Long term storage

There are times when you need to find somewhere to store excess belongings for a few days or weeks - stashing all those things you normally keep in the spare room when your in-laws stay over at Christmas, for instance. Then there are times when you need extra storage for a season or two - for example, to keep your camping gear or garden furniture safe (and out of the way) over winter.

For anything you need to store for longer than that - typically, for over a year - long-term self storage might be the solution you’ve been looking for.

What is long-term self storage?

Long-term self storage is ideal for anything you want to store for more than a year. With discounts and a long-term contract it can be considerably cheaper than renting storage on a short-term basis.

You’ll have peace of mind knowing that your belongings are safer, cleaner and dryer in yoir unit for the foreseeable future. You don’t need to worry about them, you can just leave them where they are. If you choose long-term self storage at Safestore, you can also visit your unit (and put things in or take them out) whenever you like, during our normal opening times, so it’s a really flexible storage option.

What could you use long-term self storage for?

You might wonder what on earth you’d ever need to store for a year or more - but having a self storage unit available all year round can be really useful for:

1. Major life events

Moving in together
If you’re moving in with a partner, you’ll struggle to fit the contents of two properties into one shared home. There might not be room for duplicated items like wardrobes, beds, dining sets and white goods. 

You could agree to sell them (though the second-hand market value of those belongings won’t reflect how much you paid or how much they would cost to replace), donate them to charity, or store them for future use. They could be useful to replace items as and when they break down or become worn down, or you might later move into a larger home together and have more space.

Downsizing
If you’re downsizing (perhaps after retirement), you could see if any of your family members want to use the excess furniture and furnishings, or you could sell items to add to your retirement pot! If there are belongings and furniture that you want to keep for future generations, or just because you don’t want to let them go, putting them into long-term self storage can be a good solution for this.

Divorcing
The breakdown of a marriage can be costly and time-consuming as well as emotionally draining. Unfortunately, it can take several months for finances to be resolved, and it’s quite common for one spouse to need to move out of the family home during that time. Usually, that spouse needs to rent a home on a temporary basis, and it can take more than a year for them to be in a position to be able to find more long-term accommodation.

If you’re going through a divorce and need to move into rented accommodation, you can use long-term self storage to store your share of the household contents (and use it to store any bargains you pick up during sale periods to be able to fully furnish your new home).  

Welcoming a new baby
Welcoming a new addition to the family is a wonderful and exciting time, but it’s also a time of huge change at home! Soon, your house will be filled with baby-related paraphernalia and it can quickly feel cluttered.

There may also be furniture and other belongings in your home that aren’t suitable or safe to have around a baby or young child. Glass tables and ornaments are an accident waiting to happen! Renting a long-term self storage unit will let you put all those excess belongings and bits of furniture that you won’t use (or can’t fit alongside all the baby gear) until your baby gets older.

Emigrating / Long-term travel
Have you been planning the holiday of a lifetime? Or have you been offered an opportunity to work abroad for a few years? If you’re going to be out of the country but intend to return to the UK at some point, you might want to rent out your home (or sell it) and keep your contents safe and sound until you come home. Long-term self storage can be used to keep everything in one place, ready for you to move back into your UK home when you return. 

2. Creating more space at home 

If you’ve stored some seasonal items (like sports equipment or Christmas decorations) for a few weeks, you might decide that a self storage unit is a really useful bit of extra space. It frees up a lot of room at home, so you can use your spare room for guests and the garage / loft for things you need to keep close at hand for daily use.

Instead of renting a self storage unit for a few weeks, you could decide to rent one for the long term and use it for different things throughout the year. So, over summer you could use it to store your bulky bedding and clothing, or extra heaters and Christmas decorations. When you’re ready to take those items out, replace them with your garden furniture and camping gear to store over autumn / winter.

3. Buying a more affordable home

House prices are always high, and show no signs of dropping. Square footage comes at a high premium, so rather than buying a house that has enough storage space for all your belongings, why not look at how much some external storage space would cost each year instead? 

That way, you could buy a smaller (cheaper) property but it wouldn’t need to be cramped or cluttered, because the stuff you don’t use every day would be safely stored in your long-term self storage unit. Compare the interest you’d pay on the mortgage (or the cost of your rent) on a larger house to the cost of renting external storage and see how much more affordable that could be.

How much does long-term self storage cost?

The price of self storage units depends on lots of factors, such as where the self storage store is located (more rural stores are typically cheaper than ones in city centres), the size of the unit and how long you want to keep your unit for. 

For this reason, we suggest you phone or request a quote online. If you’d like some help choosing the size of your unit, or finding a unit nearby within your budget, our team can answer any questions you have on the phone or via our online chat so that you have all the information you need to make a decision. If you’d like a quote or need more informations, our team will help with no pressure and no obligation for you to reserve unless and until you’re ready.

How Our Long-Term Storage Discounts Work

We offer discounted rates to customers who reserve self storage units for more than a year. If you want to rent a unit with us for more than a year, you can request a personalised quote and reserve a unit online or by phone and a 10% discount will be applied automatically.

Get a Personalised Quote for Long-Term Storage

To get a quote for long-term self storage, please call our helpful team on 0333 255 3759 , or find your nearest store and get a quote online. We have a series of helpful videos and information about storage unit sizes, to help you choose the best unit for what you want to store, or again you can chat with our friendly team by phone or through our online chat service to discuss your options.

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