Storage Rental at Christmas

The Christmas season is nearly here, and soon it’ll be time to lug out the Christmas tree, and all your battered decorations, from storage. Maybe this will be the year you’ll decide to eliminate a few of your children’s first Popsicle decorations. I mean, really, who could possibly want to keep them? They take up so much storage space, and they’re hardly designed very well. They were 5 years old when they made them, after all!

If the idea of throwing out your kid’s first decorations is completely abhorrent to you – perhaps you should consider storage rental this Christmas. Hire a storage unit for an affordable price, and you’ll have a perfectly sized space to keep all of your Christmas decorations while you don’t need them throughout the year. Come next Christmas, you’ll be able to get all of your stuff out of the storage unit, and hang them around the house with ease. No need to cull those nostalgic decorations to make room for more – use storage rental and get more room!

A suitably sized storage unit can hold your Christmas tree, nostalgic decorations, newly purchased decorations – even the Christmas themed picture books or cook books that you only bring out around Christmas time. Store them in organised, labelled packing boxes during storage rental, and bringing out the Christmas decorations can become so much simpler. Storage rental will make your life post-Christmas so much easier, and it’s a very affordable alternative to clogging up your cupboards at home – or indeed ruthlessly throwing out those nostalgic, handmade decorations.

The Tetris Effect with Packing Materials

Stuffing a truck full of reasonably heavy boxes into a relatively small storage unit might sometimes seem a little daunting. You have to get all of the boxes to fit, and keep them accessible. Irritation sets in pretty quickly when you’re trying to match up oddly shaped appliances in a small, potentially hot storage space.

That’s why buying packing materials from your storage facility is the best idea. Tetris is a fun game, sure, but when you’re trying to make shapes stack on other shapes by physically lifting them around, it becomes tiresome. Proper packing materials – book boxes, tea chests – are designed to stack neatly together. It’s like playing a game of Tetris with just squares. Less fun, maybe, but certainly much easier. The storage boxes will stack one on top the other with ease, fitting perfectly together, and saving a lot of space. Best of all, you won’t get teetering towers of boxes in the storage unit – instead a sturdy base that can also support the other items in your storage unit.

The Tetris effect in your storage unit will help you pack efficiently, safely, and quickly. It won’t look nearly as cool as a perfectly designed Tetris game might –but really, it’s so much easier. With packing materials of similar size and shape, your storage unit will be able to fit as much as it possibly can, while still being easy to navigate to retrieve items during your storage rental. The Tetris effect – it’s the only way to go.

Spring Cleaning in Melbourne

Spring is hitting Melbourne as we speak - the perfect season for cleaning out the cobwebs, ready for the summer months. And using self storage could be just the thing to get you motivated. You could give the house a whole new look – buy new furniture, hang new pictures, give it a new paint job. The thing that usually prevents us from going the extra mile with our spring clean: what to do with all the things already in your house. Using a storage unit this season will help your spring-cleaning efforts go much more smoothly.

Storage rental is a great solution. It gives you a decent sized space to get all of your furniture right out of the way. Leaving you free to clean the house, the floors, buy whole new furniture – whatever you want to do. You could use self-storage to keep your bigger furniture out of the way while you clean, or even to clear out your house room by room, to get every corner dusted and vacuumed. The storage unit will prevent the complications involved with moving the furniture around to other parts of the house.

Storage units can help you repaint the house, thoroughly clean each room, or even to re-organise. Simply by providing another space to put your temporarily inconvenient furniture, spring-cleaning jobs become much easier. And for a great place, and a convenient location near Melbourne’s CBD, Access Self Storage can be your first stop when you begin your spring clean. 

Using Storage to Work Interstate

Self storage is most obviously useful when you work overseas or interstate. If you’re only moving temporarily, you won’t want to bring all of your furniture with you. But if you’re selling your house or renting, you also won’t have anywhere else to keep it.

Nothing could be worse about working away from home than having to shuttle your belongings back and forth, from Melbourne to Brisbane, or even Melbourne to London. With storage rental, you can keep everything you don’t need while you travel for work in a storage unit, in one central location – and your things will still be there when you get back.

