Deciding how to store items in your home is a very important part of de-cluttering and getting organised. The following tips will help you make quick and valuable decisions which will help you organise all areas of your home.
Hallway – Sort through your collection of scarves, hats, coats and other items of clothing that take up space. You can keep the items that are used daily or weekly as any of the excess items can be moved into a nearby cupboard, donated to charity or put in a self storage room.
Living Room – Old books, DVDs and CDs are the usual culprits so lose the bits and pieces and only display your most prized possessions.
Kitchen – The main source of frustration in a kitchen is overstuffed cabinets and drawers filled with duplicate kitchenware, dishes that are used only on special occasions, mismatched containers and appliances that you no longer use. If you can’t bear to part with an item consider relocating it or putting the items in storage.
Closets – It’s time to be strong and clear out those items that haven’t been worn in the last year, no longer fit or are out of style.
Bathrooms – Throw away any items that have expired or those that are no longer in use. Items such as toothbrushes can be kept in holders to save space and keep them clean.
Office – Any paperwork that can be found on a website or email should be recycled. Filing systems can help you minimise the inflow of paperwork and help reduce your existing paperwork piles.
Kids Room – Teaching children the concept of ‘one in, one out’ can stop toys from becoming jumbled and cluttered on the floor.
Garage –When you clear space in your house, boxes of old clothing, sports equipment and extra furnishings usually end up in the garage and will never return inside your home. To create a vast amount of free space you can donate the items or keep them in self storage.
Spring is coming to an end, and summer is just around the corner. At this time of year, many people have spent weeks cleaning the house, de-cluttering, storing away stuff for safe keeping – and are feeling that air of change. If you’re planning to sell your home, the sites below will provide advice and gets things moving from your own front room.
Tepilo – Sarah Beeny’s smarter way to buy, sell or let a property. Though some people will always prefer to use an estate agent, for those that like to take control of the sale/rental of a property, this site simplifies and explains the whole process – which is often perceived as something more complicated than it really is.
Globrix - In 2008, Globrix.com launched as a joint venture with News International, the media company behind The Times, The Sun and The News of the World. Since then, Globrix.com has quickly grown to become an award winning property search engine, listing more UK properties to buy or rent than any other property site.
Rightmove – Rightmove.co.uk is the UK’s number one property website, aiming to be the place for UK home movers to find details of all properties available to buy or rent. It’s a more convenient and effective way for people to find their next home, including: up-to-date property information, available for free, accessible 24 hours a day to anyone with web access and far more complete in terms of number of properties and depth of detail.
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.
Did you know that the magpie – like all crows – does not have a musical voice and instead uses shiny objects stored in its nest to attract a mate? As with so many aspects of evolution – its reputation for stealing things is actually a feature of selection within its species.
Magpies collect and display objects with reflective surfaces in an attempt to find a partner, as the bird with the most objects of highest quality gets the strongest mate.
The birds will reputedly steal jewellery, silver and metals, earning them the name ‘The Thieving Magpie’. Rossini wrote an opera of this name (La Gazza Ladra). It concerns a French servant-girl who is accused of theft. She is tried, found guilty and executed. Later, the true culprit is revealed: a magpie. In remorse, the town organises an annual ‘Mass of the Magpies’ to pray for her soul. The title The Thieving Magpie was later used by progressive rock band Marillion for one of their albums.
We don’t condone stealing at Big Yellow Self Storage. If you’d like to store your valuables for safe keeping we provide 24 hour digital CCTV and every self storage room has its own alarm for you own peace of mind. We also have coded electronic gates, perimeter security fencing, smoke detectors and fire alarms to protect your things. All corridors are well lit, and all floors have an emergency phone just in case you need us. Visit our Quote and reserve online page to find out how you can benefit from self storage.
Do you think our friend the magpie has a bad reputation? Or is it a symbol of something else? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Big Yellow Self Storage has been happy to give a helping hand to Read International, a fantastic charity and the UK’s one-stop-shop for book donations. They have crafted a hugely inspiring network of students who volunteer at 45 universities across Britain accepting any disused books from anyone and everyone and then ship these to Tanzania and Uganda. These much needed donations give kids in these countries the chance to benefit from books that their schools could never usually afford.
Over 564,000 books have been shipped to date, a great success for them! Because they’re so successful in their donation drives that they acquire a large amount of books before they’re all ready for shipping without having the facilities to store them all. This is where we have been able to help with the cause as we’ve donated space where Read International can house these, sort them and get them ready for shipping. We’re delighted to work with Read International and help them with their great achievements.
To find out how you can get active with READ International or donate books to the project please visit their Facebook group.
Recently our Norwich & Edinburgh branches helped Read International deliver a vast stock of books, view the images in our slide show below.
Do you have a favourite charity that you support? Let us know what yours is in the comment section below.
