Packing Tips
How to pack and load a storage unit so nothing is damaged and everything is easy to find. These are plain, practical steps that work in any unit we rent.
Start with the boxes
Most of the trouble people have in storage starts in the box. Get this part right and the rest is simple.
Use one or two box sizes
Boxes of the same size stack square and hold their own weight. A pile of mixed sizes leans, and a leaning pile falls over. Pick one common size for most things and a smaller size for heavy things.
Heavy items go in small boxes
Books, tools, records and dishes belong in small boxes. A large box packed with heavy items is too heavy to lift safely and the bottom tears out. Fill the gaps in every box with soft material so nothing shifts, and tape the bottom seam twice.
Label on more than one side
Write the contents and the room on the top of the box and on at least two sides. Once boxes are stacked you can only see one face, so a label on the top alone is a label you cannot read.
Loading the unit
The unit is a room, so treat it like one. You want to be able to walk in and reach things without unloading everything first.
Leave an aisle down the middle
Load along the two side walls and the back wall, and keep a clear path down the centre from the door to the back. It costs you a little floor space and saves you a great deal of time on every visit. Turn boxes so the labels face the aisle.
Use the height
Every indoor unit here has an extra-high ceiling of 10 ft, and the container units are 8 ft high inside, so most of your space is above your head. Put the heaviest and sturdiest boxes on the bottom, lighter boxes on top, and stack in even columns rather than one tall leaning pile. Do not stack anything so high that you cannot reach it safely.
Keep what you need often near the door
Before you start loading, set aside the items you expect to come back for, such as seasonal clothing, sports equipment, tools or records you are still working through. Load those last so they sit at the front. Everything you are simply storing for the long term goes to the back.
Lift furniture and boxes off the floor
Set wooden pallets or a few flat boards down first and load on top of them. A few centimetres of air under your belongings keeps them off a concrete floor, and it means a spill or a bit of tracked-in snow from the drive-up doorway never reaches the bottom box. This matters most for upholstered furniture, mattresses, cardboard and anything made of particle board.
Protect what you cannot replace
Wrap mirrors, glass and framed pictures and stand them on edge rather than laying them flat, because weight on a flat pane is what cracks it. Keep lamp shades separate and never inside a box with heavy items.
Furniture, beds and appliances
These are the items people most often load in a hurry and regret later.
Take beds and tables apart
Dismantle bed frames and take the legs off tables where they come off. A frame in pieces stores flat against a wall and takes a fraction of the floor space of an assembled one.
Put every bolt, screw and bracket in a bag, label the bag, and tape it to the underside of the headboard or the table top it came from. Loose hardware in a drawer somewhere is hardware you will not find in a year.
Stand mattresses and box springs upright against a wall, flat side against the wall so they do not bow, and cover them with a proper mattress cover. Use breathable cloth covers on sofas and upholstered chairs rather than sealing plastic tight against the fabric, because moisture trapped under tight plastic has nowhere to go.
Drain and dry appliances first
Fridges, freezers, washers, dishwashers and dehumidifiers all hold water. Disconnect them a day or two before you move them, drain the hoses and the drip trays, and wipe the inside dry.
Store a fridge or freezer with the door left ajar, not latched shut. A sealed door on an unplugged fridge is how you end up with mould and a smell you cannot get out. A rolled towel or a piece of wood in the gap will hold it open.
Coil the hoses and the power cords and tape them to the back of the appliance so they are not lost. Boxes stored inside an appliance should be light ones only.
A few last things
What not to bring, how to keep track of your boxes, and how to plan your moving day.
Do not store food of any kind
No tinned goods, no dry goods, no pet food, no birdseed, no case of pop. Food in a closed unit attracts mice and insects, and a jar or a tin that leaks will ruin whatever is stacked under it. Empty the pantry boxes before they come here. The same goes for anything flammable, such as gasoline, propane cylinders, paint thinner and lawn mower fuel, so drain the mower and the trimmer before they go in.
Keep an inventory list
As you fill each box, number it and write down what is inside on a single sheet or a notebook. Number the boxes on the outside to match. When you need one item eight months from now, you read the list instead of opening twenty boxes. Keep the list at home with your padlock key, and take a photo of it on your phone as a spare copy. You supply your own padlock here and you hold the only key, so nobody else can go into the unit and check for you.
Give yourself room to work on moving day
There is drive-up access to the units, so you can back right up to your door and carry things in a few steps. Come earlier in the day if you have a large load. We are open 7 days a week, 9 AM – 6 PM, so plan to be finished by closing.
Not sure what size you need?
Call us and we will help you pick the right unit.