Keeping things in storage this way will save you time, energy and money. You won’t have to sell half your furniture, nor pay a large fee to a moving company to get all your things from one place to the other, and then back again not long afterwards. And you can easily access your things as well, if you happen to be around to visit.

Storage rental will keep your belongings secure as well. Most storage facilities, Access Self Storage included, offer highly secure units, with secure locking systems and professionals on site. A storage unit offers more protection and security while you’re away than keeping your possessions in an empty house, or in a storage room in your house while other people rent it.

Storage rental will most importantly help ease the stress of working temporarily interstate, or overseas. And really, isn’t that the best bit?

Storage Rental for Students

Exams are finally winding up, and the summer holidays are stretched out ahead of you. Storage rental is probably the last thing on your mind. If you’re anything like me, you would have walked into your room after your final exam, and almost tripped over the mass accumulation of paper and text books and notes strewn all over your desk, floor, and bed.

Storage rental is something worth looking into this time of year. God knows I never knew what to do with all the paperwork from the previous semester – I wish I’d known more about storage rental at the time.

Storage rental just gives you something to do with it all. Rather than spending hours going through it, trying to decide if countless drafts of previous assignment are actually worth keeping – pack it all up in some clearly labelled boxes, and stick it in storage rental.

Having storage rental booked will also help get you motivated to sort it all out, too. It was always the stress that I’d throw out something vital that stopped me from taking it all and chucking it in the bin. With storage rental, there’s somewhere to dump it all, without having to worry you’ll lose something important. Storage rental just helps you get all that paperwork out of your room. You can keep it in storage rental for the rest of the holidays, or even the rest of your studies if you needed. 

Inspecting the Storage Unit Before You Go Ahead

Storage rental involves a number of considerations. We’ve talked about the security, the packing materials offered by the storage facility, and how often you will be able to access your things. The cost, the size of the storage unit, bringing in moving trucks, talking to a consult – these are all going to be at the forefront of your mind. What may not be, is how important it is to take a good look at the storage unit you’re looking to hire.

It’s not just about inspecting the storage facility, but also the actual storage unit itself. This can help you plan out how to pack and stack the storage unit come moving day. It’ll give you a clear picture of the width and height of the storage unit, and might give you an idea of the space available. You’ll know whether to aim for walkways between your belongings in the storage unit, or whether it’ll be better just to pack it all tightly in.

Checking the storage unit out beforehand will also help you determine how protected your storage items will need to be. For example, if the floor is concreted and dusty, items that aren’t going to be water damaged (ie mattresses) need to be kept up from the bottom. Your furniture might also need plastic protection to keep them clean.

So when you’re checking out the storage facility, remember to poke around the storage unit as well. It will definitely help to make the moving process much easier.

Keep the Archives Secure in Self Storage

It’s a requirement to keep tax documentation for seven years. That’s all your receipts, bills, bank statements, credit card payments and pay slips – all of the paper that you’ve accumulated for seven years. Not all of us have enough filing cabinets to keep such storage of paper. Let alone enough storage space in our house for all those filing cabinets.

In this digital era, the storage of paper is less of a problem. There’s less need for a storage unit, more for a massive paperwork hard-drive, and a few backups. But as little as 4 years ago, most of your documentation would still be in paper form. And you still have to keep that stuff. Eventually even hard-drives of your documentation will begin to take up a lot of room. Imagine your annoyance if you got audited, only to find you’d thrown out your tax receipts, rather than keeping them in storage? Using storage rental, keeping it all in a storage unit, is a pre-emptive solution – at least your archives can be kept safely in a storage unit, without you ever having to worry about them.

Many people use self-storage for just this purpose, and it will help to keep your documentation a bit more organised. Your paperwork can be sorted in file systems and by year in the storage unit, so that you can keep a seven-year rotation, and never have to worry about it again. Keep your paperwork safe, secure, and simple. All thanks to self storage.

The Best Self Storage in South Melbourne

What’s the best self storage space in South Melbourne? Access Self Storage. 

If that’s not your answer already, it will be soon. Why? Well, let me show you.

South Melbourne, first of all, doesn’t have a lot of surrounding options for self storage. But what Access Self Storage can particularly offer is what helps it stand out from this limited crowd.

