Don’t start packing until you’re done reading

You need to put that baseball bat away, together with a bunch of chairs that you really never sit on and also those paintings you don’t like anymore, but have no clue what to do with them yet. Stop cluttering your house and go right now online and type “storage units near me”, because you know the time has come to tidy up that attic and put useless stuff that you cannot (yet) throw away. U-Haul locations are probably near you and more than available.

Pod storage unit

The Golden Rules of Stacking

Before you start the healthy process of eliminating those suffocating objects, you need a little guidance. You wouldn’t want to occupy a whole box with a pillow, nor stack heavy stuff on top of your grandma’s fragile vase. Some of these rules are obvious, some of them are exactly those things you only think about after you’re done doing them and realize you are, well, wrong. Before you empty all those Cabinets To Go and create some huge piles of random objects in the middle of the way, read below.

The Bible of Boxes

Pick them all in a uniform size. Check for the material they’re made of before you buy 30 pieces of them and realize they are as fragile as a snowflake. If you buy different sizes, make sure they’re dimensionally compatible, so that you can easily stack them and benefit from a smart space utilization. Fill them up, because half full boxes can collapse during stacking under the weight of the other ones. If you want to be thorough you can even label your boxes for quick identification. You wouldn’t imagine right now, but after two years, you couldn’t tell in the middle of one of those shelving units stacked with identical boxes where exactly you decided to bury your childhood blanket.

Young women stacking boxes for their storage unit

The Holy Grail of Depositing

We know you think it’s easy to get everything in order quickly and safely, but you know you can’t master this, unless of course it’s not the first time you’re doing it.

OK, so, as you stack, you will want to put heavier boxes on the bottom and lighter ones on the top. If you have fragile objects which are also light, you can place them on top shelves or above the boxes. Careful how you’re positioning those tens of boxes: if you won’t leave walkways between them, how will you walk and access them? Also, don’t obscure the lighting source.

When you pick your extra space storage, careful on the size. Don’t think that you can fill a smaller one just to save a few bucks. You even need to leave a bit of space between the walls and your boxes for air to flow. Cube storage does not mean you have a cube which needs a full cube inside of it! You do need to place your stuff on pallets for optimal condensation protection and fill your storage room smart and tight to avoid dust and humidity, but don’t over-do it.

And Some Really Important Stuff

If you store a refrigerator, a washer or a dryer, you might want to leave its door slightly ajar. That way, you can prevent mold.

You cannot deposit flammable substances in any U-Haul Storage, nor in any other storage units as well.

Put a bubble wrap and / or paper between fragile objects. Dishes go into specially created dish packs. Books need to be placed horizontally, if you want to find them in the same shape you left them. They are also very heavy, so put them in small, easy to lift boxes. Mattresses go into plastic protection wraps. For smaller objects with no angular shape, your garbage bags will be your best friends. It doesn’t look too flattering to put all those toys in a black plastic bag, but you will thank us later after saving them from tons of dust.

We advise you don’t store furs, jewelry, irreplaceable items, explosives, drugs, firearms, perishable objects or stuff that can get smelly. Oh, and stolen objects are also a bad idea for all storage units (just saying).

Now you can go back to your ritual and start looking for a “U-Haul near me” and start doing your thing. You are now ready to improve your living space, your life in general and your relationship to your indoor surroundings.