With rocketing fuel bills and inflation soaring, one increasingly popular solution to fight these spiralling costs is to downsize your home. Apart from this reason, downsizing has always been something that many of us will do at some point in our life.
Whether the kids have grown up and flown the nest, or you look simply looking for a more practical size of home, there are many reasons to downsize. But there are definite problems to downsizing, many of which can be solved by a self-storage unit.
In this guide, we look at how a self-storage unit can help when downsizing your home.
The Benefits of Using a Self-Storage Unit to Help You Downsize
There are many benefits to downsizing your home. However, many people are put off by the sheer number of hassles, stress, and inconvenience that can accompany the act of downsizing.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry, U Store It’s storage experts have compiled a list of hints and tips to help smooth the process and let you downsize your home in style!
1. A self-storage unit can provide permanent storage for seasonal items
One of the great advantages of larger properties is the amount of storage space they offer. Obviously, smaller properties have less storage space. This is one of the main stumbling blocks that people face when they decide to downsize.
Seasonal items that spend much of the year stored in attics, sheds, or garages are a particular problem. For much of the year, this type of item is simply taking up space. This may not be a big problem in a larger property, but it can be a dealbreaker if you are looking to downsize.
This is where a self-storage unit can help. Self-storage units are a cost-effective way to safely store seasonal items, and one of the great benefits is you only need to hire a unit for the period you need.
Seasonal items can include belongings like:
- Sports equipment – Bikes, skis, golf clubs, etc.
- Camping equipment
- Garden tools and furniture
- Seasonal clothing
- Christmas decorations
2. Self-storage can buy you some time
There are usually difficult decisions to be made when downsizing. You may not have the room in your new home for all your furnishings and larger belongings.
But what do you keep, and what do you get rid of?
This is one of the major problems of downsizing, and often decisions are made in the heat of the moment that are later regretted. A self-storage unit can help here.
A self-storage unit gives you room to store excess belongings without having to make rushed decisions. This means that furniture and belongings you aren’t sure you will need can be safely stored. This gives you the time you need to get settled in your new home and establish what you need to keep and what can be disposed of.
3. Self-storage can act as a “buffer” between homes
The housing market can be fickle. In a perfect world, we would have our home sold and our new home ready and waiting to be moved into. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case.
A self-storage unit can provide all the storage you need while you wait to move into your new home.
4. Self-storage can help if you are renovating or decorating
Renovating or decorating can be difficult in any size of home. However, smaller properties with less room to move belongings out of harm’s way can amplify the problems.
Self-storage units can be booked for short periods, so no matter whether you are just slapping a coat of paint on or doing a full renovation, home renovation storage can simplify and speed up the process.
5. Your kids and grandkids can benefit too!
Furnishings and belongings are often passed down through generations. It is often when the children leave the home that people decide to downsize. The problem is that they may not have the space for items like beds, wardrobes, tables, and sofas yet. But passing items like this down to your children and grandchildren can be a huge help as they find their feet.
Furniture Storage can help store such belongings in a clean, dry, and safe environment. This means that the moment your kids are ready to set up their own home, you are ready to give them that helping hand that can make all the difference.
6. A self-storage unit can help streamline your move
Moving home is one of the more stressful of life’s big events. A self-storage unit can’t remove stress, but it can greatly reduce it! When organising your house move, one of the problems is trying to get on with your life amongst a clutter of full packing cases, dismantled furniture, and bags of packed clothing.
All this clutter also slows down the rest of the moving preparations. A self-storage unit is a perfect solution. This lets you get all those full cases and dismantled furniture out from under your feet and into a safe and clean environment until the new home is ready to receive them.
In Summary
There are many reasons to downsize your home, and there can be difficult decisions to be made. A self-storage unit is a versatile and cost-effective solution that can help with many of the problems faced by those who are downsizing their home.
At U Store It, our storage units are available in a wide range of sizes and can be booked for periods of as little as two weeks.
Why not contact us today to find out more about how a self-storage unit can help when downsizing your home?