An enormous range of storage units – rooms for large furniture storage, to rooms for paper-based business storage – are contained in the Access Self Storage building. It’s almost an absolute guarantee that you’ll find the right size you’re looking for.

Access Self Storage has been in the business for a long time, and we employ staff who know what they’re about. If you need help or advice, our guys will be of great service, easily helping your storage rental to be as successful as can be.

Access Self Storage is easy to get to, and well supplied with the packaging materials you’ll need. For first time storage users, Access staff will make things much easier, and the materials available on site will help you recover from anything you’ve missed. For those who have experienced storage rental, Access offers well looked after units, storage staff who know what they’re talking about, and a range of storage units to suit your every need. There shouldn’t really be a question of “where is the best self storage space in South Melbourne”. Because the answer is all too obviously: Access Self Storage.

Storage Rental: Helping You Keep Your Vintage Favourites

Did you ever raid your parents’ wardrobe or garage when you were younger? Trying to find the perfect bomber jacket, or a vintage typewriter, somewhere deep in storage? Maybe they weren’t in mint condition, but there were always some gems hidden away in questionable storage conditions. Nowadays, self storage has improved somewhat, with our modern apartments in Melbourne CBD, or terrace houses in Albert Park. However, we have more of a tendency to throw things out - especially when we’ve got no extra room for storage.

But fast-forward fifteen or twenty years, and your teenagers won’t find those same gems that we found, hidden away in our parent’s houses. They won’t be able to use your old clothes, or your old camera, thanks to the lack of storage space.

Well, hiring a storage unit might just be the solution. Even if it’s just until you get a bigger place, out of your apartment in Melbourne City and into a more spacious accommodation in Toorak, storage facilities could be the perfect place to store the designer clothes you’ve no intention of wearing again, or the Polaroid camera you’re on the verge of chucking out. A storage unit offers a lot more protection for your stuff than your parents’ garage ever did, so it’s sure to be in better condition when it comes time to look for them again. And it’s good for nostalgia as well. This way, you’ll be able to revisit your glory days by taking a visit to your storage unit. It’s the best solution!

Access Self Storage Presents: The March of the Pedestal Fan

It looks like we may have finally hit summer. Melbourne’s temperatures have been steadily rising, and although we’ve been mired in rain for the past week, times are probably about to change.

It’s around this time that an amazing parade starts happening at Access Self Storage. It travels along Montague Street, around to Normanby Road, and into the storage facility itself, before circling into each storage unit and parading back out again.

It’s quite a thing to see. And it’s pretty easy to get involved. It will probably make your life much easier. We call it “the march of the pedestal fans”.

Those pedestal fans stayed in their storage units throughout the winter months, biding their time, and waiting it out. Because come Spring, when it’s time for the march, the storage unit doors will creak open, heaters will be wheeled in, and the fan’s time will come.

Held up high on shoulders in the shining sun, waving gently in the breeze – the pedestal fans march out of their units, and out of Access Self Storage, for the next six months of warm weather and sunshine.

It doesn’t take much to get involved in the march. Just come on down to Access Self Storage, and you too can have your own storage unit, in which you can keep your pedestal fans. Don’t leave them in your houses, unused, while their heating counterparts smugly whir in the lounge room.

Give the fans their march next summer. Hire a storage unit. You won’t regret it. 

That's Going Straight to the Storage Unit!

When Daryl Kerrigan defended his castle from the expansion plans of Melbourne Airport, he wasn’t just thinking about bricks and mortar. He was thinking about the storage of memories and love that had generated in the house. No doubt he was also thinking of his pool room, which housed his storage of treasured gifts, memorabilia, and relics from proud moments.

Mr Kerrigan won his house back from the evil corporate souls of Melbourne Airport – but what would have happened if he’d been forced to move? To a new house, maybe a smaller one, one with no self-storage room to keep his treasured objects?

If your pool room is just not big enough to become a storage unit for all those memories you can’t bear to throw out – your children’s first scribbles, photos of your first holiday in Portsea, a favoured football now beaten up beyond repair – then storage rental might be worth considering. Access Self-Storage could be the solution.

