How to Store Furniture in a Storage Unit

Whether you’re moving into a new house, renovating or downsizing, there are loads of great storage options available to store your furniture. From garages and outhouses, to spare rooms and sheds.

Once you’ve found the perfect storage space to keep your furniture, you might be wondering how to go about storing it in your chosen storage unit. Here are a few steps to keep your furniture in good condition whilst in storage.

1. Choose Where to Store Your Furniture

First things first, you’ll have to decide the type of space you’d like to use for storage. If you have spare space in your home, then it’s not so difficult to decide. However, if you don’t have the space, you might think you have a chore in finding storage space.

On Stashbee you’ll find a wide variety of spaces to store your furniture, including garages, lofts, basements, spare rooms, sheds and more. Whether it’s for a month or longer, you can store your furniture with our dedicated Hosts locally, securely and affordably.

Factors you’ll need to consider when deciding where to store your furniture includes:

• The location you wish to store your things
• How big the space is
• How many items of furniture you will be storing
• The type of access you’d like for the space

2. Clean Your Furniture Thoroughly

When putting your furniture into storage, you want to make sure that it’ll be protected for the duration, no matter how long it might be put away for.

One of the keys to keeping your furniture in great condition is to thoroughly clean each piece before putting it into storage.

Cleaning your furniture cuts the risk of any damp or mould getting worse over time. Make sure it’s clean of any debris, food crumbs etc and then make sure your items are completely dry before storing.

If storing a sofa, you’ll want to make sure to take the seats off and vacuum every nook and cranny. Plus, for any wooden furniture you’re putting into storage make sure it doesn’t have any infestations. If you suspect it might have, get it treated before storing, as those pests, woodworm or other, will also infest your other bits of furniture - and we don’t want that!

How to clean furniture

• Wood furniture - Use warm water and a mild soap to clean your wooden furniture. Once it’s dry, use a wood cleaner or wax to keep it in good condition.
• Fabric furniture - Give couches and seat cushions a good clean with a fabric or upholstery cleaner. Also make sure fabric items are dry before storing.
• Silver & metal furniture - Polish any silver or metal areas and items with a polishing cloth to remove oxidation and halt the build up of tarnish.

3. Make Your Furniture Easy to Store

If you’re storing furniture like wardrobes, bookcases, desks and chairs, and they can be taken apart, do it! It’ll make your life easier when it comes to transporting the items, and you’ll be able to store it all more efficiently in the storage space.

Make things easier for yourself and put any screws into a small plastic bag and securely tape it to the furniture piece it belongs to. Also, you might want to write up brief instructions on how to put it all back together as you’re disassembling it.

Finally, once you’ve transported your furniture items into its storage space, make use of the space inside your furniture too. You can put smaller items in desk drawers for instance, which will offer extra protection whilst they’re in storage.

4. Wrap Furniture For Long-Term Storage

Next step, you’re going to want to cover up your furniture in order to protect it from dust and scratches during transport and when storing furniture long term.

It's a good idea to use bubble wrap to cover things like picture frames, protective covers or plastic wrap to cover mattresses and sofas (and other fabric furniture), as well as strong boxes for fragile items and dust sheets for antique furniture and wooden items - this’ll allow the furniture to breathe a bit and stay protected.

How to wrap your furniture

Find out wrapping technique to ensure bubble wrap or plastic wrap protects your furniture.

5. Protect Glass Items

Be careful when storing glass furniture, such as mirrors, pictures and glass tabletops. Take extra precautions when transporting these pieces of furniture to the storage space and once in storage too. Use bubble wrap to protect the glass from breaking and scratching, as well as corner protectors. Also, stay away from using tape to stick screws or anything else to the glass, it will leave a sticky residue, that’ll be hard to clean and get rid of later on.

Smaller glass items can also be placed in boxes after being bubble wrapped for extra security.
 

6. Keep Your Furniture Off The Floor

Avoid resting or laying your furniture directly on the floor of the storage space, especially if it's not a climate controlled storage unit, as the floor can end up damaging your furniture whilst in storage. Instead, use pallets or cinder blocks to raise the floor. You may also choose to add another protective layer to avoid damage from flooding.

7. Remove Any Food From The Storage Space

No matter how long your furniture will be staying in storage, remember not to leave behind anything perishable as it can attract all sorts of pests and bugs. As a safety precaution, you might want to avoid using boxes from a grocery store, particularly if it’s been soiled in any way.

8. Don’t Squash Too Much Furniture Into The Storage Space

Finally, you don’t want to cram too many pieces of furniture into that one storage space. It’s a possibility that something valuable ends up breaking, or falling on top of something else and damaging it. So it’s always best to pack your furniture and place it in the storage space methodically to reduce the likelihood of damage to your things. Start with the largest pieces of furniture and place any smaller items and boxes underneath them or in cupboards.

How To Find a Storage Unit For Your Furniture?

It’s easy enough to find a storage unit perfect to fit your furniture. On Stashbee, we have a variety of spaces that can be used to store your furniture including garages, spare rooms, outhouses, sheds, basements and lofts. Find a storage space that suits your budget and your size needs. It’s both local and affordable, so you can’t go wrong!