Posts Tagged 'big yellow'

5 Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Space in your Home

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Regardless of whether you live in a mansion or your parent’s box room, there just never seems to be enough space! However, the answer need not be as drastic as moving to a bigger house. We’ve compiled a list of simple solutions that can increase the space in your home and give it that fresh feel.
First things first…

Move nonessential items out.
We all have things that we use a few times a year then leave in a corner for the rest of it. Whether it’s those woolly jumpers for winter or the paddling pool we can rarely enjoy in the British “heat”, not all items need to be within immediate reach at all times. Attics, garages and garden sheds; all of which are still close enough just in case the sun comes out, are great home storage solutions.

Buy multifunctional items.
There’s heaps of choice on the market for products with more than one function. Do you have too many DVDs and magazines in the living room or maybe too many cushions? Why not buy a footrest which doubles up as storage? Many furniture retailers now offer these handy additions in their ranges; see Harveys’ Paloma range for some stylish inspiration.

Talking of “two become one items” why not fold away your home office clutter?
For those of you who don’t have the luxury of a separate office, ‘fold away’ offices are ideal. Keeping all your work in one fold away place not only allows you to escape from the constant reminder of having that email to get back to, but it also allows you to relocate your office as and when space is needed.

Stack onwards and upwards.
The less floor space a room has, the smaller it feels. Go with your natural instinct and pile it high. Not only can you get a number of brilliant storage units that make the most of ceiling space, but even simple storage boxes can now be part of the decor thanks to the huge amount of choice on offer. Think woven baskets for a traditional feel or cool blue plastic to compliment a modern interior.

Don’t just change your room, change your habits.
Regular clearouts may seem like the boring option but the less stuff there is to store, the more space there’ll be! You’d be surprised by what can be achieved just by going around the house once a month removing clutter.

Remember, not everything is destined for the bin. Donate anything that is in good condition to your local charity shop and help others as you clean. On the other hand, you could consider storing your extra items at Big Yellow with storage space starting from just £5 a week.

Space-saving gadgets

Friday, April 27th, 2012

The April showers have hit us hard and fast, which surely means summer is round the corner? Who knows, but it seems about the right time to oust out the winter stragglers and spring clean the clutter.

Often when we try to de-clutter our homes, we find ourselves buying storage boxes and other compartments for a neater, more organised scene. However the result is much the same in that we still are as cluttered in terms of space, but with a tidy setting of organised mess.

Here at Big Yellow, we’ve been spying around to find some cunning gadgets to store away the winter warmers, the rainy reminders and the things you simply want to keep to yourself, away from prying eyes!

Great Space Savers
First up, is something worthy for an old school James Bond, from Secret Storage Books. Even if you’re an avid bookworm, there’s always room at the end of the bookshelf for a secret binder. No, unfortunately this won’t open up a secret tunnel to Blofeld’s lair, but it can hide your secret or most precious items: your future wife’s engagement ring, the key for the secret tunnel to Blofeld’s lair or simply your keys and precious cash.

Storage compartments in your bed seem to be a necessity these days, but when your bedroom is small, the drawers on the side of the bed are not easily accessible. Take a look at Adam Dachis’ excellent, secret storage creation using a bedspring storage unit from IKEA.

Now here’s a trick that’s taking the world by storm, the infamous Vacuum Compressed Bags. When you’ve created a hidden storage unit, trying to cram as many items in as possible is tasking. The Vacuum Bag is simple – fill them up with your winter clothes, suck out the spare air and there you have it, a compressed flat shape bag which can gives up to three times more space. This will go perfectly in the hidden storage under your bed.

If you’re really one for surprises, then you should build your own secret storage using Denise Nyland’s step by step guide. In just two hours, you can have your winter goods stored out of sight without using up any space within your room.

Of course, when it comes to squeezing your snowboards, skis and other large winter goods into your walls, you may find it is a task not worth the hassle. So find out where your nearest Big Yellow Self Storage is at www.bigyellow.co.uk and get it stored with us! Here at Big yellow we, offer you that space to rent from as little as £5 a week.

Spring clean your office!

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012



Are you drowning under a mountain of paperwork, do you struggle to find things you need in a hurry, is your desk looking like the base of a bonfire?