 It may not look nearly as attractive as Daryl Kerrigan’s pool room was, but it’s a much better plan to put those precious memories safely in a storage unit, than be forced to throw them out because you’ve run out of space. And if you live near Melbourne’s CBD, your memories can be stored close to you, at Access Self-Storage in South Melbourne. It’s the best way to keep them safe, or even just to make room for more treasures in your pool room at home.  

Location Considerations for Storage Units

Making the move into a storage unit doesn’t have to be as arduous as moving house. Why should it be, when you’re moving less stuff into a smaller, and frankly less decorative, space. Rather than having to fuss with the positions of the furniture, and unpacking the boxes, you simply have to load your stuff, potentially hire a removalist, and pack it efficiently in your storage unit. What could be simpler?

Storage rental is most successful when you use a storage facility located conveniently. Which is why Access Self Storage is the best storage solution for Melbourne suburbs such as South Yarra, St Kilda, Middle Park, the Docklands, and other suburbs near to South Melbourne.

Having a conveniently located storage unit has a number of benefits. Firstly, it will make the moving process much easier. You’ll either save money on the removalist, or you could forgo hiring one altogether and just transport it to the storage facility yourself.

A closely located storage unit will also make it much more convenient to retrieve your stored items whenever needed. A ten-minute drive to South Melbourne is much more achievable than a half hour trip to a storage facility at Chadstone, just to retrieve a photo album your aunt mentioned she wanted to borrow.

Considering a closely located storage facility should be a top priority when assessing storage rental, not only because it will save you money, but also because it will make for a far more satisfying storage experience.

Keeping Electronics Safe in Storage

If you’re looking to store some excess furniture – for instance, if you’re temporarily moving to a smaller apartment in Melbourne’s CBD - chances are you’ll want to use a storage unit for a few electronics.

Access Self Storage offers great security in a convenient South Melbourne location, but security isn’t the only concern when you’re locking up your electronics. When electronics are staying in a storage unit for a long period of time, there are a few extra things you can do to ensure their safety.

Storing computers, TV’s and HiFi systems in their original boxes is one of the best ways to keep them safe. Although this may mean oddly shaped boxes in your storage unit, it does mean they will be better protected. If you have to use your own boxes, or if you haven’t kept the originals, make sure you pack out any gaps with bubble wrap to minimise any damage.

If you’re planning on keeping computers in the storage facility for longer than six months, it’s best to consult your retailer about it. Be sure to tell them about the conditions of the storage unit as well.

Remove the batteries from all other electrical equipment as well, so no leakages occur during your storage rental. Electrical cords should be taped to the sides of appliances, as dangling cords in a packed storage unit can quickly become dangerous.

These are just a few ways to ensure your electrical equipment comes through storage rental in the best condition possible.

Access Self Storage's Top Storage Tips

Keeping Your Storage Items Safe

The whole point of using a storage facility is to keep possessions that you don’t have space to keep at home. With this in mind, it’s ideal to keep these in good condition inside the storage unit. There are a couple of ways to ensure your things stay well looked after during your storage rental.

Packing Materials

Recommended packing materials are the way to go. Making sure your items (especially breakables) are wrapped carefully with packing paper will help to prevent breakages. Packing boxes should have a layer of packing paper on the top and bottom, to give it that extra protection. Silver should be wrapped in non-acid tissue, or in plastic bags, which should prevent any tarnishing.

Preparing Furniture Before Storage

It’s also best if fridges, washing machines or dishwashers are completely drained of water or frost before being packed in the storage unit. Leakages in the unit can cause some pretty major problems. Make sure any items placed in these larger items won’t rock around inside and cause any damage. Taping the doors of things like wardrobes is a good idea, but leave the doors to fridges and freezers open, or you’ll be left with a seriously bad smell. Crumbs and food stains should be vacuumed and cleaned thoroughly from furniture, so vermin aren’t attracted to the storage unit.

Pretty easy steps, but they might just help keep your things safe during your storage rental, and while they aren’t being kept under your watchful eye.

Inspecting Your Storage Facility

You might think rental storage is a fairly simple thing. You hire a unit, pack up your stuff, pay the bill, and then come collect it all when you need it again. But careful thought and planning should be undertaken before you choose your storage facility – because all self-storage is not created equal.

