Posts Tagged 'childhood memories'

All hands on deck: cleaning with kids

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Every parent has the same problem with young children getting sick of their toys, or simply growing out of them. The problem is that the house ends covered in toys rendered useless, and simply gathering dust. If this sounds familiar, and you cannot bear to just throw these expensive toys away then Big Yellow Self Storage are here to help.

We offer units in a range of sizes, starting from just ten square foot, so if you plan to have more children you can store these toys for them, instead of shelling out more money in the future. As well as saving you money, this can also help to reduce dust which clutter, such as toys, tends to gather.

Cleaning your home can become quite a chore when you have to do it on your own. Working with other people to clean and organise your home makes the bain of your life suddenly become a more manageable task, and with a few minutes of planning also a great family activity.

While children are on holiday for the summer, getting them to help with fun cleaning games, such as using sock puppets to make dusting fun. You could also incorporate cleaning into play by allocating time to create the sock puppets before the cleaning begins.

Racing is another engaging way to get family members on board. For this you will need to plan and prepare- set a task, establish your expectations and introduce any rewards and forfeits before the game begins so that everyone involved knows the rules and plays by them. A great example of this is to set the task of collecting 5 items from one room each and racing to be the first to put them back in their rightful place. Within 10 minutes the whole room will be clean. You could also incorporate relay style races and team races to vary the games week by week.

Musical cleaning is an excellent way to make chores entertaining and enjoyable. Create a circuit or running order of chores and establish individual starting points for each participant. Begin the music and explain that when the track changes you move on to the next chore.

A combined effort not only allows cleaning to be completed more quickly but it also means that you have combined two of what should be daily tasks into one. Keep checking back to our Big Yellow Blog for more tips and tricks on cleaning and de cluttering during the summer months. For self storage solutions that match all your needs, check out http://www.bigyellow.co.uk/personal.

Sock puppet via Pinprick on flickr

Sock puppet via Pinprick on flickr

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Tips and Tricks: Storage for Student Clutter

Friday, July 8th, 2011

It only seems like yesterday that your children left for their first term of the year for university, but it’s already that time again when they are bringing back all the clutter they initially took with them.
For those who have finished their degrees completely, most parents will be dreading the returning clutter, which may have doubled in size over the past three years with added University books, notes, sports equipment, DVDs and household items. When your family home is already short of space, this can be a frightening thought for most parents. If you are one of these parents, fret not, as Big Yellow Self Storage is here to help.

Big Yellow’s rooms are available in a range of sizes, access to which is available seven days a week. If you are unsure how long you will need self storage for, you can rent a room for as little as seven days, or as long as you may need.

It is even possible to down or upgrade your room size whenever required, so you could even rent a room whilst you sort out what to do with the clutter, and whether or not your children are set to go back to University in September, we have terms which are adept to anyone’s Self Storage needs.

If your children are worried about you having access to their belongings, you can reassure them with the fact that the space is locked with their own padlocks, so, if desired, only they have access to their prized possessions.

Big Yellow Self Storage realize that moving and packing can be one of the most stressful things to deal with, especially with young adults eager to hold on to memories of their University life. However, we are here to make the process as manageable as possible. We even deliver boxes to your home, ready for packing.
If you can identify with any of the above please visit www.bigyellow.co.uk to get a personalized quote and find out more about how you can use Self Storage units to eliminate your childs’ hoarding tendencies.

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Make Some Space, Make Some Money

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

You don’t have to be David Dickenson to spot a valuable item in your home. Having a good search around your home may uncover some precious heirlooms you’ve previously overlooked. Most garages, lofts and sheds are crammed full of belongings, clearing out these spaces could have you laughing all the way to the bank.

There are countless success stories of people finding antique items in their homes worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds. Ian and Lynda Spires from Milton Keynes uncovered some old railway signs in their loft, worth an amazing £20,000. The signs were being used as make shift flooring.

Even if you don’t find a rare antique or priceless collector’s item in your house, it is a good opportunity to de-clutter areas which are getting a bit untidy. You will benefit from having more space in your home and it will be much easier to find your belongings when you need them.

Making a start can be difficult, as de-cluttering can be a daunting task. Tackle one room at a time and divide each room into sections to break up the workload. Set aside enough time to tackle each section and make sure you have everything you need to assist you before you start – like boxes, rubbish bags and cleaning products.

Have a good look through all of your drawers, shelves and cupboards. Keep an eye out for any unusual or old items – and if you find anything of interest, put it to one side to be valued later. Make you sure you organise everything neatly when you put it back.

