7 ways to cut your storage costs

Storage is one of those costs that quietly grows. You take a unit for six weeks, the job overruns, and a year later you are still paying for a box of things you have not thought about since. Here are seven ways to keep the bill down, using the levers that actually exist rather than vague advice about shopping around.

1. Hire the size you need, not the size you fear

This is the biggest single saving available. Our range runs from 2 × 2 m at £35 a week plus VAT to 4 × 6 m at £140 a week plus VAT, so guessing two sizes too big costs real money every single week of the hire.

Sort and measure before you book. Our storage calculator shows what fits in each size, and the office will talk it through with you if you are between two.

2. Pay for a longer period up front

The weekly rate does not rise the longer you stay, so the savings come from the fixed fees rather than the rent. Pay six months up front and installation and collection are half price. Pay twelve months up front and both are free.

On a 4 × 6 m unit that is £640 plus VAT of fees removed. Only do it if you are confident about the timescale, but if you already know the job is a year, there is no reason to pay monthly.

3. Book online rather than over the phone

The hire itself is 10% cheaper when you book online. Nothing else changes. Same unit, same team, same service. It takes about a minute with your postcode at get a quote.

4. Check where you sit on the mileage

Transport is included within 30 road miles of our depot just south of Luton, which covers most of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire and a good slice of north London. Beyond that it is £2 plus VAT per extra mile, each way, on delivery and again on collection.

If you have a choice of site, and some of our construction and events customers do, the closer one is cheaper. For a central London address the Congestion Charge is added per visit. There is no ULEZ charge anywhere, because our van is compliant.

5. Declutter before you store, not after

Paying to store something you will never use again is the most expensive way to avoid a decision. Before the unit arrives, be honest about what is going to the tip, the charity shop or a local selling page. Every category you remove may drop you a size, and a drop from 2 × 6 m to 2 × 4 m saves £20 a week plus VAT and £40 plus VAT on each of the two fixed fees.

6. Give notice as soon as you know the end date

Hire is billed every four weeks with a four week minimum, and off-hire needs 7 working days’ notice. That is easy and cheap to get right and mildly annoying to get wrong. The moment the job has a finish date, tell us. Waiting until the day you have finished loading the van can push you into another billing period for no benefit.

7. Spend a little to avoid losing something expensive

This is the one counterintuitive item on the list. Absorpoles cost £25 each and pull moisture out of the air inside the unit. Set against a sofa, a mattress or a box of documents that spends a winter in storage, they are cheap insurance. Packing properly helps too: heavy items low, fragile items off the bottom, nothing soft resting on bare metal.

Also worth knowing before you plan around it: a unit cannot be moved while it is loaded. Relocating one means emptying and dismantling it first, so pick the spot once and pick it well.

What we would do in your position

Measure first, book online, pick the shortest period you are confident about and then extend if you need to. The rolling four week hire exists so you are never paying for time you do not use, and the upfront discounts exist for when you genuinely know the length of the job.

Get an instant quote with your postcode and every line is itemised before you commit, or call 0800 043 9302 and talk it through with someone in the office.