Storage Containers: An Invaluable Asset for Your Next Move

Storage containers come in handy for many commercial item-transporting purposes. This is especially true when quite a lot of items need to be moved safely, at once, and over long distances. However, storage containers can also be used by families and individuals on land or by sea to ship their own belongings in the event of a move from one home to another.

Although managing a big move can prove to be a daunting undertaking, incorporating a single storage container of sufficient size into your plans can make the process much simpler to handle.

Choosing the right method of transporting your belongings is one of the most important decisions you can make during the moving process. In this post, we will cover the ways a storage container can make your move a lot easier and less stressful.

Better Budgeting
Adhering to a tight budget is of the utmost importance to both individuals and families looking to make a major move.

Expenses can grow to unprecedented proportions as you manage the many interconnected processes involved in moving from one home to another. Building a reasonable budget plan for your move can seem almost impossible as prices for labor and storage materials grow. Additionally, unforeseen incidents can add a lot of cost to the process.

However, adopting the use of storage containers in your moving process can potentially free up some of your resources. Because you can hire a storage container for as long as you need to pack and store items before a move, it can help you greatly cut costs.

Hiring Containers
Typical moving companies generally arrive with a truck on the day of your move. Movers will help to load the truck for a fee and take your belongings to your destination that same day. Though this can work out fine for many people, certain moving plans can make this setup impossible to work with.

When you hire a container, it is delivered to you for immediate use. This can be done long before your actual intended moving date, giving you a chance to store all of your belongings inside at your own pace instead of in a single day. Once the container is filled, you can choose to have it delivered to your destination if you're ready to go. If not, it can remain on your property until you have everything in order.

You can even deliver the filled container to a storage location and leave it there until you're prepared to complete your move. This allows for far less stress and will make the move much more efficient than through other means.

Increased Flexibility
Overall, hiring a storage container makes for a much more flexible approach to moving than the usual methods. As we have touched on above, hiring storage containers for your next move can put a lot less pressure on you to get everything packed and put away in a short period of time. This allows you to minimize mistakes and make sure the entire packing process progresses smoothly.

This overall flexibility also allows you to quickly adapt to changing plans and unanticipated complications. For example:

If you have not yet finished packing all of your belongings and the process is going to take longer than you had predicted, you can simply keep the container for the amount of time it takes to get things done.
If the home you intended to move to is not yet vacant or prepared on moving day, then you can postpone your move without having wasted a day and the money for labor and item transportation.
If your destination changes suddenly to one that is much further away or even overseas, you can still move your items safely.

As you can see, flexibility in your moving process definitely pays off in significant ways.

More Space to Work With
Storage containers can hold a lot of belongings at once, especially if you pack them carefully. House size to container size is more favorable than you might think. In fact, the largest moving trucks available for individuals to rent offer only marginally more space than a small 20-foot container. A 26-foot truck can hold about 1,450 cubic feet (41 cubic metres) worth of belongings. In contrast with this, a single 20-foot storage container can easily hold up to 1,150 cubic feet (33 cubic metres) worth of items.

Hiring one 40-foot storage container (or, preferably, two 20-foot containers) allows you to effectively store up to 2,400 cubic feet (68 cubic metres) worth of objects—more than twice the amount of space a most moving trucks can offer.

Homes with Two Bedrooms or Fewer
Such households are likely to have more than enough space to store everything in a single 20-foot container.

Homes with Four to Five Bedrooms
Larger households and families may find their needs can only be met by the much larger 40-foot container option or multiple 20-foot containers instead.

Less Back and Forth Between Locations
Some families resort to moving their belongings in their own vehicles, but one trip is usually preferable to several trips. This option does work if you have a truck or another appropriate vehicle to handle the work with. However, the number of trips you will need to make back and forth between your destination and your current home are easy to overlook at first.

If you end up doubling back enough times to pick up more items, you could find the money you save on upfront moving costs and/or hiring a storage container is lost on gas costs alone. In addition to this expense, the greater potential for your things to become damaged at some point in transit is much higher when a move is handled this way. Drops, scrapes and uncooperative weather can quickly turn this option into a nightmare worth avoiding with spiraling costs beyond those of a traditional move.

Resistant to Weather
One of the most helpful aspects of hiring a storage container to help with your move is its weatherproof construction. Being unaffected by rain and shine alike makes it perfectly safe to store household items in a storage container at any time, freeing up space indoors immediately. Even if you reside in a particularly extreme climate, there are storage container options available for hire that can keep your belongings protected against the elements.

Less Security Concern
Although moving trucks tend to be secure, your belongings might not be so safe prior to being loaded up for transporting. Boxing up all of your things can take time, and if your current home is still up for sale and being shown to potential buyers, anything could happen.

Storage containers help to curb the risk of items going missing during open houses as well as at any other time in the packing process. A storage container also allows your home to look much nicer before you have actually moved, helping buyers to fully appreciate the space it offers as they look around.

Locks, Lock-Boxes and More...  
Well-designed storage containers go above and beyond to fully secure your belongings. Locked doors keep people from gaining access easily while you are away and special lock boxes protect padlocks from cutting implements, making break-ins essentially impossible.

Relatively Easy Transportation
Storage containers are designed to be moved safely and are therefore compatible with many modes of transportation. From standard flatbed trucks to tilting, landoll-equipped trucks, your storage container can be moved from one place to another by a surprising number of vehicles.

Depending on the full weight of your container once it has been loaded up with the bulk of your belongings, you may need to hire a crane to put it onto a truck safely, but this task can be handled with forklift trucks under most circumstances.

If you end up needing to cover a particularly long distance, you can have your container delivered by train or place it on a ship to be carried over water as well.

Hiring a storage container for your next move can prove beneficial in a great many ways. In addition to the benefits listed above, storage containers are also simple to use overall and guaranteed to be good for more than a single use. By purchasing a used container, you can even make use of the secure, weatherproof space the container provides for other purposes after you have finished unloading everything at your new home.

Should you be planning your next move at the moment, it might be worth considering using one of these containers to make things much easier.

Do you have experience using a shipping container to help you move? Tell us about it in a comment below:

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