AM's Blog

Decrease Your Stress, Increase Your Storage

Moving to a new house can be a real ordeal, with so much to plan, organise and put into place. The most daunting of these tasks is often having to tackle the sheer volume of things you’ve accumulated over the years.

It’s a time in our lives in which we must physically and mentally deal with everything we own in one go, from kitchen utensils and cutlery to lawnmowers and garden chairs. It’s an exhausting process, and one which doesn’t bring much satisfaction for completing it.
So, with this Herculean task ahead of you and with a feeling of dread at tackling it, how do you make things a little more manageable and less traumatic?
The answer? Self-storage facilities. Keeping your belongings away from home for a while and moving them gradually will make the whole process go much more smoothly. Storage facilities act as another person in your team and can be completely invaluable to keeping your move as pain-free as possible.

So today here are the 4 main reasons why self-storage is the perfect helping hand at this time, in the hope that they may help you or someone you know when next faced with moving.

IT HELPS SELL YOUR HOUSE, FASTER
Buyers are, generally, looking for the property which will not only hold their belongings, but also give them the space they need to grow.
We all have stuff, it would be ridiculous to assume we haven’t, but buyers want to imagine theirs when viewing a property. When you’re looking at properties, would you rather see the space shown off to its fullest potential, or try and imagine that space without all the extra furniture?
So how do you make this happen?

FIRSTLY
Declutter. Take the big step and get the bin-bags out. Make sure you are only taking what you really need to your next home.
This not only lessens the workload on moving day but means that you’re only moving the things you need to move – and not paying for what you don’t.
Don’t relax too much, there’ll still be a huge amount of stuff still to move, so the second step is key:

SECONDLY
Move everything you’re not using on a weekly, or even daily, basis into storage.
Buyers want to view and buy homes which look fresh and uncluttered. Moving those items, you don’t need whilst selling makes sense. It’s the perfect way to add space without losing treasured belongings.
An estate agent’s dream is to take a buyer into a home where:
• The garage is so empty, you could fit a car in there! Better still, there’s one in there already.
• Room sizes are easy to grasp – not obstructed and confusing
• An empty attic, which not only shows off how much space there is upstairs but can give a real indication of the real size of your home.
• Uncluttered shelves and cabinets.
But most importantly:
• Buyers can see themselves in your home, not you.

YOUR HOUSE LOOKS GREAT, WITH LESS EFFORT
You want your house to look at its best, all the time. It needs to be ready for a viewing at a moment’s notice, hopefully increasing your chances of getting that needed offer as quickly as possible. Not an easy undertaking.
Cleaning your home is a tiring and stressful process and, if your house has been on the market for some time, can be a real drain on your mental wellbeing.
If, therefore, there are fewer things in your house during this time, there’s less to maintain and clean. This not only gives you less to worry about, but frees time to get the mountain of

YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT ALL AT ONCE
Packing takes time. It takes effort. It takes willpower.
If you can start packing well ahead of the big move, there’s less work to be done on the days leading up to it. Alternatively, if you can move in gradually and in phases, there’s far less daunting a task of unpacking and living amongst cardboard boxes.
Phased moving of your things into and out of storage ahead of, and after, the move gives you more time to plan, organise and lessen the stress.
An added benefit may also be that you don’t need to hire a large removals lorry, at a premium price, on the day.

NEW HOME, NEW PLANS
Moving in is exciting. There’s a blank canvas there for you to start life anew and make your own. The issue is, suddenly there’s a removals team moving everything from your old property into the new.
Within minutes you’re deciding where everything needs to go, rooms get filled with boxes and all those plans and ideas must be put back until you get to moving everything around again.
What would it mean to keep some of those things in storage while you get used to your new home? You’d know exactly where things should go, like the old bookshelf which you thought would go so well in room A, but makes much more sense in room B. If you keep more of your things in storage, even a week after moving, it could make all the difference to getting the home you want, with less hassle.
Think of running your home move like a project. Divide it into easily manageable tasks and it will make the whole process a lot easier to complete.