Self Storage was once most commonly used by Domestic movers, especially during the heights of the property boom – 2000 to 2006. However the current economic climate has changed the landscape and sees a modern day facility occupied by a number of different users with a vast array of reasons for doing so, with a particular increase in business users:-
For the general public, the more common uses are typically:
- Short to medium term storage when moving home – house or flat
- Short to medium storage in the event of redecorating rooms in your home, or building works such as putting in an extension or converting a loft
- Long term storage when renting out your house or flat (or when extended holiday or working abroad)
- Decluttering
- Downsizing and therefore storage of furniture or items you do not intend using
Out of term storage for students who need to vacate their accommodation – typically overseas students or those whose homes are “out of town” - Storage of possessions after a death
- Splitting possessions after a divorce
- Extra space for low space accommodation such as apartments, studios or shared occupancy
Whilst for businesses:
- Short term storage while moving or redecorating offices
- Storage of files and archived records
- Storage of exhibition stands, sales materials or redundant collateral
- For retailers and product manufacturers, storage of current or out of date stock
- Office downsizing
- A holding solution for charity donations prior to sorting, sale or transit
- A holding solution for materials to coordinate contract work
- An environment from which mobile workers can be managed
- Secure space to hold tools, machinery or goods
Alternate uses for a unit also extend to:
- Workshops or a place or work – step up from the home, garage or even the garden shed!
- Holding solution for mail order return items
- Studios for artists, sculptors or designers
- Sound-studios for musicians
- Online traders and a place to manage orders, stocks and returns
So the limits are not with how Self Storage can be used, but more the imagination of how customers might want to use the space available.
