Planning on having family and friends plus their pets stay this Christmas? For those of you who don’t have pets of your own and are entertaining someone who’s bringing theirs with them, here are some helpful hints on how to ensure you’re prize possessions stay safe while the pet feels at home.
1. Organise
It’s worth planning ahead when it comes to your possessions. If you don’t want something knocked over, played with or covered in fur, make sure it’s safely out of the way. If you don’t have any extra room or have packed away special breakables, Big Yellow Self Storage can help keep your things safe from a little as £7 a week. It’s also best to keep shoes, boots, and bags out of sight to avoid pet teeth marks imprinting on your favourite pair of shoes or handbag.
2. Proofing the Christmas Tree
Cats and dogs can often get over excited when around new people and in a new environment. To protect your tree from jumping, tail wagging and knocking down, make sure your tree’s foundation is firm. Perhaps think about placing your tree in the corner and securing it to the wall with fishing wire. Think carefully about the ornament placement on your tree. It’s best to move precious breakable ornaments up to higher branches, ensuring they won’t be knocked down and broken.
3. Close Doors
Pets can be very curious creatures, especially in a new environment. They’ll likely try and get into every nook and cranny while exploring your home. If there are certain rooms you want to keep off limits, make sure the doors are shut properly and can’t be pushed open by a dog or cat. If that’s not possible, your next best option would be to buy some child safety gates that are sure to keep them out. You can also store valuables and breakables in these rooms as a way of protecting any glass or crystal you may not wish to the animals to get their paws on!
4. Electric Shocks
Within each room, make sure there are no cables or cords for animals to get tangled up in. Not only will this keep the pets safe but it will also stop them from causing damage that can occur by the pet pulling the cord too strongly.
5. Not-so-healthy Foods
Everyday snacks, such as nuts and grapes, can actually be very harmful to dogs. Other foods such as grapes, onions, raisins, macadamia nuts, baker’s chocolate, and caffeinated products are also known to be toxic. Watch the dining table to make sure pets stay clear of the lovely food you’ve been slaving away all day cooking and baking. Poinsettias are a popular plant around Christmas time and while they’re lovely to look at they can be harmful to cats and dogs if ingested in a large dose. Move common houseplants that may be poisonous out of reach. Don’t forget hanging plants that can be jumped onto from nearby surfaces.

The smallest task can help make sure your home stays clean and chaos free while providing a pet friendly environment for your family or friends’ animal. Go to www.bigyellow.co.uk to find your nearest store if you need some extra space this Christmas

It’s that time of year again and with Christmas rapidly approaching, families are beginning to sort out holiday plans. Who’s playing host? Where will all the children sleep? How to keep the in-laws happy? What causes many people stress over the holidays is how to comfortably fit and entertain all guests in their home. Make sure everyone enjoys the festive season by reading our top tips on how to ensure your guests have the perfect stay and how you can knock one less worry off your holiday to-do-list.

Beforehand
1. De-clutter
First things first; you’ve got a few weeks to go before the big day so use this time wisely. It’s time to make a little extra room in your life. Having a general clean out will instantly give you more space to work with when preparing to entertain the family over Christmas holidays. You’ll feel instantly better knowing you’ve organised a little extra space for guests. Start with your kitchen, making sure you’ve got all the equipment necessary for cooking for all your guests. Second go through all your bedrooms and clean them out – be ruthless; maximise your space. Our top tip is to rent some Big Yellow Self Storage for a month to temporarily house additional bedroom items, so you can fit in those additional beds and make sure everyone’s not tripping over each other. Storage prices begin at £7 per week.

On the day

2. Put all the children together
Kids love a sleepover and what better way to celebrate the holidays than by having one big slumber party with all the siblings and cousins. Dedicate a room as a “kids zone”, set up some games and toys, and let their imaginations do the rest. Set up some comfortable airbeds for the children to sleep on and bring in some sleeping bags and pillows. You can buy airbeds from the big supermarkets from around £10 in both pink and blue to keep them happy!

3. The Parents and The In-Laws
Your parents and the in-laws are definitely the ones to impress this Christmas season. If you don’t have a guest bedroom or much room to spare don’t despair! Find a quiet location away from the hustle and bustle and set up a peaceful bedroom for them to stay in. If you prefer to give them your own room as the more comfortable option, great! Provide a space close to all amenities they may need to access while visiting. Quality, self-inflatable air mattresses can be found at bigger high street stores, taking the huffing and puffing troubles away from you. These airbeds range from £49.00-£80.

4. Suggest affordable accommodation nearby
If you’ve simply run out of room, don’t fret. Suggest to aunts and uncles a few affordable choices for accommodation. Many pubs will have cheap rooms available and Bed & Breakfasts are always a great substitute, offering a homey feel. Check out online discount accommodation websites like bedandbreakfasts.co.uk, easybedandbreakfasts.co.uk or cheaphotels.co.uk.

