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.

A Variety of Storage Unit Sizes at Access Self Storage

Access Self Storage offers 60 different sizes in storage units at our storage facility in Melbourne. Is it really necessary to have quite so many differently sized storage units?

Obviously our answer is 'yes', but let's take a look at why. Bigger units are slightly more costly, and the smallest unit is also the cheapest price. But rather than just offering a bigger storage unit and a small storage unit, Access offers a range of sizes, because no two storage rentals are the same. When you book your storage rental with Access Self Storage, our experts will ask you questions, so we can understand exactly what you want to get out of your storage rental.

We'll want to know the size of your bulkiest items, so we can find you a storage unit that will match their width or length. We'll want to know the amount of storage you'll be keeping in the storage unit. We'll also want to know how often you'll want to access your unit - whether you'll be returning frequently to go through your storage rental, or if you want to just hire a unit and leave it there. If you're wanting easy access to your storage unit, that's going to make a difference to the size of storage unit you'll want - because you'll require more space.

Rather than just offering two variations in storage units, and getting you to adapt your storage items to fit one of the sizes of storage units, in a way Access Self Storage is able to adapt to you. After all, surely 60 different options is a much better way to go than a one-size-fits-all kind of deal.

Be Your Own Removalist for Storage Rental

Hiring a removalist - with their own van, and their own packing materials, and their own muscles - can seem a lot easier when starting storage rental. Strong people will come in, pack up all your stuff for you, load it into a truck, take it away, and then all the storage rental out again for you. But sadly the whole escapade can be quite a costly process. And when your just using storage rental, and not packing up your entire house, is it really worth it?

There are a couple of ways to make storage rental much easier if you decide to be your own removalist. You will have to get packing materials on your own, but they're usually available from the storage rental facility, and come fairly cheap. And there's one major advantage to avoiding the hire of removalists: you can take as much time as you need to pack it into storage rental. Divide it into sections, or pack up two boxes each night, until the whole task is done. Pack smaller boxes, keep them light, so that when you do start moving it into storage rental, they're all still easy to carry - remember you're probably not as well built as the removalists are. And if you're putting mostly books, CD's or wine into storage rental, your packing boxes will get pretty heavy, pretty quickly.

Being your own removalist doesn't have to make storage rental harder, and it can certainly make the process a lot cheaper. At Access Self Storage, we provide a free move-in truck, making removalists even less necessary. Doing it yourself is well worth considering.

Packing Boxes for Self-Storage

Speaking of packing materials earlier, it might be useful to look at the variety of packing boxes available to the self-storage user. Packing boxes are not all a standard shape, standard size and standard use. I mentioned in an earlier post that Access Self Storage has 11 varieties of packing boxes alone, and no doubt you'll be able to find many other shapes and sizes for your self-storage.

Different boxes are best for different things - mini tea chests can be used for the heaviest items in self-storage; port-a-robe's are great boxes for keeping your clothes neatly protected in the storage unit; tall boys for the tall thin items in self-storage that won't quite fit in a square shaped box; an archive box, with a hinged lid and handles either side, is perfect for storing archived papers and documents in self-storage. You can find picture cartons - the perfect size and shape to house pictures and framed paintings; specially designed 'cubes' to house electronics and computer monitors in self-storage; boxes to house wine bottles flat so the cork remains preserved; single layer boxes perfect to store books, CD's and heavy breakables.

So you can see, all self-storage boxes are not created equal. Certainly you could pack up all of your self-storage items into the commonly used, rectangular shaped tea chest - but it wouldn't be the most useful way to pack up your self-storage. A variety of boxes are available because you'll be placing a wide variety of things into self-storage.

Packing Materials and Self-Storage

Mention packing materials when talking about self-storage, and people's minds immediately jump to packing boxes. There are certainly a wide variety of boxes to choose from when it comes to packing materials. At Access Self Storage alone, we offer as many as 11 varieties of cardboard packing boxes for your self-storage needs. But "packing materials" doesn't just mean boxes.

There are a variety of packing materials available at Access that will make your self-storage much easier. For irregularly shaped items, you could go for storage bags instead of boxes, to keep your self-storage protected, and avoid boxes full of wasted space. Plastic tubs are available for a bit of added protection, for anything just a bit more breakable or valuable in self-storage. Mattress and lounge covers are also on offer, to keep away the dust and to protect them during the move into self-storage. Bubble wrap is obviously a very important packing material in self-storage, along with packing paper (or butcher's paper) and tissue paper. Vacuum space saver bags are fantastic when space saving is one of your top priorities for self-storage - they'll save you about 75% more space. Packing tape and packing knives are an essential component to both packing up your things into self-storage, and coming back to retrieve them. And never forget the marking pen, so you can carefully label all your boxes in self-storage.