Utilise certain areas for storage of items used less often, such as under the bed, the top of your wardrobe or under the stairs. Use storage boxes and vacuum packs to store these items tidily. At Big Yellow, we sell a range of boxes and vacuum bags in store and online, go to our Boxes Etc page to find out more.

Anything which is no longer useful should be donated to charity, or as a last resort taken down the local tip. For anything that you don’t want in your home but still want to keep, consider using self storage.

At Big Yellow Self Storage we have a range of self storage rooms available from 9 sq ft to 400 sq ft and you can easily access your things seven days a week. To find out more visit our Quote and Reserve Online page.

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Back To School: Reclaim Your Space

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

As the kids are preparing to start a new school year, it’s a great opportunity for you the reclaim the areas of the home. These spaces may have been taken over with toys and sports items throughout the summer holidays.

Shelving is one of the simplest storage solutions for your child’s belongings as they are kept together in one place. Children can easily find their things and will be able to see exactly where they need to be returned too. Not only are shelves convenient, they’re easy to assemble as they can be mounted directly onto your walls using an L-shaped bracket. The amount of shelving you use depends on the amount of space is available on the wall and the amount of things you need to be placed on them.

As children don’t need to store long clothing in a closet, you can gain extra storage space by lowering the clothing rod and adding an extra shelf above it. Not only will this provide extra storage space, but also the children will be able to reach their own clothes.

Toy bins and bin organisers are very useful for sorting toys into compartments and usually they don’t have lids so this will make it easy for children to access them. They’re a good choice for storing a collection of small toys and can easily rotate toys that are currently being played with one that aren’t.

Boxes are versatile as you can stack them and rearrange them to suit you and your children’s needs. They can often be used for storing larger toys that might not fit onto shelving, although play items can become lost or forgotten at the bottom of the box. You can be creative and give yourself more storage options by buying boxes of different shapes and sizes. They’re often decorative and if you were to use a wooden box you could put a cushion on top to make it a bench, as this is a useful way of hiding the storage.

Locating designated toy zones around the home will ensure that they don’t get cluttered around your living space. When you go to tidy their things up it will mean you don’t have to clean up every room in the house for clutter and as an added bonus you won’t have to go searching to find missing toy parts.

Donating unwanted toys is a great way of clearing the build up of items in their bedrooms and around the house. But sometimes toys are too precious and have too many memories to give away. To find out how you can benefit from storing your children’s toys in our self storage rooms at any of our stores, visit our Quote and Reserve Online page to get started.

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Tips and Tricks: Storing Precious Childhood Toys

Friday, May 21st, 2010

One of the most precious of childhood toys is the stuffed animal. It holds endless memories, attends countless tea parties and accompanies many kids everywhere they go. As such, when it’s time to put them away, a lot of attention needs to be paid to getting it right – whether it’s a short term or long term option.

First up – do you want to put them on display, or away for safe keeping? If it’s the former, you can use shelves to display the toys, bearing in mind that they’ll accumulate dust – so a boxed self storage room with doors might be a good option. Or, buy an easy to open toy box, though it’s important to consider safety when selecting furniture for a child’s room. Be sure that features such as height and weight are taken into consideration. You could also use a mesh laundry bag to keep toys off of the floor, or put smaller toys into the pockets of a shoe hanger for easy and visible storage.

If they’re being stored away from sight or in a self storage room, you can put unused stuffed animals in plastic bins with secure lids for easy storage in the attic or garage. If you purchase bins of the same size and shape, multiple bins may be stacked more efficiently and take up less space. Wrap antique bears or toys in acid-free tissue paper and store them in archival or acid-free boxes when not on display. Be careful not to over-stuff the boxes as this can matt or crush the fur.

You can find all manner of packing supplies at Big Yellow Self Storage to help keep your items in top condition when storing from plastic boxes to tissue paper. Visit our Box Shop online to view the range.

Have a handy tip to ensure precious keepsakes stand the test of time? Let us know your suggestions in the comments area below.

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Did You Know: Childhood Memories

Monday, August 31st, 2009

…that many people use their self-storage units to recreate their youth? One particular Swiss gentleman moved as much of the contents of his home as he could when he moved to another area. However, the most treasured item to be stored was a box of dust. Why so, you ask? Well, its scent reminded him perfectly of the slightly musty smell that belonged to the home he’d grown up in. Just sniffing it brought back floods of memories, which he decided to put to good use and replicated his original house exactly in a scaled down model within his unit.

We can’t promise you’ll find the exact smell of your childhood within one of our stores, but if you’d like to try and recreate it, we’ve got spaces that range from 10 sq ft to 500 sq ft or more, and we’ll give you the flexibility to move without penalty. You’ll only pay for the space you need.

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