Are you planning to make a move and relocate your home? Or maybe you got so much stuff that you don’t know what to do with? No matter if you are trying to downsize, remodel or declutter your home long-term storage is a practical solution. The advantages of long-term storage are great. Whatever you’re doing you have to ask yourself how to prepare your items for long-term storage? You cannot just take your items and throw them to the nearest self-storage facility. You need to choose suitable storage for your items and prepare them well so they can remain in excellent condition while in storage. Also, you need to know in which way to pack for long term storage, so that your items stay safe until you need them again. Here are some useful packing tips for long-term storage that you can use to keep your items well protected.

Prepare your items for long-term storage by making a long term storage plan

Regardless of the reason why you need long-term storage whether it’s cargo import or something else, you need to decide what exactly is going into storage. Making a plan and deciding to make effective use of long-term storage will reduce stress during the moving process. You need to decide what of your belongings you want to keep. Storage comes at a cost and not all your old items are worth the cost of storing. Go through your possessions and assess your belongings before you start looking for storage space. Ask yourself if the item of your choosing is going to be useful again. Maybe some of the stuff is high quality-product or they may be very expensive. And some of the stuff could have sentimental value for you or the members of your family. Find an efficient way to protect these items and store them for future use.

Find storage that is best suited for your needs

Using sea freight forwarders, trucks or a plane, no matter, there is a great chance that you won’t be able to move all of your stuff at once. So, renting a storage unit is your best solution when storing your items for an extended period of time. Once you know which items are going into storage you’ll be able to assess what conditions must be fulfilled to ensure the safety of the same. Your primary task then is to find an appropriate storage unit. Do this and you can prepare your items for long term storage:

• Self-storage unit size (make sure your items are not crammed inside)
• Facility condition (storage units must be well maintained, clean, illuminated and have drive-up access)
• Security (select a facility with a strong fence, best surveillance system, fire prevention system and live guards)
• Climate control (you don’t want your items to rot on high temperatures)

  

Get organized in order to prepare your items for long-term storage

After deciding which of your items are going into long-term storage and after you have found appropriate storage it’s time to prepare your items for an extended stay away from home. First, you need to organize the items in a systematic and meaningful manner. How do you do that? Create a detailed inventory list of the belongings that you are storing away. This is also evidence and a reminder and you can use it by need. Clean the items thoroughly to prepare your items for long-term storage and to keep pests at bay. Disassemble larger furniture to prevent any damages and to save space in storage. Make sure that water is drained from hoses and kitchen appliances. You need to tie down and secure cables, hoses, and electrical cords. Wrap all fragile items in soft packing paper. Here are 6 long-term storage tips that might help you move.

Pack your items properly for a long-term storage

To pack your stuff properly, you have to have the right packing materials. To keep your items well protected you can’t use old boxes from grocery stores. The best way to do it is to buy some new boxes that can last for years. Also, they will provide much-needed protection for the items that go inside. Choose strong cardboard boxes of similar size that can be stacked together and it will be easier to optimize the space in storage. Using clean plastic beans is also a good idea. They are extremely resilient and they are designed to stack on top of one another. Using plastic bags is not a good idea because they can trap moisture and develop mold on your items. If you are interested in how to store your power tools you can find tricks in the recommended text.

Pack your items extra carefully in order to prepare your items for long-term storage

In order to take extra measures in protecting your stuff, you can do several things. Pack similar items together. For example, you can pack books, toys or kitchen items together. This might sound logical but put heavier boxes on the bottom and lighter ones on top. Try to fill the boxes to their full capacity. They will have less room to wiggle and there will be less chance of those items to cave in. Don’t overload packing containers so they don’t break at a bottom. Use bubble wrap or some similar material to fill in the voids in the boxes. Label boxes so in that way, you may know what is inside them and you can write instructions like “this side up” so you can know what to do with them.

Conclusion

Preparing your items for long-term storage is not an easy task. You need to organize your storage unit strategically. Place your largest and heaviest boxes near the walls and arrange smaller items in front. Leave some space between your belongings and walls to ensure good ventilation. Also, leave some passage between your items so you can go to the back and the sides of the storage. Following this advice will make sure that your stuff is properly packed and secured for future use. And that is the point of having storage after all isn’t it?