Start with the room your parent will live in, and make space for the furniture they love most, then store what doesn’t fit, yours and theirs, while everyone settles in. A storage unit gives the family time, so nobody has to decide in a rush what to keep, sell or give away.
Make their room first
Measure the room before anything moves, and ask your parent what matters most to them: their own chair, the bed they sleep well in, a lamp, the pictures they look at every day, so the room feels like theirs. Whatever the room needs to lose to fit those in, the spare bed, the exercise bike or the boxes from the loft, is the first candidate for storage.
Two households, one home
When two homes become one, you may have two sofas, two dining tables, two sets of saucepans. Rather than choosing now, store the pieces nobody has decided about. Your parent may want their dresser again one day, or a grandchild may need a table for a first flat. Decide together, and write a simple list of what’s in the unit, with a few photos, so everyone knows what’s there.
A few things are better kept at home than in a unit: important papers, cash, and keepsakes that could never be replaced, such as the only copy of a photograph. Food, plants, paint, fuel and anything flammable can’t be stored, to keep everyone’s belongings safe. Our list of items we can’t store has the details.
Storage that fits family life
The shortest stay is two weeks, and you can stay as long as you need. When you’re ready to finish, you give notice, normally 14 days, and we refund any unused days. If you find you need more or less room, you can move to a bigger or smaller unit, if one’s available.
You can normally get to your unit from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, to swap things over as the house finds its new shape, and you can share access with a brother or sister so they can help. There are free trolleys at every site, free parking while you unload, and we can recommend local removals firms if you’d like help with the lifting.
Everything stored needs contents cover, through our contents protection or your own policy.
When you’re ready, call us on 0800 2545585 and tell us roughly what needs a home, and we’ll help you find the right size. Or get a price online.
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