5. Seating everyone around the Christmas Dinner
It’s always difficult finding a place for everyone to sleep but it’s equally important to be able to fit everyone around the dining table for that family Christmas dinner. Creating a kid’s table is an easy way to make more room for the adults at the main table. It’s an easy way for the children to be entertained and not lost or bored in the adult conversations. If your table is not big enough, additional folding chairs and folding tables can be found at a variety of shops. Simply throw a festive tablecloth over top and no one will know the difference.

Enjoy the holiday season!

Remember that room in the house that you never use? Which room you say? You know, the big one with lots of space, also known as the loft! That’s right, the loft, and all it takes to utilise this space is a loft conversion. By doing this you will not only increase the space in your home, but will add to the house price, meaning although it may be an expensive cost upfront, you’ll more than make this back on sale.

There are a few types of loft conversions for you to consider. Your decision should not only be on the style of your roof, but your budget, planning restrictions and preference. Types of popular loft conversions include:

1. Velux: Velux windows are installed within the existing line of the roof. The structure of the roof is not changed and therefore planning permission isn’t usually required (it’s always good to check though)! Because extensive alteration is not required, the costs are kept down.
2. Dormer: For this type of conversion an extension is added to the roof. This allows extra floor space and headroom within the loft. Dormers protrude from the roof, normally at the rear of the property. Great for lofts with limited space, they are most often seen on average 3 bedroom semi- or terrace houses because of relatively low costs and simple construction.
3. Mansard: These types of conversions add two slopes, one almost horizontal and the other almost vertical. Named after the 17th-century French architect Francois Mansart, these loft conversions really maximize the space of your loft and most often require planning permission.

Now that you know the types, the next step is finding out if you need planning permission and after taking the necessary actions, getting a quote.

There are many reasons to get a lot conversion, below are Big Yellow’s favourites:

1. Another room. Your home may feel a little smaller since you moved in or your family could be growing. Either way, converting your loft can provide you with another room. Tucked away at the top of your house, you could use it as a guest room, an office, a play room or even a gym. Whatever you use it for, we’re sure the space will not go unused!
2. Extra Value. Were you looking to move home, but has the decrease in house prices made you have second thoughts? Getting a loft conversion can buy you extra time during the financial crisis. After your conversion and when house prices inevitably recover, your home will be worth significantly more with an extra room. Thus, making a loft conversion a solid investment.
3. Environmental Concerns. Are you environmentally inclined? Are you a frantic recycler? With ever growing concerns about our environment it is important that we all do our bit to reduce our carbon footprints. Getting a loft conversion will not only give you space to add environmentally friendly features, such as solar panels, but blinds that have a thermal silver backing can be fitted to your Velux windows, these are great for reducing heat loss from your roof. Both these will not only decrease your carbon footprint, but will also significantly reduce your energy bills.

So there you have it, a loft conversion will really help you get the most from your home. But what to do with all the stuff you have stored up in the loft? At Big Yellow Self Storage we have a solution. For as little as £7 a week we can store the bits from your loft while it’s being converted and before you find a new home for your things.

Have you had a loft conversion? How was it and how did it benefit your house? At Big Yellow we would love to hear from you!

We produce more rubbish at Christmas than during any other time of the year! So amongst all the mince pies and cracker jokes, why not spare a thought for what all this festive fun might be doing to our environment. Big Yellow Self Storage have some tips to help you have an eco-friendly Christmas this year to help ease that post-Christmas guilt.

Use a real Christmas tree
While an artificial tree may be more convenient to pull out every year they are not the greener choice. They’re made from plastic which is not recyclable or from a renewable source. Real trees not only look and smell more authentic they also help to remove carbon from the atmosphere while they are growing. So supporting the business of Christmas tree farms is important to the environment!

After your tree has been fully enjoyed over the festive period and starts to brown it’s important to recycle it properly. Your first option is to locate Christmas tree recycling centers near you. These centres are usually sponsored by the local government, which means that they won’t charge you for recycling your holiday tree. If you were feeling super green you can even try to replant the tree in your yard if you want to keep its memory alive. All you have to do is research the appropriate procedure for replanting or consult nearby agricultural stores for help.

Limit food waste
Everyone seems to overbuy food at Christmas just to make sure we are as stuffed as the Turkey! So guaranteed there will be plenty left over food to deal with. Using these Christmas leftovers can be more inventive than a plate of turkey sandwiches. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has leftover recipes and meal suggestions to help you make meals for Boxing Day and beyond, such as their Christmas Pudding Strudel. Also, make sure you put all your vegetable peelings into a compost bin. Then this can be used on your garden to help the spring planets grow!

