If you’re thinking about moving house any time soon then this post could well make what can be one of the most stressful times of your life a little easier. With the help of self storage!
This post was written in collaboration with Safestore – a fantastic option for your stuff when you’re going through a house move. As always, all words and opinions are my own. CLICK HERE to find out more about Safestore’s self storage services and offers.
There are many ways that moving house can be an ordeal – so much to organise, plan and work out.
One of the most overwhelming parts for most of us is actually having to tackle all the stuff that we own.
It’s one of the only times in our lives that we have to actually handle everything in one go.
From the roof to the ground and everywhere in between. I feel exhausted just thinking about that task – do you?
So – based on my own experiences with moving house and helping others move, I started to realise that there was help out there that could make it so much less traumatic.
That help? – self storage facilities – storing your stuff away from your home for a while.
Where these places come into their own are at times when you’re in transition and need a helping hand.
They are another person in your moving team, and they can be totally invaluable to the whole process.
Here are the 4 main reasons why self storage works so well at this time. I hope that they help you or someone you know when next faced with moving house.
Reason #1 – Makes Your Current Home More Saleable
Space sells. Fact.
Buyers are all looking for a home that will house all their stuff with room to spare and room to grow.
It’s one of the biggest reasons to move.
It therefore makes perfect sense for you to make your home feel as spacious as possible when you have it on the market. That just can’t happen if you have too much stuff everywhere.
And we all have stuff – it’s natural.
Our possessions build up as you live in a home over the years, and you can become blind to it. Especially in the out of sight areas such as the loft, basement or shed.
The trick is to tackle that stuff in a way that helps in the move – and that’s a two step process:-
Step One: –
You need to have a full declutter of the space.
This will ensure that you will only be moving what you should. After all, do you REALLY want to pay for moving what you don’t need any longer?.
Once the decluttering has been done, you’ll be left with everything that needs moving.
That’s still quite daunting though, and that’s where the next step comes in.
Step Two: –
Store the items that you don’t use frequently or won’t need before you move out of the house now.
You want your home to look fresh and uncluttered – so considering using self storage for items that you won’t need while selling makes perfect sense,
It’s giving your home space to sell more quickly – while still keeping everything you need safe.
How much better would your home sell if the following were true: –
- Lofts are bare so that buyers can see the space (great if it’s a good space for a future loft conversion)
- Garages can show that they can fit a car in!
- Sheds are shown as valuable storage space rather than clogged up with everything that’s just ended up there over the years…
- Cupboards can be opened without fear of avalanche
- The tops of wardrobes can be bare
- Shelves can be less cluttered
- Room sizes are clear – and not obstructed by lots of stuff
- Buyers aren’t distracted by an overflow of your personal items everywhere.
Reason #2 – Gives You Less Work To Keep Your Home Looking Great When Selling
When selling a house you want to ensure that it’s looking its best all the time – ready for potential buyers to view, and hopefully get that all important sale as quickly as possible.
That takes a lot of work.
Housekeeping goes up a notch for many – and it can be tiring – especially if your home is on the market for a while.
If you store the less used items away from the house while selling, then it stands to reason that you will have less to clean / maintain during that time.
You can spend some of this saved time doing other things related to the move instead – a perfect solution!
#3 – It Creates A Staged Move Rather Than Doing It All In One Go
Packing up your house is a huge task – and can take ages.
If you can start the process and do a chunk of the packing well ahead of the main move, your workload will feel less and you may well feel more motivated once you get started which will help keep momentum up.
Letting some stuff go into storage earlier allows you to move out in stages – you can tackle things in an organised way – and there’s no reason why you can’t add a few more boxes each week as well – every little helps!
PLUS – It also helps you to move into your new home more slowly as well – so you aren’t as inundated with boxes from Day 1.
#4 – It Will Show You What’s Important
If you’ve decluttered at the start of your moving process, then in theory everything you have left (and may have stored) will be what you truly want/need.
It doesn’t always work like that though, and storing it away can help you to see what you truly want/need rather than what you think you do.
We are only human, and we attach strong bonds to our possessions – so it’s likely that we feel that we have to keep more than we really do.
Living without some of your things for a while may help you realise that you don’t need it after all…
It may be a great stepping stone to some extra decluttering and is a good halfway house before letting it come into your new home and clutter it up all over again.
Reason #5 – Allows You Room To Do Things In Your New Home
Moving into your new house is an exciting time.
There’s no doubt that you’ll have certain things you want to tackle pretty much immediately.
Trouble is – as soon as you get the keys and step through the door, the removals van is right behind and ready to unload everything for you.
This means that the new house gets filled and then the projects have to wait until you have time to move things around and make space for doing them.
What if you could keep things easier by keeping more items in storage while you do things like get the carpets cleaned, redecorate, tackle electrics or other projects?
For example – when we last moved house we bought a home that needed a lot of work done before we actually moved in.
The process was daunting to say the least, with tradesmen to organise and a home that we wanted to sort asap – but putting our stuff in storage and not having to think about it at all during this time made it so much easier.
I for one didn’t want to have to cope with moving everything around as work was being completed room by room (that’s how damage occurs…), we were able to re-carpet with ease, and I’m not one for having to dust everything clean every night once brick dust settled etc… !
If you keep more of your stuff in a self storage unit even just for an extra week after moving, then it could make all the difference to getting those things done with less hassle.
Less worry about moving and possibly breaking things, less hands on work for you to keep moving things around.
You can then unpack properly once those jobs were done and bring things in slowly in a more manageable way.
Sounds good – doesn’t it!
So – next time you’re tackling a house move, think about it as a project that can be done in stages –
1. Declutter to get rid of what you really don’t need/want to move
2. Store what you don’t need in a storage unit while the move is taking place so that you make your home look great and save cleaning time
3. Move out of the old house in stages – spreading the time consuming task of packing up your stuff
4. Move into your new home in stages and allow time for immediate projects first
Doing each of these (or even one) will transform your work load and help no end – and I hope that your move goes smoothly and without hassle.
And if you want to get started on decluttering straight away, why not check out this post all about decluttering for selling – good luck x
