Knowing what size to go for with your storage unit is difficult, as looking at a pile of your old stuff, it can be very difficult to work out what its dimensions are! What with the different stacking that you can do, it will also be deceivingly big, as people rarely pack together their things before moving them, and if you do, then it won’t usually be stacked in the tightest and most efficient way. You will find however, that getting a rough idea as to the storage unit will be fairly simple, it just takes a couple of hours. If you think you can work it out without going through the steps then by all means go for it, but if you are at all worried that you might under size on your storage unit, then it will be well worth the effort.

Before you do anything, think about the size of the vehicle that you are using to get the items to the storage unit. If you are happy that everything will fit in the van, then you can use the van’s dimensions as a basis for the dimensions of your unit. If you are not completely confident on how the load will fit in the van, then you should have a careful think about it, and look over the following steps…

First off, take all of the bits and pieces that you want to store, and gather them together. Whilst this may seem like a massive hassle, it is important that you do so, even if just to get an idea of the things that need to go in to storage, and to weigh up the job as a whole. You will find that it is quite a lot of work, but if you can dedicate half of a Saturday to it, then you should be fine to get it all done. You will need someone to help if there are larger items that need to be stored. Gather everything in a room with an open corner. If you don’t have one that is easily accessible, then you should look at taking things outside, so be sure to do this on a dry day.

Push everything up against the wall, and create a corner if you do not have one, by setting one line of the edge of the pile at a right angle to the wall. Be true to this line, and stack things right up against it. You should be tight with the stacking, and set things together so that they take up as little space as possible. You can rest things up against the walls, so that you really get everything tight in to the imaginary space.

Once you have pushed everything together, you will have a pretty good pile, and you can measure the length of the load along one wall, by the width along the other wall, as well as how tall the pile is. It does not matter what these measurements are, as multiplying them together will give you the volume. The volume of a storage unit may be the same even with differing dimensions, so be sure to look online and work out the volume s of the available units even if they are not noted down, as this will be the only way that you can tell if the items will fit! Be aware of extra long items that may not go into a space one way or another, even if the rooms have the same volume as the load.