Eco-friendly gifts
Make the gift of giving even more special by helping out the environment too! You could sponsor an animal or give a membership to a charity or environmental organisation for Christmas. Check out Oxfam Wrapped for loads of ideas. What’s more, there are an increasing number of ethical goods coming into the market so why not get involved with giving an eco-friendly gift. There is a great range at Nigel’s Eco Store.
For all those unwanted gifts received, why not donate them to charity or locals hospitals for the patients to enjoy.

Go natural
Why not let Mother Nature decorate your home this year for an original, natural and biodegradable look. You can spice up your house with anything you like; seasonal berries, Ivy and evergreen branches look great, and get that festive smell with some cloves in oranges. This will save money from buying various artificial decorations and you can put it all in the composter when Christmas is over. If you feel like getting creative there are some great ways at All Free Craft to make your own decorations out of random household items. Check out the recycled light bulbs!

Big Yellow Self Storage continues to try and be the most environmentally sound Self Storage Company in the UK. We’ve recently come in the top 4% of companies in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Performance league table! Have a “Happy Green Christmas” everyone!

This year Big Yellow Self Storage Armadillo are once again doing the Christmas toy appeal to ensure that no child, wherever they are this Christmas, doesn’t wake up on Christmas morning without a present.
This is the third year running that we have been heavily involved in cash for kids toy appeal. We provide not only the storage space but act as a donation station and even volunteer our time to sort and help distribute the presents.

We have donated 150sqft for 6 weeks; however also have given an ongoing 80sqft room throughout the year. Meaning this year we have donated the equivalent of £2618.00 of space for FREE.

This year is promising to be even more successful than the last year, and we will also be decorating a small area of our branch into a special Christmas grotto to feature on the Viking Fm video.

See if you can make a difference to one child’s life this Christmas, all the details here: http://www.cashforkids.uk.com/

‘Tis the season to be jolly – fa la la la la…or is it more the season to be stressing that this month’s pay check might not quite stretch to that perfect Christmas you have been dreaming about? Well fear not, Big Yellow Self Storage are here with some great tips to help you have a merry and economical Christmas.

1. Get creative
Why not get creative this Christmas and save a few pennies by making your own cards. Recycle last year’s cards and turn them into this year’s cards. Simply cut out the decorative part of the card (you could also use wrapping paper) and attach it to plain cardboard. Use markers, glitter and whatever else you fancy to spruce it up. If you are feeling particularly arty you can try making your own festive pop-up card in the shape of an angel, reindeer or Christmas tree and decorate it however you like. It will be extra special being a one-off original Christmas card that has your own personal touch. While you’re at it, why not go the extra mile and make your own gifts as well! Get crafty and think what skills you have that can be transformed into original gifts. These could be knitting a scarf, threading a necklace or baking some treats. If craft isn’t your game why not customise something you already have, like putting a witty slogan on a t-shirt or revamping a picture frame with a picture of you in it.

2. Cheat
Everyone enjoys a glass (or two) of bucks fizz around the Christmas season but why splash out on real champagnes when the cheaper own brand labels are just as good. In fact a survey reported that these own brand bottles actually tasted better then the expensive brands as well. Why scrimp to keep up with a fancy label when more is definitely more at Christmas.

And while we’re at it, do you really need to have a Turkey? With this year’s Turkeys going up in price by up to 33% according to The Mirror maybe you could switch to a couple of large Chickens instead? With Turkeys costing around £35+ depending on size, 2 large Chickens will cost from only £10 upwards saving you around £25!

3. Discount Sites
There seems to be a trend of discount voucher sites going on, so why not get in on the action and get a reduced present or activity for someone’s Christmas gift. These sites cut-prices on a range of offers ranging from a manicure to driving around a race track. Also you get to save on wrapping paper! Try Living Social, Groupon or Key Noir for starters.

4. Be super organised
If you’re really thrifty you could get next year’s Christmas sorted just days after the last piece of tinsel has been taken down. You can get good-quality wrapping paper, decorations and cards in the post-Christmas sales when discounts reach as high as 75 per cent. It can be difficult to think about presents straight after Christmas but to ease the financial burden in December you could buy presents throughout the year. This will have the additional benefit of adding more variety to the present collection as you avoid that last minute rush to buy festively patterned socks and pyjamas. Best of all, when that merry season comes around you can be chilling out enjoying all the classic Christmas films with a glass of eggnog, while the the mad Christmas rush whirls around you, safe in the knowledge that you have already got your (discounted) Christmas organised and ready to go. To avoid anyone suspecting your efficient Christmas preparations why not store all your early Christmas purchases with Big Yellow Self Storage and your family will be none the wiser.

If you need help storing you presents, Big Yellow Self Storage offers space from as little as £7 a day.

