Keep the medicines you or your family need with you, rather than in a unit. Our units aren’t heated or cooled, so the temperature inside follows the seasons, and medicines are made to be kept in set conditions; home is the right place for them.
Everything else around them is welcome, from medical equipment you own to the furniture and boxes from a whole house.
Why home is better
The NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service says medicines storage areas are ideally kept between 15°C and 25°C, and some medicines need a fridge. Our units don’t have power, so a fridge isn’t an option, and site access is normally 6am to 10pm, so a medicine needed in the night would be out of reach. Follow the storage line on each pack at home, and pack an essentials bag for moving day with your medicines in it, alongside chargers and a change of clothes.
Medicines that are unlicensed, counterfeit or unsafe can’t be stored at all.
Clearing a relative’s home
When you’re sorting a loved one’s things, it helps to set the medicines aside first. If your relative still takes them, ask their care home or carer whether to bring them along. Any that are out of date or no longer needed can go back to a pharmacy, which will dispose of them safely; the NHS asks that they never go in the bin or down the toilet. If there’s a lot, ring the pharmacy first. Needles and other sharps go to your local council instead.
The furniture, papers and keepsakes can then come into storage as normal.
Medical equipment and first-aid kits
- Equipment you own, such as a nebuliser or a commode, can be stored once it’s clean and dry, with any medicine taken out.
- Loaned equipment, such as a hospital bed or hoist: check with whoever supplied it, as they may want it returned.
- Oxygen and other gas cylinders can’t be stored, because compressed gas can’t be kept in a unit, for everyone’s safety.
- First-aid kits: plasters, bandages and dressings are fine. Take out tablets and creams, and keep freeze sprays and other aerosols at home.
For pharmacies and care businesses
Medicines stock needs controlled conditions that a self storage unit isn’t designed to provide, so it isn’t suitable for our units. Your other overflow, such as files, furniture and spare equipment, is ordinary business storage.
If you’re not sure about an item, call us on 0800 2545585 and we’ll tell you. For everything else, get a price online or call us on 0800 2545585.
Related questions
- What goods are prohibited from being stored at Wigwam?
- Do storage units get cold in winter?
- What happens to a storage unit when the renter dies?
Further reading