I unexpectedly need to store some furniture for 6 months. The furniture is:
- 2 leather sofas (3 seaters)
- Large glass dining table
- 4 double beds with mattresses
I am trying to figure out what the cheapest way to do this is. I had a look at big yellow, but it looked like it would cost at least £200 a month (and probably a lot more).
Is there a better way to do this? I'm in North London.
I will have access to a fairly large driveway (you could probably get 5 cars on there), so I wondered whether there was some kind of container that I could hire, and park on the driveway.
Any ideas would be very appreciated.
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Buy a used container and sell it again afterwards? Transport will be the biggest cost as you will make the money back on the container. Don't know how much it would be to hire one for 6 months?
A quick Google suggests approx £50 per month to hire, This may be better than an initial outlay of £8-900 to buy. Man with a hiab - maybe around £120? for delivery
Last edited by: ToMoCo on Wed 22 Dec 10 at 10:32
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Didnt AC look into this?
Oh, you cant just dump a shipping container on your drive for 6 months I don't think
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Why not see if you can rent a lock up garage locally?
Try phoning round well established shipping and forwarding and removal firms who have large warehouses and are used to storing things and make sure they are insured - I suppose Pickfords is the best known but there are many well established companies.
Who did you use to move in? Ask them and if they cannot help directly ask them to recommend someone.
All removal and storage firms are suffering in this economic climate where no one is moving house and most would be glad of a bit of revenue for storage.
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We had our furniture in storage for about 6 months. The size of the space we had would have taken what has been mentioned. It was around £160pm but that's up north.
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I am trying to figure out what the cheapest way to do this is. I had a look at big yellow, but it looked like it would cost at least £200 a month (and probably a lot more).
>>
My daughter had BigYell storage while out of the country.
Room dimensions vary a lot for a given quoted size so beware. We discovered this when she moved rooms and found that the previous one was well under size and we got a partial refund.
She is about to move stuff to another storage co and she has been doing the rounds of various companies. Some do reduce rates if pushed.
We also noticed the height of rooms varies from co to co. This is important to us as we are stacking things high and might be to you if you can store sofas on end.
Same applies to floor dimensions. They may quote say 25 square feet but is it suitable for your job.
much to the amusement of the companies we measured each room we viewed.
Last time we struck really lucky - oversized room and we used the whole footprint.
This time she has done well - a larger sized room reduced in price because it has a pillar in it.
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Can you stack the beds and mattresses and maybe just squeeze it all into one room? Then if you need to move it it's there.
Unless they are of great value then it'd be cheaper to sell them and buy others after the 6 months as £1200 is a lot or sell the cheap and bulky stuff and just pay to store the valuable stuff.
If you have a fairly large driveway then find some way of sealing it all in plastic and just leave it on the drive. Not sure how well it will survive though.
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What about a lockup? I have a 300sq FT one and pay £40 a month for it. It is secure but no electricty and does get cold in there.
It is much cheaper than the storage companies.
I have it because we have so much stuff two sheds in the garden is not enough. It also gives us the option to keep a SORN in there.
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>> What about a lockup? I have a 300sq FT one and pay £40 a month
>> for it. It is secure but no electricty and does get cold in there.
Thanks Rattle. I called about a lock-up and was quoted £15 per week for 125 sq ft, so I think that is the way I will go.
Thanks for all the advice guys.
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I don't mean to be a killjoy, SS, but I would think long and hard before storing soft furnishings in an lock-up.
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>> I don't mean to be a killjoy, SS, but I would think long and hard
>> before storing soft furnishings in an lock-up.
Do you reckon that they would be OK if they were wrapped up first?
They are only stained, beat-up old beds and a couple of worn sofas. It is not my stuff, but belongs to the landlord of a place I am renting (that doesn't mean that I am happy for it to be damaged of course).
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>> Do you reckon that they would be OK if they were wrapped up first?
No, mouldy comes to mind first.
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>>No, mouldy comes to mind first.
Not to mention, rats, mice, and an unhappy landlord.
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Leather will go mouldy in any damp conditions.
And mattresses will get damp .
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if it`s as grottyas you say it`s probably virtually worthless so, just dump it, then replace it with good quality second hand stuff when you move!
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Don't dump.. Freecycle it or ebay it..
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>>Freecycle it or ebay it..
Unhappy landlord becomes very unhappy landlord.
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Exactly! He says he wants to store the furniture that is there. Maybe this is too obvious, but ask the landlord? He might have a use for it at another property?
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>> Exactly! He says he wants to store the furniture that is there. Maybe this is
>> too obvious, but ask the landlord? He might have a use for it at another
>> property?
Afraid not. He strung me along by saying that he was going to take the furniture out then, just before we put things in writing, he completely changed his mind. Now, as he well knows, it is too late for me to find something else.
Tempted to walk away, but I think I am just going to have to put up with it.
I'd give a detailed rundown of what I think of the guy now, but I might permanently damage the swear filter.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Wed 22 Dec 10 at 19:21
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I'd strongly suggest, having read your last comments, that you get some sort of disclaimer against damage and deterioration signed by him before you store the stuff. And make sure he both sees the lock-up and agrees to it first.
Have you noticed I don't trust landlords? ;-)
Last edited by: Harleyman on Thu 23 Dec 10 at 06:39
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The furniture sounds as if it's virtually worthless.
Were the landlord a reasonable person, I'd be looking to buy the furniture from him for less than the projected storage costs and bin it.
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>> The furniture sounds as if it's virtually worthless.
Yes, most of it is.
Still trying to figure out what to do.
Incidentally, I have also put a job up on Shiply for moving the stuff. Excellent site. One provider (who seems to have a good rating), originally quoted £180, but after a lot of bidding it is now down to £75.
I can't remember who recommended it (somebody on C4P a few week back), but it has probably saved me a big pile of cash.
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Furniture storage for 6 months - ToMoCo