If you are in the process of selling your house, why not declutter your home to make it appear more spacious? Maybe your house has been on the market for a while or maybe you have only just decided to sell. Either way, by decluttering your home, potential buyers will be able to see the space available; enabling a faster decision to be made. House Selling Tips state it is a proven fact that a cluttered house is much harder to sell than a minimalistic, uncluttered house. If you’re not sure where to start decluttering your home, check out our tips and tricks:

1. The Living Room
This is usually the first room that buyers will go into. According to the Daily Telegraph, it takes just 8 seconds for people to decide if they will buy a house or not, so you need to ensure this room makes a good impression. Freshen up your living room, give it a lick of paint and organise your clutter. Think about what’s stacked up on the coffee table; does your pile of Vogue magazines really need to be there?

2. The Bedroom
Now we come onto the area that only you and your partner should ever see! Phil Spencer, property expert and presenter for Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location and Relocation, Relocation argues not only the importance of decluttering your bedroom; but also the importance of depersonalising the space. Potential buyers need to picture themselves living in your house, so store away photographs, posters and beauty products. Allow potential buyers to imagine their belongings in your house.

3. The Spare Room
This room is usually where things go that you don’t necessarily use anymore but you don’t want to throw away. Maybe it’s an old sofa or a chest of draws that’s too good to get rid of? Things are expensive; you can’t just throw them away, they may fit perfectly in your new home! If this sounds like you, why not hire a storage room? Allow buyers imaginations to run wild by letting them see all of the space available.

4. The Garage
Another year gone, another year the camping equipment wasn’t used. You will use it-eventually. Does this sound like you? Store it away until next year! Give your garage a much needed clear out and allow potential buyers see how much space they have to work with. Remember, many people see the Garage space as another room, so don’t just hide it away!

5. The Coffee
And one final one that’s always a winner is to get a pot of fresh coffee on the go when you have potential buyers visiting. The house will smell fresh and welcoming and give people that homely feeling!

If you need more space to move things out of your house whilst selling, why not try a Storage Room from Big Yellow Self Storage? From only £7 a day to rent, you could be adding £1000’s to your potential value by de-cluttering!

Photo by Disposable Dreams

With the year winding to a close, there is no better time to start thinking about next year. Want to stay ahead of the crowd? Read our top tips for cool things to collect in 2012 and get a head start to your collection.
1. Vinyl records: With most people downloading music, and mp3s taking over, you’d think that that the nails were already in the coffin for vinyl, and yet with the current trend for all things retro, there’s been a surge in sales from specialist shops. This year in the UK sales of vinyl records have increased by 55%, and are expected to increase even more so next year, and prices are continually rising with some albums changing hands for thousands of pounds! Maybe it’s the smell, maybe it’s the feel, but whatever it is, vinyl is hot for 2012! From the art work to the insert and linear notes, vinyl allows the individual to have a physical connection to their music, a talisman if you will. So why not kick start your collection by heading down to your local record store and get crate diggin’.

2. Vintage cameras: Instagram, Hipstermatic, Lo-Mob, the list of vintage camera apps goes on. Why not go for the real thing? Vintage cameras can be picked up at charity shops, car boot sales and auction sites such as ebay very cheaply. Not only will this start a great photography hobby, but also has an element of spontaneity; not knowing how each camera will process your shots. Rest assured; you will always get that cool authentic vintage feel to your photos. Vintage cameras also double up as great ornaments in your home, adding a touch of class to your bedroom, living room or wherever else you choose to display them.

3. DVDs: With the current financial uncertainty and people up and down the country tightening up their purse strings and going out less and staying in more. Watching films have become a lot more popular. There is nothing cooler than having friends round to watch a film and when that age old question of, “what do you want to watch” comes up, revealing your extensive film collection with everything from action classics to French new wave to romance to B-movie horror. A well stocked DVD collection will mean you are never stuck with what to watch and you can have something for everyone. Staying in has never been so much fun! PLUS you can pick up DVD’s from car boot sales or on sites such as Ebay for pence!

4. Bike parts: Everybody seems to be biking, whether it’s fixed gear, racing, BMX or town bike – people are going 2 wheel mad! It’s not a case of walking into a shop and riding out with a new bike though. The latest trend is buying a frame and building up and/or restoring it with your own parts. This will ensure that whatever style of bike you chose, it will be unique and serve your particular propose for it. You can pick up bike parts anywhere and everywhere, and if you’re not a natural at putting bits and bobs together you can find help on online guides.

At Big Yellow Self Storage we realise that collections can take up a lot of space. You may want to take the “in with the new, out with the old” approach. If you do, we have heaps of storage space for all your things. If you decide your collection isn’t working for you – you can always come and get your old things back.

Share your tips of cool things to collect in 2012 with us. At Big Yellow we are always looking for the next big thing.