neighboring storage units can get into your storage unit, leaving your belongings vulnerable if left on the floor.

If you don’t plan on coming to your storage unit often, keeping your belongings off the floor will stop the risk of your belongings sitting in any puddles for too long/before you can get to them and clean the mess.

Pallets are relatively easy to come by and easy to shove into your storage unit — all you need to do is stack your belongings on top of them. Clothing racks are multi functional in your storage unit. They keep your belongings off the floor and prevent nicer garments from becoming too wrinkled. Clothing racks also make it easier for you to grab select clothing from the rack as they are easier to get to then finding a box and looking through it to get your desired garment.

2. Your typical moving supplies — boxes, tape, and labels

Treat moving your belongings into a rental storage unit the same as moving your belongings into a new space because eventually, you will be moving the belongings out of storage and into another space. Instead of piling mismatched belongings into the storage unit, organize them into boxes that are easier for you to grab as you need them.

Put kitchen items together, bathroom items together, and so on. To make it easier on you when you go back to grab said belongings, try getting airtight, clear plastic containers to store your belongings in instead of the traditional cardboard box. Clear storage boxes will allow you to visually inspect the contents of the box and the plastic will protect your belongings from both water spillage and pesky critters much more than cardboard boxes can.

Likewise, tape and labels are just as important to keeping your storage unit organized, even if it is filled to the brim. Labels make it easy to see where the belongings of the box go, and if you want to, you can list out every item in the box. If you don’t feel like spending the money to buy separate labels, use masking tape as makeshift labels.

3. Supplies like plastic wrap and garment bags

Instead of leaving couches and clothes open to pests, dust, and other weather conditions put as much effort into protecting your belongings as you can without constantly checking up on them. Plastic wrap furniture to ensure that bugs don’t get the cushions and later, your living space when you move them out of storage and into your personal space.

Likewise, protect your clothes instead of leaving them out. Get garment bags to protect your clothes if you decide to store them on a clothing rack — if you can’t get garment bags, improvise with trash bags. Poke a hole where the hanger will go and knot off the bottom. Be aware, however, that this method requires extra care into completely sealing any holes that you have made — try using packing tape or clear wrap that you would use for your other belongings.

4. Extra security

While your storage unit may already have security in place, you can always take more steps to make your belongings more secured. Buy another pad lock with a short arm to prevent someone from using a bolt cutter to find their way into your storage unit.

If you plan on storing more valuable items (like jewelry or other heirlooms) consider buying a safe to put in your storage unit as extra security.

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