Our customers have busy lifestyles – that’s why we’re constantly evolving our service to make your experience as efficient as possible. We’re extremely proud to launch a completely new and unique service to help our new customers save time: Check in online.
With Check in online, we streamline the process of getting ready to move your items into our storage rooms, by offering you the ability to complete everything online.
What’s it all about?
• Our Check in online system helps you enter all your details before you move in, thereby saving you time when you arrive at Big Yellow
• Don’t worry if you don’t have all the information to hand – you can save and come back to the page as many times as you want before you move in.
• Our system helps you plan your self storage more effectively by sending you email reminders to help you get organised for your moving day, perfect for those looking for a stress free experience when renovating or moving home.
Check in online is now open to all reserved customers with internet access – if you’ve reserved over the phone or in person, no need to fret you can still check in online. Just ask our sales team for your customer number, or alternatively check your reservation confirmation email.
Cash for Kids is a Dundee-based charity we’ve supported for some time, providing self storage space at our local Armadillo site for hundreds of toys over the Christmas period last year. So when the chance came up to sponsor their annual fundraising quiz night, we signed up straight away. The event takes place tonight, at the at the Fairmuir Social Club and places are limited, so if you fancy yourself as a bit of a mastermind, contact the team on 01382 200 800 to get involved.
As you will have seen on TV, the BBC’s Sport Relief campaign is well underway, and we here at Big Yellow Self Storage have been getting involved too by giving England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio and his friends a home for their bikes before their awe-inspiring 2,888km cycle ride across Europe to raise £1m for Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation. We crammed 200+ bikes into our Twickenham store before Dallaglio and his team set off on their epic challenge which will see them cycling through all of the Six Nations countries, taking in each of the international rugby stadia along the way. The ride will end with team Dallaglio arriving in Murrayfield in time to watch England and Scotland fight it out for the Calcutta Cup on 13 March. See below for a picture of Lawrence at our Twickenham branch.
The aim is to raise £1m which will be split equally between Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation, whose beneficiaries include Cancer Research, DebRA, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Help for Heroes and the RPA Benevolent Fund. Along the way, Lawrence will be joined by sports stars past and present, including Ashes heroes Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan, Rugby World Cup winner Josh Lewsey and ex-England footballers Lee Dixon and Less Ferdinand. To keep track of the team’s progress and to make a donation click here.
Estimating how much space you will need for your storage items can be simple if you know what you want to store. First up, make a list of the items you want to store (this is also useful for helping to remember what’s in there, though it can often be fun to go back and have your very own treasure hunt!).
Next, group the items according to how you will organise them. Start by identifying items that will be packed in boxes and stacked, then prioritise boxed items you will want to access most frequently (they’ll go closer to the front of the room).
Divide by fragility or weight, as heavier, sturdier items should be stored on the bottom of stacked items with fragile items on top. Then consider awkwardly-sized items that won’t stack well, including how often you will need to use them, and how heavy they are.
Finally, take note of how these items will be packed and organised. Boxes and containers should be of uniform size, and should be stacked no more than a few boxes high (depending on the type of box you use).
You’ll then be able to estimate how much size you’ll take up, whether you want to keep some extra space for more items in the future – or simply pack things in and leave them till you move.
We’ve all had a special magazine or newspaper that we are tempted to keep for the future. It might be for reference or an historical event that we want to share with the future generations in the family. Sometimes these are valuable, but most often they won’t be worth much in monetary value. It’s the fact that “we were there” or how this event has touched our life that makes the edition important to us.
But how do you properly store those newspapers? Ask yourself some questions:
- Are these magazines and newspapers worth hanging on to, or can they be recycled to clear the clutter?
- Do you want to be able to go back and read the magazines and newspapers from time to time or are you happy to put them away and letting them sleep in a cool, dark place?
- Are your newspapers and magazines valuable or more sentimental?
- Do you want to keep them in pristine condition for 40 years or 400 years?
The biggest problem when storing paper keepsakes are pests! Here’s our top tips to ward them off:
1. Find a closet or drawer in a dry area.
2. Store and stack papers tight together, folded in half (as they are delivered).
3. Use a pest trap nearby, but not touching the papers.
4. Monitor your papers occasionally, checking for both pests and mold. Papers stored in this manner can stay in excellent condition for years.
Want more protection? Use the same basic methods as above, but purchase acid free folders to keep the papers in. Still store in that same dark, dry area and monitor for pests.
At Big Yellow Self Storage we offer clean pest free self storage, so you never need to worry about little nasties ruining your paper based keepsakes. Visit our “What is self storage page?” to find out how you can benefit from one of our self storage rooms.
Big Yellow Self Storage provides secure do it yourself storage rooms for domestic and business customers for as long or as short a period as required. We provide space that’s easy to arrange, secure – and affordable.
