Customer Service and the Storage Facility

When you consider storage facilities while you look at self-storage, you’d probably have a list of things you want to check out. The size and range of the storage units, the security at the storage facility, its opening hours, the perks, and the cost – these are all probably high on your list of considerations. What wouldn’t appear on most people’s lists is customer service at the storage facility.

In truth, the customer service at a storage facility – the experience of the staff, how willing they are to help, the services the staff can provide – should be one of the most important factors. When you’re using self-storage for the first time, nothing is going to be more helpful than a storage facility with knowledgeable staff members, who are willing to help in any way they can.

Customer service in a storage facility means staff able to provide advice – whether it be on packing your things, ensuring your storage is safe and durable, or ensuring your storage unit is packed well. Storage facility customer service means staff that help you into your storage unit, and help you pack your storage efficiently. Who give you all the information you need on the storage facility and the services it can provide.

Customer service in a storage facility means staff that care about your storage as much as you do. It should be one of the most important things about choosing a storage facility.

Using self-storage during emergencies

Australia has been dealing with all sorts of weather related emergencies this year. Major bushfires in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria, flooding in Queensland and New South Wales – it does make you concerned for your house and your belongings. A great use of self-storage, which people don’t often think of, is in these situations. With a bit of luck, you’ll have some time up your sleeve – more particularly in a flood situation – and you can begin to think about what you can save by using self-storage. Getting some of your most valuable possessions into self-storage can significantly diminish the loss should your house be touched by disaster.

During most emergency evacuations, valuable possessions would get loaded into your car, furniture secured on higher ground, and you’d have to just hope that maybe it won’t be so bad. By using self-storage, you can help to eliminate some of that risk. Cars and evacuation spots can only hold so much – but self-storage can take care of the rest. Utilise your evacuation time by loading more of your stuff into self-storage, and a storage unit that’s safely away from the emergency area.

Dealing with emergency situations like flooding or even severe storms can cause major stress when you think about the danger for yourself, let alone all your belongings. Organise self-storage and keep your possessions away from the danger – and there’s your stress-free solution.

Using storage rental for renovations

Renovating, rather than buying a new house, is often a more preferred option nowadays. It’s a cheaper and less stressful process than trying to sell your property and afford a different one in today’s market, and can sometimes given your house the fresh change it needs. Storage rental can be a massive benefit when it comes to renovating. You can use storage rental to quickly and easily move furniture from one area of the renovations – and by using storage rental, you don’t have to clog up the rest of your house while the job gets done.

Storage rental is really the perfect solution for making renovations easier. While your kitchen gets upgraded, and all your utensils get taken out of the cupboards so new ones can be put in, it’s unlikely you’ll choose the moment to make a lemon meringue pie. So putting most of your cooking utensils into storage rental will help to clear the kitchen, and will ensure you don’t have to deal with everything that was in the kitchen covering every other surface of the house while you get new cupboards – instead, it’s hidden away in storage rental.

If it’s a major renovation, storage rental can serve as a constantly rotating storage room. Kitchen utensils can come out once the kitchen is finished, and then the contents of your bathroom cupboards can fill up your storage rental instead. You won’t even have to think about it – just as the renovation can take place room by room, so too can your storage rental. It’s the perfect renovation solution.

Removalists and Self-Storage

Sometimes, DIY self-storage seems like a cheaper and simpler option. Everything can be done on your own time, you won’t have to hire a removalist, and your move into self-storage is completely in your control. But there can be some benefits of using a removalist to help get you started with self-storage.

Hiring a removalist can help give you a timeframe to stick to. The nature of self-storage means that there’s often no urgency – and if you’ve got no deadline or motivation to get the job done, your house might stay half packed up and full of boxes of self-storage for months. Booking a removalist will give you a set date on which to have everything organised – and it’ll all get done in one fell swoop.

Removalists can also be helpful when it comes to packing up self-storage. Packing household items into packing boxes is what they do – at least if you’re happy to pay them to do it – and so they’re very good at it. I can guarantee a team of removalist guys can attack your self-storage and wrap it up into boxes much quicker than you or I can. The self-storage process suddenly becomes much easier when you don’t have to pack things up.

And when all’s said and done, the removalists can also stack up your self-storage into the storage unit. Basically, they take all the hard steps out of self-storage, by getting them done for you. And you don’t always have to pay through the nose.

Using Storage Units for Market Stalls

Markets are becoming more and more prevalent in Melbourne these days. What with the bi-annual Finders Keepers, Geelong Boutique markets and the Rose Street Artists’ Market, young designers have ample opportunities to sell their wares, and it’s a pretty easy gig. The difficulty comes when you’re packing up after the day. This is where a storage unit will come in handy. It’s not like you’re a functional shop, it’s far too costly to have a warehouse, and making your house look like a storage unit is not all that appealing. Hiring a storage unit might just be the answer.

It’s very easy to book a storage unit and sort yourself some storage space. And best of all, it’s cheap. You can grab a decent sized storage unit for an affordable price, into which you can keep all of your marketable items. Storage units are usually well secured – Access Self Storage offers 24-hour on site presence, along with alarms and well-secured facilities – and your goods can also be insured while they’re in the storage unit. Access Self Storage provides free insurance to cover you up to $5000.

Using a storage unit will continue to make market selling easy. You’ll have the weekend to sell your wares, and during the week you can quickly and easily transport your sellable or unsold goods into a storage unit. The rental of a storage unit is a simple and affordable way to ensure you don’t have to start thinking like a big business. Look into a storage unit today.

