In This Guide
Moving house is regularly ranked among life's most stressful events, and in a popular area like Chorlton, where sales can complete faster than expected and chains can wobble at the last minute, having a storage plan takes a huge amount of pressure off. This checklist walks through the whole move, week by week, with the storage jobs that make each stage easier.
Why Storage Makes Moving Easier
A home storage unit does three jobs during a move. It lets you declutter before viewings so your house sells faster and photographs better. It gives you somewhere safe to put furniture if your completion dates don't line up. And it means you can move in stages rather than cramming everything into one chaotic day.
Because our units are priced per week with no deposit and no minimum stay, you only ever pay for the days you actually need.
8 Weeks Before: Declutter And Book
- Ruthlessly declutter. Go room by room and sort everything into keep, sell, donate and store. Anything you are keeping but don't use weekly is a candidate for storage.
- Book your storage unit. Work out the size you need with our size estimator. The contents of a typical 2 bedroom house fit in a 50 to 75 sq ft unit; a family home usually needs 100 to 150 sq ft.
- Time it to the offer. Booking now means your 50% off first 9 weeks covers the entire move period.
4 Weeks Before: Boxes And Packing
- Collect your free boxes. Skip the £2 to £5 per box that packing suppliers charge. Every Storage Chorlton customer gets unlimited free packing boxes, so grab more than you think you need.
- Pack the rarely used rooms first. Lofts, garages, spare rooms and anything seasonal can go straight into storage now, clearing space to live in while the move progresses.
- Label everything by destination room, and keep a simple inventory. Future you, standing in a new house surrounded by identical brown boxes, will be grateful.
- Protect the big stuff. We stock mattress covers, sofa covers, bubble wrap and padlocks on site.
1 Week Before: Logistics
- Book your free collection. Our free collection and removal service covers up to 60 miles. The two-man team loads, transports and unloads into your unit, saving you a removal company bill for the storage leg.
- Or book the free van. Prefer to do it yourself? Free van hire is included for every customer, which beats multiple car trips down the M60.
- Confirm access times. You can get to your unit 7 days a week, 8am to 10pm, with 24/7 units available if your schedule is unpredictable.
Moving Day
With the storage legwork done in advance, moving day only involves the essentials: furniture in use, kitchen basics, clothes and the kettle. Everything else is already sitting safely in your unit, behind a padlock only you have the key to, watched by 300+ CCTV cameras in a secure storage facility.
Keep a first-night box in the car, not the van: kettle, mugs, phone chargers, bedding, toilet roll and the all-important corkscrew.
Storing Between Homes
If your sale completes before your purchase, don't panic. It is one of the most common reasons customers come to us, and it is exactly what weekly storage is built for. Store the whole house with us, stay flexible on duration, and when your new keys arrive we can deliver everything back with the collection service. If your dates shift again, your unit simply rolls on week by week.
After The Move: The Clever Bit
The checklist does not quite end when the van pulls away. Keep your storage unit for two to three weeks after moving day and unpack in waves instead of drowning in boxes. Essentials first, then room by room, collecting a car load from your unit as each space is ready. Your new home stays livable throughout, and you make far better decisions about where things belong when you are not tripping over forty boxes at once.
It is also the perfect moment for a second declutter. Boxes that sat unopened in storage for the whole move are telling you something: if you did not miss the contents for six weeks, sell or donate them rather than carrying them into the new house. Many customers then keep a small unit on long term for the seasonal overflow, which is where the prepayment discounts of up to 25% come into their own.
Five Moving Mistakes To Avoid
- Booking storage too late. The best units go first at month ends and bank holidays, when everyone completes at once.
- Buying boxes. £2 to £5 per box across a whole house move is £100+ spent on cardboard we give away free.
- Overfilling boxes. Books in big boxes break backs and box bottoms alike. Heavy items in small boxes, light items in large ones.
- Not photographing furniture before disassembly. Ten seconds with a phone camera saves an hour of guessing which bolt went where.
- Skipping the inventory. A numbered box list on your phone turns "where on earth is the router" into a ten second lookup.
Planning a move in the next few months? Get a free quote or call 0161 826 2869 and we will size everything up for you before you pack a single box.
