DUBAI 23 August 2018: Whether you plan to move to a smaller home or your cabinets are becoming too crammed, there are multiple ways to ensure that there is ample storage space for your valuable belongings.
Depending on your budget, requirements, and the severity of the situation, you can pick one of the following options to increase your storage space. From cost of storage facilities to tips to declutter your home, this guide by ServiceMarket, one of UAE’s leading online marketplace for storage services, can help you learn everything you need to know about storage solutions in the Dubai.
Sort and discard: You don’t need everything you have been hoarding over the years. To find out whether this is true or not, just do an inventory of your closet, cabinets and store room. You’d be surprised by the number of items you haven’t used in a while. While you might want to keep some of these items because they hold sentimental value, do consider that they are taking up space that can be used for something more useful. Check if there are any clothes that don’t fit your kids anymore or if there are toys that haven’t been touched in years. Some items such as old decoration pieces or gadgets can be sold and others can be donated or discarded.
Augment storage space in your home: If the space in your home permits and you’re looking for a long-term storage solution, you can expand the storage space in your home by hiring a carpenter to build more cabinets, cupboards or even a shed in a corner of your garden to store more items. Do check with your landlord before doing so, if you live in a rented home. However, this solution is not ideal for short-term storage needs as the structures you build may go to waste afterwards.
Use a storage facility: Since most of us live in rented homes with limited storage space, and we’re often not allowed to expand it by building more cabinets, cupboards, and rooms, it usually makes more sense to just rent some extra space at a storage facility. The other option is to move to a bigger house, but that’s not a good decision from a financial point of view, because besides paying more rent, you would also have to face many additional moving costs. So renting space at a storage facility for as little as Dh250 per month is the more viable option in most cases.
Shared storage versus self-storage: You can opt for shared storage or self-storage, depending on your preferences and budget. If you choose the former option, then as its name implies, you’ll have to share the storage with other people and won’t have your own personal lockable space. On the other hand, if you go for self-storage, then you’ll get a lockable storage unit. You can get 10 square feet of an air conditioned shared storage unit for Dh250 per month, but if you rent a self-storage unit of the same volume, it’ll cost you around Dh350 per month. As long as your belongings are not dangerous and non-perishable, you can store almost anything, including appliances, rugs, electronic gadgets, curtains, clothes, memorabilia, art pieces, books and furniture.
Other factors you should consider while using a storage facility
● If any of your belongings need to be kept in a ventilated or air-conditioned unit, then you may face higher costs.
● It’s always a good idea to know how much space your belongings will occupy in the storage facility before you make your decision. Ask your storage company to send a surveyor to figure this out, so that you can remove some of the items if the current volume is too much and the cost of storage is exceeding your budget.
● To make sure that your belongings remain protected during transit, don’t forget to buy insurance at the storage facility.
● Don’t put anything in the storage that you’d be needing frequently as the storage facility might be far from your home. What’s more, they are usually only open during the day for a certain number of hours.
● You don’t need to pack your belongings yourself before moving them to the storage unit, as this service is usually provided by storage companies in the UAE. However, you can ensure safety by describing to the storage company how you would like your belongings to be packed.
Don’t just pick the first storage facility you come across as safety of your belongings is as important as cost and accessibility, if not more so. This is why you should only use reputable storage facilities. You can also save a lot of money by requesting and comparing quotes from multiple storage companies in Dubai.