Storage Space and Retirement Homes

My grandfather recently moved into a retirement home. He’s got a small room (and no storage space) for all his things; he gets a meal cooked for him and people to look after him. He’s well set up. What has proved to be a problem is the lack of storage space, and what to do with all of his possessions. It’s not as though he’s died, it feels strange to be dividing up all his furniture amongst the relatives. Renting storage space turned out to be a great solution.

Rather than having him go through his things, and decide what he wants to keep, what he wants to give away, what he wants to sell – the consideration of which was making him feel sad about moving into a home – renting storage space allowed us to keep all of his things easily accessible if ever he suddenly realises he needs them. We don’t have to deal with dividing up his estate, as it were, too early, and he doesn’t have to say goodbye to a lifetime’s worth of belongings – it’s all in storage space.

Though he doesn’t have the storage space to keep all of his things in his room at the home, this way he didn’t have to make hard decisions and throw anything out. Storage space has made him feel much better about moving out, and gave us less to deal with, beyond sorting him and his things for the move. Storage space simplified the process for us, and has proved to be a great, and affordable, decision.

The technical details of storage rental

Two things that are not often thought of when it comes to storage rental are insurance for your storage, and the storage rental agreement for the storage unit.

At Access Self Storage, our insurance will cover your storage rental up to $5000. So if you’re using a storage unit for documentation, children’s toys or old clothes, you should be well covered. However, if you’re using storage rental for more expensive items, such as valuable collectibles, designer clothing, or perhaps expensive electronics, then it might be an idea to look into external insurance, to make sure your storage rental is definitely covered.

When you sign up for storage rental, you are also entering into a rental agreement. If the storage facility you’ve booked doesn’t offer one, insist on making one. The storage rental agreement will detail things like the payment date for your rent, any bonds you’ll need to pay and under what terms this will be refunded or forfeited. A basic storage rental agreement will help to make things official for you, and give a permanent record of the conditions of your storage rental, so that you won’t have reason to be confused.

The storage rental agreement and insurance cover for your storage are very important aspects of storage rental. Make sure, when you’re looking into storage rental and different storage facilities, you ask about these technical details. Comparing insurance offers and storage rental conditions will help you make the right decision about which storage facility to trust your storage rental with.

Who is Access Self Storage

Access SelfStorage has been operating our self-storage facility since 1985. Our storage facility was one of the first storage facilities to open and operate in Victoria.

Access Self Storage has been in the business for over 25 years, which means we have a wealth of experience for you to draw on. Our staff are self-storage experts, and are here to help – if you’re just starting out with storage rental, or have any questions about our storage units or the Access Self Storage facility, one of our experts will be sure to help you out.

Our storage facility in South Melbourne holds several storeys with over 700 storage units available, in 60 varied sizes. Access Self Storage provides our clients with insurance cover, up to $5000, expert advice and service, and a fully secured and alarmed facility. Our location in South Melbourne puts Access Self Storage in the prime position for people near the Melbourne CBD, St Kilda, Port Melbourne and Southbank. Access Self Storage offers a free move in van and  7-day access to our storage facility.

Access Self Storage is also a founding member of the Self Storage Association of Australasia, representing over 80% of self-storage operators in Australia and New Zealand. Our membership at this association means we remain committed to the professionalism of the self-storage industry. Access Self Storage is proud to benefit from the shared knowledge, expertise and education that the association provides.

How to Avoid Inconvenience with Long-Term Storage

When you’re using long-term storage, the nature of self-storage changes. Rather than frequently returning to your storage unit to go through your self-storage, or returning your packed boxes to your living area after a couple of months, your long-term self-storage might stay in the storage unit for years, completely untouched, besides the occasional visit.

Long-term storage can mean several things for your self-storage. First, that your furniture, precious objects, old clothes, crockery – whatever – is going to be sitting in self-storage, unmoving, for a very long time. Pack your self-storage well to stop it from degrading, protect it from dust and dirt, keep the clothes in shape and not scrunched up. Consider just how long your things will be staying in long-term storage while you pack them up.

Long-term storage also means you have to be really careful about labelling. Because when you come back to your self-storage some five years later, there’s no way you’ll remember what you’d packed with what, or where it all came from. Clear and precise labelling is really important when it comes to long-term storage. Pack your self-storage well, in sturdy boxes, so that five years later if you do come to collect, the boxes won’t have all collapsed in on themselves.

Pack carefully, with precise labeling, and in strong boxes when you’re using long-term self-storage. Always keep in mind how long your things will have to stay in boxes, and don’t pack up anything you think won’t survive.

Business storage and self-storage

We haven’t touched on business storage and its uses in this blog, so I thought I would do so now. Access Self Storage is a great storage facility for personal storage, document storage and business storage – but what does “business storage” mean?

There are a variety of ways self-storage can be useful for business storage. During office relocation, self-storage can be used for any excess office furniture. For shops and tradespeople, storage units can house seasonal stock, equipment storage, sales team samples, imported and exported goods and stock overflow. A storage unit can help you de-clutter your office or your shop floor space. Business storage can give you more room to store bulk shipments, so that you can take advantage of bulk buying. Self-storage can become an extra warehouse, especially considering using storage rental for business storage is far more cost effective than buying or renting a warehouse. There’s no bond or leases – just pay month to month to keep hiring a storage unit for your business storage, for as long or short a time as you need.

Business storage can also mean archive storage for your business. When you have to keep your tax related paperwork for seven years, for a business this can mean quite an amount of paperwork. Having a storage unit to keep all your documentation is a great way to clear more space in the office.

Self-storage doesn’t just have to be about clearing space in your home, it can also be a huge help as business storage. Check out the storage units at Access SelfStorage today.