Maybe you are using a storage unit at Fox Den Store-It, or maybe you are thinking of taking advantage of our handy locations to put some items in storage while you have your home up for sale.
Good plan. Staging your home with less clutter and less items in each room could be what you need to move that sale along.
Getting a Unit
Take a look around the house to decide what can go into storage to make the interior appear bigger. Remember, less clutter means less of a chance for your eyes to keep settling on items instead of that room size you want to emphasis.
Now, imagine if you were putting all those items in one room. Would it fill the living room, or the kitchen, or the kitchen plus the living room? This will help us, help you, determine what size unit you need. Another thing to think about is if you are going to be moving things in and out of the unit. If you are, then you need aisles and room to move things around. Fox Den Store-It staff can talk to you about your needs, as well as our site security and 24 hour, site access.
Are the items you are going to store bulky? That might mean a little bigger unit because you won’t be able to stack items. If you are undecided, err on the side of bigger. You don’t want to be moving things in and out of the unit to find something you need - you want to be able to move around in the unit to get to things.
Before You Store It…
Before you do a wholesale pack up of everything you think you won’t need - take a good look at the items and think “when did I use this last?” And “will I miss this?” If you can’t remember the last time you used the waffle iron or that food processor that takes longer to clean than to use - maybe you should de-clutter with a rummage sale.
If you’ve been using that extra chair to just pile things on - sell it. Those couches in the basement - you use them off and on, but you are really planning on setting up a nice recreation room in the new house and they aren’t going to work - sell them.
And all those clothes! You’ve got clothes to grow into, clothes you’ve grown out of and clothes that are just a little too small for the kids to wear - sell them or donate them.
Have the kids pitch in, it’s good practice for later. That game they had to have and played once, the soccer ball that was fun for a while, but not anymore and those stuffed animals stashed in the closet can all get sold.
Don’t you feel better now? You’ve done your decluttering duty and saved yourself some money! Now you’ll be able to get that storage unit and get ready to stage your house.
Staging and Storing
Here are some tips on what to store and what to stage. Of course, it goes without saying that you need to have an extremely clean house. And, clean goes for the outside, too. Sure, you love your garden gnome collection and those pink flamingos - but they probably need to go into storage.
The outside is taken care of, the most important rooms to stage inside are the living room, the kitchen and the master bedroom.
In the living room, you want to “float” or pull the furniture away from the walls. The improves the traffic flow and lets you create areas to highlight - like putting a chair or two close to the fireplace rather than up against the wall next to the fireplace. If you have three chairs, but one looks a little worse for wear because everybody sat on it to take their boots off - that’s the chair that goes into storage. As an aside, if you’ve moved the furniture out from the walls and the walls look a little dingy, use the money from the rummage sale to buy some paint!
Clear off as much room as possible on the counters in the kitchen. That means the pizza oven goes into storage, the canister set (empty out the food first) goes into storage and the crock pot goes into storage. Take that collection of refrigerator magnets off of the fridge, as well as the pictures, funny cards, and the drawings from the kids!
Onto the master bedroom, if there’s a chair there you just use to put clothes on - store it. If you’ve got a treadmill there that also is being used as a clothes rack - store it or sell it. Seasonal clothes you won’t be using should be stored. Remember, always clean clothes before you pack them for storage.
Fox Den Store-It has storage units to meet all your needs. If you need to store a boat or motorcycle to make more room in the garage, we’ve got a unit for you. If you have clothes, furniture or other items, we’ve got a unit to fit the bike AND those items. There is pricing and unit information on our website, just select the location closest to you. If you’ve got questions, feel free to give us a call.
Photo by Naomi Hébert on Unsplash