Fear not, help is at hand with our top tips for spring cleaning your home office and organising your desk. Follow these and you could save time hunting for that missing file you were after and improve creativity at the same time!

Starting out:

First off, spend a day getting organised and de-clutter. Arm yourself with a roll of bin liners, some archive storage boxes (from as little as £3.74) and handy tidy trays. Decide what you need daily, once a week, occassionally or never (but need to keep) and put them to one side, everything else – chuck!

Be ruthless, what do you really need, old bus tickets, flyers, invitations to events that have long gone can be binned. Tidy up loose cables and take off any accessories, old chipped coffee cups etc that you don’t need.

Shelving:

If you have space, build some storage shelves to tidy away files and documents you need to access on a regular basis, leaving your desk space clear for working on. There are plenty of options online and Big Yellow Self Storage also has a range of easy to assemble light but durable shelving that can store all your files, books and miscellanous items starting from just £50.

If there’s other stuff you just can’t get rid of (eg receipts, old tax returns etc.) these can be safely and easily stored away at Big Yellow Self Storage in one of our lockers from as little as £7 per week

Once you’ve de-clutterd it’s on to the fun stuff! Make your home workstation somewhere fun to work and brighten it up a bit. Here’s some inspirations:

stylish frames to hang photos on the wall like this one from Habitat for £10
handy desk tidy from Muji £6.95
Owl notebooks £7.00
cat highlighters £2.50
colourful polka dot pens £4.00
bird-themed sticky notes £6.00
bird-themed ring binders £3.00
butterfly paper clips £2.00
Buro stapler £11.00
Buro hole punch £11.00


Add a quirky twist with some funky desk accessories and gadgets for when you need a break from the work for inspiration

Cordless retro phone (no unsightly cables) £89.99
Canon camera lens drinking flask £17.99
Times crossword jigsaw puzzle £24.99
Gyroscope mini helicopter £28.79

Now you’ve got a de-cluttered office, take a deep breath and enjoy your new found space.

World Records – Bizarre Collections

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Everyone’s collected something at some point in their life. Sometimes finding your passion is as easy as looking around and saving the item that has always fascinated you. But, have you ever wondered what some of weirdest and largest collections people have created? We’ve compiled a list of the wackiest and largest collections from around the world that are all record breakers. How do your collections measure up?

1. Navel Fluff – Australian, Graham Barker has been collecting his own belly button lint since 1984, categorizing it by years in 4 jars. It all started when he wanted to find out how much fluff a person produces and how much it would take to fill a cushion. Barker plans to continue growing his collection, the largest in the world, until he’s no longer physically able to collect his own fluff.

2. Beer Steins – In Germany, farmer, Heinrich Kath, has the world’s largest collection of beer steins. Even though he doesn’t drink beer, Kath has over 20,000 steins since he started collecting in 1997.

3. Rubber Ducks – Valli Hammer has a collection of over 2,400 rubber ducks and no two look alike. She started collecting when she stumbled upon a few rubber ducks that belonged to her son, and from there her collection grew quickly.

4. Joker Playing Cards – The world’s largest collection of Joker playing cards belongs to Italian, Donato De Santis. After inheriting 2,000 cards from magician Fernando Riccardi, his collection has grown to over 8,500 jokers.

5. Airplane Sick Bags – Strange as it may seem, unique airsickness bags printed by different airlines have become highly sought-after collectors’ items in the age of the Internet and eBay. Holland’s Niek Vermeulen holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection, consisting of 5,468 different ones representing over a thousand different airlines. He uses photograph albums for storage.

6. Toothpaste – Dentist, Val Kolpakov, toothpaste is not something to be overlooked lightly. The American first learned about another toothpaste collector online in 2002 and was intrigued. Kalpakov started asking friends abroad to send him tubes of toothpaste from their respective countries and then scoured eBay. To date, Kolpakov has around 1,800 tubes of toothpaste and toothpowder, some donated by visitors to his website. He achieved his ultimate goal in 2010, being named Guinness Book of World Records holder for the largest toothpaste collection.

