Moves into and out of storage

Typical jobs

• Moving a one-bed flat's contents into a 50 sq ft unit between the end of a tenancy and a purchase completing
• Collecting furniture and 30 boxes from a storage unit and delivering them to a new house
• Taking a student's room contents into a locker-sized unit for the summer
• Moving shop stock into a ground-floor unit with drive-up access
• Splitting one load between a new flat and a storage unit on the same trip

Unit size against van loads. Storage operators publish size guides in square feet. Big Yellow describes 50 sq ft as the size of a Transit van, 75 sq ft as a Luton van and 150 sq ft as two Luton van loads (October 2026). Safestore matches 35 sq ft to a one-bed flat, 75 sq ft to a two-bed home and 100 sq ft, a single garage, to a two to three-bed home. Working the other way, Compare the Man and Van suggests a small van for a unit up to 25 sq ft, a medium van up to 35 sq ft, a large van up to 50 sq ft and a Luton for up to 70 sq ft.

Access hours. The van has to arrive while the site is open. Big Yellow stores open 8:30am to 5:30pm on weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm on Saturdays and 10am to 4pm on Sundays, with after-hours access at most stores at the store's discretion and possibly for a fee (October 2026). The Self Storage Association says some UK sites offer 24-hour access while others keep business hours. Check the gate times before booking, so the van arrives while the site is open.

Storing between homes. A gap between selling and buying means two moves: home to unit, then unit to the new home, each with its own van booking. Load the unit as you would load the van, with heavy furniture at the back, boxes stacked to the ceiling and what you will need first by the door. Konnect You puts storage at £122 a month for up to 50 sq ft, citing the Self Storage Association (September 2026), and the SSA's 2026 report gives the industry's average revenue as £27.40 per sq ft a year.

Collect and store services. Some firms collect, store and redeliver, which removes the van bookings but limits visits. AnyVan prices this from £15.99 a week on its storage page and from £23.99 a week on its London page, with collection and redelivery included (October 2026). Fantastic Services notes that container and mobile storage is often cheaper per square foot than high-street self-storage, especially for longer terms (September 2026).

Book the unit before the van, and give the man and van firm the site address, gate and office hours, whether the unit is on the ground floor or upstairs, and whether the site has trolleys and a goods lift. A drive-up unit, where the van parks at the door, saves most of the carrying.

Ask whether the price covers waiting at the gate and the carry from the loading bay to the unit, which can be a long corridor. Have the padlock key and the gate code ready when the van arrives, so the crew can start as soon as it arrives.

Check the storage contract separately: the notice needed to leave, whether the first price is an introductory rate, and what insurance the site requires. Fantastic Services' guide notes that some contracts ask for a week's or a month's notice to move out (September 2026).

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