Having a storage unit is a great way to keep both your workspace and your home free of any unwanted clutter, but there will surely come a time when you may need access to your items stored in your unit at ease. Here at Storage World, we know it’s important to be able to gain access to your stored items quickly and as hassle-free as possible, which is why we’ve put together this handy guide with top tips on how to efficiently use your storage unit, so that you’re able to have what you need at your fingertips at all times.
Why it’s important to organise a unit neatly & effectively
Having a well organised storage unit can help you in many different ways when it comes to personal storage and it can be even more useful when it comes to business storage, whether that be as an office space or for storing stock and inventory.
Staying organised with personal storage locker
When it comes to your personal storage locker, keeping it neatly organised and using the space effectively can bring many great advantages, especially when it comes to moving house, storing seasonal equipment and/or items that would be taken in and out of your storage unit on a frequent basis.
Keeping your business storage unit organised
For example, using your storage unit as a workshop or to store tools for work can come with a few problems when it comes to the small things such as drill bits, screws, wrenches, nails, etc. Attaching magnetic metal strips to the wall can help keep all these important pieces together and organised without the need for excess boxes and drawers.
From a more general business perspective, keeping your storage unit organised can help to streamline processes and make operations more efficient. For example, installing storage space, using clear boxes, labelling boxes, implementing a coding system and many more. To do this follow some of our helpful tips for making the most out of your storage locker.
Top tips for making the most out of your storage locker –
1. Accessibility
Storage World provides round-the-clock access to your storage unit, 7-days a week, in order to give you the freedom to access your storage unit on a frequent basis, but it’s not just the accessibility of your storage unit that can cause issues. The way that your items are stored inside of your unit can ensure retrieving them doesn’t become a time-consuming task. We recommend using boxes, either clear or labelled and neat shelving to make visibility of items to identify what you require quick and easy. You could also aim to keep items with the same relevance, or within a particular category together to help make your storage unit easily accessible.
2. Cleanliness
Keeping your storage locker clean can save your items from becoming damaged while in storage. Using tarpaulins, or tarp sheets to cover items will keep dust and dirt from damaging any goods you have stored and improve the longevity of your equipment or household items.
When it comes to clothing, bedding, sleeping bags or any material products, vacuum pack bags are a great way to keep these items clean and organised, both protecting and compacting, which also makes them easier to store.
Upkeep of your unit in general is also recommended. Our units are robust, housed internally and are temperature controlled to ensure the preservation and safekeeping of your items, however a regular ‘spring clean’, such as dusting, is advised when storing for long periods of time.
3. Installing storage space
A good way to get the most out of your space is to use shelving units. Putting larger, heavier items on the bottom shelves and keeping smaller items which may not be needed as frequently on higher shelves will help keep you organised and a lot safer when moving boxes in and out of your storage unit.
The addition of peg boards can help keep smaller items in reach and grouped together, especially when it comes to items such as tools and gardening equipment. If you use your storage for larger or a large quantity of items, an innovative way of creating more space without having to upsize your unit, would be to install suspended shelving, giving you more room at ceiling height and making the most of your vertical space. Another clever hack for fitting more into your storage unit would be to add mounted wall hooks or hanging rails. These hooks can help keep items off the ground and ensure equipment is organised and easily accessible.
4. Using clear boxes to enable visibility of items
When boxing up your items to put into storage, choosing clear boxes will help you in the future when it comes to finding specific belongings. Clear boxes allow you to see what items have been stored in each box and with the added use of labels or a categorised system such as colour-coding, will allow you to retrieve your stored goods in a timely manner.
Keeping kitchenware, bedroom items, gardening equipment and tools in their own clear boxes, organised by ‘room’ or ‘category’, can also assist you in making the most out of your storage locker. If items were spread across separate boxes this may cause you to spend more time searching through boxes to find what you need.
5. Accurate labelling and colour coding systems
As mentioned above, putting an organisational key or system in place can improve the efficiency of your storage locker, especially if you have a lot of boxes. Colour-coding and labelling can work alone or together to help you get organised. Using coloured stickers for specific items and categorising by subject matter can prevent you from having to look through endless boxes to find what you’re looking for. Clearly labelled boxes with each containing similar items stacked together will also make it simpler to retrieve items.
6. Stacking vertically to make the most of every inch of space in the unit
How you store your items can give you a lot more space in your unit, for example, stacking boxes on top of one another can give you more floor space to not only store more items but to create aisles and walkways to allow you to be able to access everything in your storage unit hassle-free and safely.
When stacking boxes, having a clear system in place can really help you to access things quickly. For example putting boxes with frequently used items near the front of your storage locker and less used items in boxes placed at the back of your unit, giving you a clear path to access all boxes.
7. Ordering tips
Lastly, here are a few useful ordering tips and tricks that will give you a great start to make the most out of your storage locker:
If you’re a retail business with a large volume of stock items, then categorising each product and putting these onto shelving units in logical order would be the most effective way to organise your unit. For example, create specific areas within your unit for each type of product, with a ‘health and beauty’ shelf, a ‘toys’ shelf, etc. with the categories relevant to your business.
If you are using your storage unit for larger items it’s a good idea to keep these items to one side of your locker or towards the rear of the unit to allow a walkway for when you need to take items in and out.
Another great way to stay on top of and order your storage is to keep a list of all inventory and where it is located within your storage unit. This can be a simple written list form, a spreadsheet or even a flat plan sketch showing which boxes are stored where. This will allow you to keep track of exactly what is stored within your unit too, enabling accurate stock rotation and that your items are safely stored in accordance with any ‘best before’ dates or similar.
Using your storage unit efficiently and keeping your stored items neat and organised can help you to get the most out of your space, ensuring your storage use is cost effective too. At Storage World, you’re free to upsize or downsize your unit in accordance with your requirements as often as you like. There’s no long-term obligation contracts to tie you down and you can come and go as you please. So feel free to start putting these tips to use with us and make your whole storage process hassle-free.
If you’re in need of some extra storage space, then we have plenty of great offers for both personal and business use with a range of unit sizes to suit your exact needs.