7. Celebrity Hair – If celebrity signatures and pictures aren’t good enough for you, what are you to do? John Reznikoff decided to start collecting celebrity hair instead. His collection includes celebrities who’ve been dead for many years already with Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe, as well as Edgar Allan Poe, and Abraham Lincoln. His collection is a part of Guinness Book World Records for being the largest and also the most valuable hair collection to date.

8. Banana Labels – To some banana labels are nothing but garbage, but to America Becky Martz, they’re special. Her collection of banana labels boasts over 10,000 labels She first became interested in banana stickers when she noticed an amusing one that read, “The Perfect Stocking Stuffer,” on a Chiquita banana. Since that incident around 1991, Martz has avidly been collecting banana labels from brands around the world.

Collecting doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby; in many cases it can even be free. Whether your collections resemble memories of a trip, your childhood, or a hobby that spans across the years, Big Yellow Self Storage can help you store your collectables from only £7 a week, clearing up space around your home for you to enjoy!

Big Yellow – One of the UK’s top green companies!

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

At Big Yellow we’re always on the lookout to be the best we can when it comes to being energy efficient and reducing our Carbon footprint, so we were hugely excited today to find out that we’ve come in the top 4% of companies in the newly released Carbon Reduction Commitment Performance league table!

The recognition comes hot on the heels of recent Green work we’ve being carrying out at Big Yellow stores including:

• Installing motion sensors in our stores to helping reduce energy consumption by 30%
• Adding eco-friendly ground source heat pumps
• Generating up to 20 percent of our energy from solar panels

Our quest to improve won’t stop here though as we’re committed to constantly ensuring that we remain the most environmentally sound Self Storage Company in the UK.

Top Tips: Recycling your old appliances & electronics

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

What do you do when you’ve got to get rid of your white goods when they need changing? Get the council round to take them away? Take them to a landfill site? Are old mobile phones cluttering up your drawers? It’s always a bit of a headache to get rid of electronics or potentially environmentally damaging appliances. So why not give them a second chance at life by reading Big Yellow Storage’s top tips and tricks for recycling unwanted appliances:

1. Freecycle. Freecycle.org is a website that allows people to give their unwanted appliances, electronics and furniture to others within their surrounding community. When you have something you want to get rid of why not post it up on Freecycle.org, it is a free service so you won’t get money for your old fridge, but you will receive a clear conscience knowing you’ve done your little bit for the environment and your old appliance has gone to a new home.

2. Donate to an organisation. We’re always looking for ways to help those less fortunate then ourselves, so why not consider donating your unwanted appliances or electronics to a charity such as The British Heart Foundation or Oxfam. This way you are lending a helping hand to a worthwhile cause and getting rid of your unwanted item in an environmentally friendly way. Everyone wins.

3. Have a delivery service take it away. Companies such as Argos, Tesco and Currys offer to take away your old appliance when delivering your new one and dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way. Some organisations offer this as a complimentary service but others charge a small fee. If your reason for not recycling comes from having too busy a schedule then this could be the perfect option for you!

4. Use a recycling specialist company. There are certain companies that have dedicated themselves to recycling certain appliances. Envirofone, Mazuma and Mopay are services that offer cash for old, unwanted mobile phones. In the same vein, The Furniture Reuse Network lists the addresses of re-use charities in your local area. Donate a PC assigns computer hardware to charities and educational establishments in need of parts. And finally The Royal Mail has a scheme entitled Simply Drop in which they offer money in exchange for your old MP3s, mobile phones and digital cameras. All that remains is which one to pick.

5. Selling items on eBay. What better way to recycle your old appliance and make some extra money than to advertise your product on a site such as eBay. While waiting for responses your appliances can be placed in self storage outlets to avoid cluttering up your home. Visit us at www.bigyellow.co.uk to find out more about our self storage services.

Re-cycle your old appliance

Re-cycle your old appliance

Image courtesy of Rich Anderson

Big Yellow boxes up some help!

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Big Yellow Self Storage Ilford uses their space to help people in need again.

On August 3rd a fire ripped through a flat in Ilford. One of the occupants was hospitalized with spinal injuries following a dramatic leap from the window to safety. The fire was finally put out with the help of 30 fire fighters.

Having seen the dramatic pictures in last week’s Recorder, Assistant manager Charlotte Mier felt compelled to offer as much help as possible and despite having already used up the store’s charity budget arranged a free storage room and boxes.

