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If you’re thinking of moving house but the thought of the sheer amount of possessions you have, brings you out in a cold sweat, don’t worry we have all the relocation tips! The reason we know so much is that we are going through this right now. Not content with dealing with a pandemic we decided to finally move out of London to the leafy suburbs.

However, what we clearly forgot about, is that in the time we’ve been in our current home we now have grown from a couple to a family of 4 plus a little curious cat. The number of things we own - even with my constant decluttering is slightly overwhelming and enough to make you stay put!

What we’ve learned though is that there are a few little hacks that make your life much easier and one of these is using self storage close to your home. This can begin before you even move and here’s why.

Make your home easy to sell

When you start to think about preparing your home for viewings you notice just how many items are nice to keep but a potential buyer does not need or want to see!

The best way to show your home in all its glory is to keep it clean, tidy and not overcome with personal items or seasonal things which create a feeling of clutter. It also gives the impression that there is not enough space in the house if you see things overflowing from cupboards and cabinets.

We moved a sizable collection of storage boxes to a storage container. Items which we knew we wouldn’t need over the following 3-6 months and that people didn’t need to see. The difference in our home’s appearance and the quality of our real estate photos was incredible.

We’ve also found it was easier to keep our home looking good throughout the viewing period. Instead of having frenzied tidying moments when we knew viewings were booked, our home was presentable most of the time and ready for visitors in a few minutes.

Storage benefits

Having a storage unit has many benefits for a moving day and beyond. Often companies will offer packing supplies for sale on site. You can often drive up to your unit which makes access with heavy items much easier to manage.

Storage containers are available for short and long-term lets and are clean, safe, and well lit. There are trolleys or sack trucks on offer to move your items from your vehicle to the unit.

Some companies such as Now Storage self storage in Basingstoke offer no deposit, a wide range of sizes and you only pay for what you use.

Prices are surprisingly affordable for a decent size unit and this gives you the peace and calm of an easier home environment. Even if you aren’t moving it’s something to consider for lifelong possessions or if you don’t have loft space.

Make your moving day simpler

The actual move date is always a difficult time. We have several bedrooms and garden equipment so we knew that our moving day would be long and tiring.

To minimise the chaos on the day we moved seasonal clothing and other items which we wouldn’t need access to right away into our storage unit. These will be collected at a later date and we can unpack each box with a bit more serenity after all the main belongings like beds and other furniture are in position.

This staged move is far less stressful and actually makes you consider more what you really want to take. There is less to pack in the last final weeks when you’re planning for the move date as the things you never use but don’t want to throw away are already stored.

The new home

When you first move home it can be hard to see the upside as you are surrounded by boxes and nothing really has a place. It’s chaos and if you have children and animals as well it can seem like you haven’t moved for the lovely lifestyle you were expecting.

If you move your boxes back in stages, in the first few weeks you can organise everything which arrived on moving day. You will still be able to view your new home and enjoy it. We’ve found SOGESHOME's storage rack products really useful for making sure everything has a place. These are great for toys, craft materials and even all your kitchen gadgets.

Gradually as life gets back to normal you can spend a weekend unpacking another group of boxes from the storage unit. By this point, you will have thought about what’s in them and where they might work well in your new house or flat. It’s a more pleasurable experience to move in this way and it takes away that anxiety which comes with the main moving day.

We’re lucky in that our new property doesn’t need any work. However, if you’re moving into a home that will have builders in soon after you move, it will be hard to carry out certain jobs with a full house. I can see how having the storage option would take away this concern.

Overall

We couldn’t recommend the use of self storage enough. As we are currently going through the process I feel the mounting worry of all the moving parts you have to deal with as moving day approaches.

Knowing that many of our belongings are safely stored away and we will get to them when we need them is a great relief. We know we will have less to move on the big day.

Even little things such as, I can still access the rooms in our current home and can keep everything relatively clean for the new owners. Rather than pass on our home in a messy state which gives me a sense of satisfaction.

I’m worrying much less about the actual moving date and know our removal company will find our level of organisation helpful and the move will run smoother.

Self storage is such a simple resource which we’ve never used before but we definitely will again.

AD: This is a sponsored post, however all opinions are 100% my own.