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A storage unit is an ideal place for us to hold all our valuables that we do not need at the moment. Ironically enough, although we store these items because they hold value to us, people often tend to forget to clean and take care of them properly because they’re not part of their everyday lives.

However, in order for you to preserve your prised possessions, it’s important to regularly clean out your unit and keep it well organised.

Here are a few tips on what to do if you haven’t visited your storage room in a while.

Plan and prepare

Take a good look at the condition of your items and sort them accordingly. You may find some items that you forgot you had and others you don’t even need anymore. Don’t rush this process.

Take a few trips to the storage facility if you need to. A good thing you can do is to set yourself a time limit to complete the whole process.

Bringing order to chaos

Pompous subheadings aside, cleaning your storage unit will give you a new chance to reorganise things.

The best way to organise your storage unit is to start in one corner of your unit and work your way around in sections. Go through everything and decide which things you are going to keep in the unit, which you are going to bring home and which you are going to get rid of. This way, you will not only create more space, but you will make your storage unit far tidier.

You can do this by implementing a four-box system:

  • A “keep box” – this is the box where you are going to store all the items you want to take home with you.
  • A “toss box” – for everything you don’t need and want to discard.
  • A “donate/sell box” – obviously, for everything you wish to sell or donate to others.
  • A “store box” – this is where you put the things you want to keep in your storage unit.

The cleaning process

The best way to start the cleaning process is to take all the boxes and other movable objects and place them outside of your indoor self storage unit. This will create space for you to sweep and mop the entire unit.

Make sure to check the content of every box for any damages and dust and wipe down all of the items before putting them back again.

Keeping everything organised

After you cleaned your storage unit, you should turn your attention to organising it while at the same time maximising the space you are left with.

We have prepared a few tips to help you keep everything nice and tidy:

  1. Use the front of your unit to place all the items you expect to need soon and use more often. Consequently, put all the large items in the back.
  1. Make sure to keep all the furniture next to the walls of your unit. This way, you will leave plenty of space in the middle for walking around and searching for the smaller items you may need.
  1. Stack your boxes or put them in containers while making sure that you are left with enough room to manoeuvre around them.
  1. Make a list of the stored items for each box and don’t forget to number the boxes. Tape a card to the box with all of its items listed on it. This way you won’t have to go through the trouble of opening them every time you need something.
  1. Record the location of every item and bring those records home with you. This inventory list will help you know where every single one of your items are.

This will also allow you to find anything you need on your next trip to the storage unit without much trouble.