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.
We’re happy to announce that we have opened our new High Wycombe branch. The new store boasts some innovative eco conscious features to protect and enhance the local environment while providing great self storage facilities for our customers.
We’ve installed a Green roof and timber cladding on the outside of the building that backs onto the River Wye. Already, Mallard ducks have decided to make a home in our new back garden ecosystem.
The Green roof adds extra insulation to the top floor storage area and acts as protection from seasonal fluctuations in temperature and reduces heat reflection back into the atmosphere, which would have been reflected by 100% if it were metal. These contributions of green space ‘help reduce the urban heat island effect’ where some large urban areas may have average temperatures 1 degree centigrade above the surrounding countryside.
By retaining rainfall through the Green roof we can slow down the accumulation of water at ground level, further contributing to the cooling effects from evaporation and vastly reduce the risk of local flooding.
The river bank area around the store has been selectively cleared to give a variety of other plant species an opportunity to thrive and enhance bio-diversity in wildlife and habitat. Nesting boxes have been added to some mature trees and wood piles have been prepared to aid wildlife find habitat in the future.
We’ve also created a front façade to our store with a landscaped area featuring a row of Silver Birch saplings, a variety of shrubs and extensive lawn providing a natural buffer between the busy road an our reception parking area.
When it comes to redecorating your home, don’t forget about the dead space that could be used for storage. Look at corners of rooms, nooks and crannies in which shelving or units could be placed. Don’t be constrained by a box mentality though, you can find specially designed units to fit almost any space.
The retailers below will provide you with a source of furniture to suit almost any need – in any colour, size and shape.
Ikea – the Scandinavian company that is now synonymous with good quality basics at low prices. It is a hugely popular destination for model styled décor and accessories, but you can use its products as a base, then personalise them to fit into your home with a bit of creative thinking.
Graham and Green – opened its first shop in Notting Hill in 1974, and since then has expanded from humble beginnings to a delightfully identifiable, British establishment. Today, it has six beautiful shops; four catalogues each year and an online store that shows a vast collection of unique furniture and contemporary home accessories.
Lakeland – ‘the home of creative kitchenware’, sells innovative cookware appliances and utensils that are perfect for any contemporary home – as well as a range of truly brilliant storage ideas.
As you prepare to move house, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of clothing, possessions and gadgets that you don’t need any more. While the most important things that you can’t quite part with – or simply don’t quite need to be a part of your new home immediately – can go into self storage, the sites below will help you get rid of the things you no longer want and make some money in the process!
eBay - the original and biggest auction site, sell anything here from cars to computers on your own terms.
Gumtree – started in March 2000 as a local London classified ads and community site, it is designed to connect people who are either planning to move, or had just arrived in the city, and needed help getting started with accommodation, employment and meeting new people. Now a much more comprehensive offering, it covers 60 countries and allows you to find or advertise everything from a nanny for your kids to a bargain for the living room.
Amazon – Amazon.co.uk includes a feature in which you can enter your own goods into its seller’s marketplace. This means that you can add your books, clothes or toys to its main directory, and while buyers are scrolling through the products, they can choose your item if the price is right.
If you’ve just bought a new house, you might be worried about moving some of your most prized possessions. Not even insurance will restore those broken ornaments, chipped paintings and other valuables, so you may need to find a better alternative in securing them.
One of the options is to use self storage to put your mind at ease and take a lot of the stress out of moving. It’s not only a place to keep valuable items until you find a place for them in your new home, but can also act as a stopgap if you need to carry out building work.
More and more, people are doing their own DIY, particularly with the economic climate as shaky as it is now. It might even be the case that you’re renovating your existing place in preparation to sell. Either way, renting a self storage unit will allow you to place any number of belongings in a safe place, while you carry out the work you need to. Once you are happy with the state of your home, you can then move the safely stored goods to wherever they need to go.
Whether you require a small closet space to store a few things or you need a bigger area to keep the entire inventory of house, an office or business archives – self storage can help. To find out how you can benefit from self storage, visit our Quote and reserve online page to get started.
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.
Did you know that the most creative – and often efficient – use of innovative self storage strategy can actually be found in airports all around the world? From bras filled with snakes to primates stored in trouser pockets, some people try sneaking plainly ridiculous things through customs using methods that are quite frankly bizarre.
Custom officials at Melbourne Airport in 2005 became suspicious when they heard ‘flipping noises’ coming from underneath a woman’s skirt. Suspecting something fishy was occurring, they lifted it up to discover that she was wearing an apron of plastic water-filled bags containing 51 live tropical fish. Another smuggler tried to enter New Mexico with 16 packages of cheese stashed in his truck tires. However, he was busted by a border control X-ray machine and his truck confiscated as he’d failed to declare the extra goods.
Most bizarrely though, a man tried to pass through Los Angeles airport with two pygmy slow loris monkeys stored in pockets on his trousers. The man, Robert Cusack, 49, was travelling from Thailand and had previously drawn attention to himself after four rare birds of paradise escaped from his suitcase and flew over the heads of officials.
We don’t store living plants or animals at Big Yellow Self Storage but you can use our self storage for anything else you’d like for as little as a week, month, year or as long as you want. We only ask for seven days notice when you want to leave. Visit our Quote and reserve online page to get started.
What do you think of the sneaky tactics above? Got any stories you’ve heard about recently. Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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.