It’s important to consider what you really want out of your storage unit. For storage of valuable items, you’ll want to see what kind of security the storage facility offers. Are there security cameras and alarms? Who can access the storage unit? How often does the company check the locks to the storage containers? You should also consider insurance – Access Self Storage provides free insurance cover up to $5000, but are you going to need more cover than this? Your insurance company might already cover items you’ve put in storage, so it’s best to check this out.

Looking at the unit itself before choosing a storage facility is also important. You will need to see how clean the storage units are, what the space looks like, and whether the company provides good quarantine services. Also consider the packing materials you will need. Access Self Storage has a variety of packing materials available onsite – will you need anything else to store your things?

Spending a bit of time considering the storage facility itself is important, and is sure to help you find the right storage facility that suits all your needs.

Deciding What to Pack in Your Storage Unit

So, you’ve decided to hire a self storage unit. Perhaps you’re downsizing to a smaller apartment, or attempting to declutter your lifestyle. Maybe you just need temporary storage while you look for a more spacious place to live. Now what you have to decide is exactly what you should put in storage.

Think about things you genuinely aren’t going to use, and what you may want to use in the future. If you find you’re hiring a large storage unit, and are mostly filling it up with useless furniture, this is a waste of time, and you might be better off selling it. Keeping furniture such as a second couch in the storage unit, and then finding you have nowhere for guests to sit, is also not the best plan.

People often use self storage for sporting equipment, photo albums, or even old clothes. Again, seriously think about the items you’re keeping in your storage unit – and make sure you’re not going to have any use for them. If you’re putting precious keepsakes in the storage unit, they need to be kept well protected. If you’re using the storage unit to keep all your winter clothes during summer, remember to keep at least a few cardigans or jumpers with you, just in case it gets a bit colder than you expected.

It might seem obvious, but giving careful consideration to the items you’re putting in storage will help you get the most out of your storage experience.

Packing Efficiently for Self Storage Units

When you’re looking at hiring storage units, one thing you want is to keep costs low. Hiring a smaller storage unit, rather than a large one, is one way to do this. The simple solution is to pack your storage unit efficiently.

Although using plastic bags may seem cheaper, packing into boxes is the best way to go. Not only will it stop your items getting dusty while they remain in the storage unit, it will also make it much easier to save space (and will therefore save you money in the long run). Fill them to capacity, and remember to get boxes of similar shape and size, to easily stack inside the storage unit. Use the inside of wardrobes, furniture drawers, stoves – anywhere with space inside, to fit more boxes.

When it comes to packing the storage unit, make sure you plan ahead. Put all the larger items in first, so you can fit the smaller boxes in and around them. Remove the legs from furniture where possible, and lamps from lampshades, so there are fewer odd shaped items in the storage unit. Fill the hollow spaces as much as you can, but remember, if you’re planning to keep the storage unit for a long period of time, it’s a good idea to keep some space to move around inside.

With careful thought, and by planning ahead, storage units can be packed efficiently, which will help keep costs low in the long run.

Accessing Items in Your Storage Unit

Whether you're using self storage for personal or commercial needs, it's inevitable that you're going to access your storage unit at least once after your items have been stored. If your items aren't labeled properly, or aren't easily accessible in your storage unit, this could be tricky.

The first step is to make sure every box is clearly labeled in the storage unit. To make this process easier, it's best to pack similar items in the same box. labels like "kitchen items" might seem clear when you're writing them, but when it comes down to searching your storage unit for a salad bowl in amongst five boxes labeled "kitchen items", it might not be so helpful. Packing clothes in clothes boxes – so they can hang inside – is also a good idea. This way you don't have to go through boxes of folded up clothes in the storage unit, trying to find the cardigan you just realised you needed.

The other important step is organising the storage unit. It's best to keep aisle space, so you can easily move around inside. This will not only make it easier to access your items in the storage unit, it will also help prevent odors and mildew. Planning ahead is an important step – make sure items you might need are stored at the front, and things like furniture should be at the back of the storage unit.

As long as the items in the storage unit are labeled carefully and clearly, and are easily accessible, you can have a relatively stress-free storage experience.