You’ve found the perfect place to store your treasured items. Now, you can’t wait to bring everything over to your newly rented storage unit! To get you started, our friendly Thousand Oaks storage facility consultants have some advice. These tips will help you make the things you love storage-ready and easy to retrieve when you need them.

Here are the top five things to keep in mind as you pack your belongings at home and start organizing them inside your storage unit.

Packing for Storage

 

Label Everything

You can use the standard titles like “kitchen items,” “shirts,” etc… or spice things up a bit with descriptions such as “stuff from the bathroom”. Regardless of your label preferences, just make sure to give everything a name. You might think you’ll remember that the green tote on the very bottom meant summer clothes. But you could kick yourself later when you can’t remember if green meant Christmas decorations or swimsuits.

You don’t have to use a fancy label maker. Avery labels that you’d use for sending mail and packages work great for labeling boxes, bags, tubs and more. Trusty masking tape and a Sharpie work well too. Paint it, stencil it, carve it with scissors… just label it.

Use Your Drawers!

No, not THOSE kinds… the drawers in your furniture. Drawers make excellent storage spaces for smaller items or even oddly shaped pieces that don’t fit in other boxes. Remember to label these drawers as well. This way, you don’t have to go through everything to find that the pink pelican swimsuit you were looking for was in that green tote instead.

Get the Right Packing Materials

The right packing materials make all the difference in protecting your belongings during transport to your storage unit and for stacking once you’re there. Consider using sturdy boxes or plastic tubs to pack your dishes. Bubble wrap is excellent to keep items from moving around inside the container, but you can also wrap in newspaper, packing paper, or even towels.

Furniture and large appliances can also be bubble-wrapped, or you can use shrink-wrap for additional protection. If you don’t have time for that, some big blankets work well to cover pieces before you stack other items on top.

 

Stacking in Storage

 

Go High & Leave a Path

To make the most of the 10-foot height in your storage unit, adding a shelving unit may be a great option. So is setting furniture on its side and using interlocking tubs to safely stack higher. We also recommend bringing a step stool to extend your reach. This is useful both when stacking your unit and later when grabbing a few things here and there. Be sure to leave yourself an aisle as well. This makes it easier to navigate your storage unit. Like when you need to remove or return your tailgating supplies or that autographed book you wanted to show Aunt Mary.

Heavy Things on Bottom

From books to bowling balls, start stacking with the heaviest, widest items on the floor and then move your way up with lighter and smaller things. We know, it’s tempting to throw just about anything on top of a box of bedding. But trust us, it will be much easier to get what you need later (and avoid shouting “timber”) if you keep the weightier stuff on the bottom. Bonus: You can make this quicker if you label and sort your boxes into heavy and light piles before you start organizing your unit.

 

A Few Last Tips

A little bit of extra time now will save time later. Clean your items before packing them. Take the batteries out of everything so you don’t find crusty clumps of acid down the road. As you pack your boxes, create a simple inventory list. Or even draw a quick map of where things are situated in your storage unit. These will save you from rummaging through the house or all the boxes in your storage unit when you need the crystal candlesticks and holiday gnomes. Finally, check out more handy ideas here.

 

We hope that these simple tips will make moving your belongings into your storage unit easy and finding your way around your unit a breeze.

When you’re looking for a Thousand Oaks storage facility, and for a truly smooth experience, be sure to check out Hollywood Storage Center of Thousand Oaks on Old Conejo Rd in Newbury Park, CA. We’re the only storage facility that offers more than 50 sizes and the lowest price – guaranteed. Call or swing by 7 days a week from 8:30 am to 6 pm and talk to us about units for every need: home, business, safety deposits, wine storage, vaults, and climate-controlled units, too.

We’ll make it easy, so you can get on with your next adventure!