After the blaze, the partner of the woman, understood to still be in hospital this week recovering from spinal injuries, said: “Fortunately, we are both alive, which is most important, but I would like to give out my personal thank you to the community for all their assistance”.

This is the second family that the store has helped this year due to fires.

Big Yellow Self Storage Bike Challenge

Friday, August 12th, 2011

On the 19th of August at 7am four of our staff members will be taking on an amazing feat for charity. The Big Yellow Fellows (Mike FitzGerald (the team leader), Richard Shubrook, Paul Holmes and Luke McLaughlin) will, along with badminton coach Stephanie Cartwright, be riding 191 miles visting 34 Big Yellow Self Storage stores within the M25. All this is in aid of national charity Get The Kids Going!

Get Kids Going! works to enable disabled young people to get involved in all kinds of sports, anything from powerlifting to tennis. They’re currently preparing for the London paralympic games in 2012.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Jane Emmerson, loves the idea. “It’s absolutely fantastic to see what the Big Yellow Fellow boys are doing – they are certainly putting themselves to the test! We receive no funding from the Government or the Lottery and rely solely on donations from public so the money that Mike and the team raise will directly boost GB medal hopes at next year’s Paralympics helping to buy much needed equipment and sports grants.”

The Big Yellow Fellows endurance cycle is one of six Olympic events they’ll be recreating this year. This is all part of the Gold Challenge. This initiative challenges the public to take part in Olympic and Paralympic events to raise money for sports charities and promote sports among young people.

Good luck to everyone on the Big Yellow Fellows team!

If you’d like to get involved in the cause then you can visit their donation page. All contributions, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated. (If they reach £1000 then Mike will be having a leg wax. Just a little extra incentive for you there).

Did You Know that keeping a clean house can reduce your allergy symptoms?

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Did you know that you can control and even reduce your allergy symptoms just by having a clean house? There are an estimated 5.1 million people in the UK that suffer from asthma which is most commonly triggered by an allergy to the house dust mite which reside in the buildup of dust in your home.

In order to illuminate these, use allergy proof covers on cushions and bed linen or replace all carpets and rugs with wooden floorings. A simple and less expensive solution is to clean using a damp or static-charge cloth so that dust is not just stirred but removed completely-doing this regularly will minimise the opportunity for dust to gather in your home. Do away with large unwanted furniture and air rooms when cleaning to reduce the humidity of the room preventing damp and mold growth by decreasing the number of pollutants in the air.

Visit www.bigyellow.co.uk to find out more about how self storage can help reduce your allergy symptoms.

Stay Motivated While De-Cluttering 


Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Just like cleaning the bathroom – isn’t there always something else that’s more important to do rather than de-cluttering? As you squeeze another t-shirt into your already stuffed drawers, why not take the plunge and seriously deal with your personal storage?

Keep yourself entertained – Turn on your favourite tracks, switch on the radio and get busy with clearing up. Tackle the floor and surfaces first, then open up some cupboards and do a proper review. Starting with clothes in the bedroom should be easy… Just remember the six-month rule! You can keep special items with real, sentimental value in self storage units, see www.bigyellow.co.uk/personal.

Grab a regular cuppa – After the initial blitz, make yourself a cup of tea. Looking around with fresh eyes can often make all the difference. Personal storage at Big Yellow is ideal for all those things that you simply can’t bring yourself to throw away. Like your Mum’s old china? If you’re not using it for tea and cake, donate it to Charity or put it in storage for your own children.

Get your friends involved – to help and to donate to. Everyone knows that ‘Many hands make light work’. You’ll find that the things stored and cluttering up your rooms may be real treasures to someone else, and you can have a good catch up at the same time.

Change rooms regularly – by switching from room to room you can keep busy and cover the whole house. The home office can be the most difficult job. Visit www.bigyellow.co.uk as we can help with personal and business storage needs.

De-cluttering isn’t easy, but if you can keep your precious items safe in Big Yellow storage, there is real satisfaction and positivity created in having clean lines and empty surfaces in the home.

Image via shino 誌野 on Flickr

Image via shino 誌野 on Flickr