Obviously you won't want to use everything listed here for your self-storage, but there are certainly some useful options available, other than just the packing boxes, which you might want to consider before using self-storage.

Spot On Storage with Access Self Storage

Access Self Storage promises to give you spot on storage in Melbourne. Whatever your storage needs are, Access will provide spot on storage solutions. With a range of storage units (60 different sizes) in an incredibly convenient location near Melbourne's CBD - Access can provide spot on storage in a well-maintained storage facility.

Spot on storage means our storage facility is well secured, with security and fire alarms, and on-site storage managers keeping your storage well looked after. You keep the key to your own storage unit - security is completely in your control. Access Self Storage provides free insurance cover up to $5000 as well. Access your storage seven days a week - so if you suddenly remember that you've left your favourite cardigan in amongst your storage on Sunday afternoon, it's no problem to come and get it back. That's why you'll get spot on storage with Access.

We'll provide a free move-in truck with your storage rental, so if you're using storage rental to keep your furniture temporarily, moving it into the unit will come at no extra cost. We provide quality service, can give you helpful advice, and have a range of packing materials on site, to help your storage rental go smoothly. These are all great reasons why you'll get spot on storage with Access Self Storage.

For spot on storage, use Access Self Storage for all your storage rental needs. Whether it's document archives, spare clothes, old equipment, or large amounts of furniture, Access Self Storage will get you spot on storage.

Storage for Your Camping and Sporting Gear

About this time of year, shortly after Christmas, a lot of us will start to pack up our cars with tents and sleeping bags, kayaks and water skis, and carloads of food, and head out into the wilderness for a filthy week of camping. The tents and sporting equipment will be pulled out of storage, their cramped little hiding spots, and loaded up into the car.

When you get back, packing it all up into storage seems much harder. The garage is probably already full of the storage of other equipment; it's probably going to seem impossible to squeeze all of that camping gear back into the storage areas it came from.

So how about storage rental as a solution? Rather than getting home and stuffing your garage full to the brim, come home from Marysville or Ninety Mile Beach and take all your gear to a storage unit. It could be like having an entire spare garage. Pile the tents, the sleeping bags, the kayaks and the water skis - even the trailer, if your storage unit is big enough - all inside the storage unit, ready to access again next holidays.

Using a storage unit to house your camping gear will make it easier to pack and unpack, and leave much more storage space in your garage at home. As a storage solution, storing camping gear isn't always something people would consider, but storage rental really will help make the whole process much easier.

Keeping Storage Rental Safe in the Long Term

If you're planning to use storage rental in the long term, there a couple of things you should consider to keep your storage items safe and well maintained.

The first and most obvious step is to pack them well. If you're storing smaller objects, wrap everything carefully and keep them in boxes. Pack boxes with packing material or bubble wrap, so if anything falls or is moved during the storage rental, your things will still be safe.

It's also a good idea to give the storage unit a clean out once in a while during your storage rental. It may seem silly to be dusting out your storage unit, when the furniture in it is just going to stay in storage rental, but it will help to keep the furniture in good condition.

Keep in mind that certain items may not survive well in a storage rental environment, especially in the long term. Computers shouldn't really be stored for longer than six months. Clothes, if they haven't been packed carefully in a clothes box, may come out of storage rental a little worse for wear.

As long as you check on your things fairly frequently, long-term storage rental should work out fine. At Access Self Storage, our storage units are well maintained and very clean. Just remember to follow these few steps, and to check up on your storage unit every once in a while, and your long-term storage rental should definitely work out successfully.

Emptying Your Storage Unit Back Into the House

If you've used a storage unit to house things temporarily while you moved houses, there are a few helpful tips to make moving it all into your new home much easier.

Planning ahead is key. When you pack up your storage unit, write out a plan. Note where everything belongs, what you've packed first, which room each box has come from. Be thoughtful about your labelling - make it very clear what each box contains, and where it should go when you unpack again. Your storage unit should be full of boxes with very detailed labels, and you should keep a plan of your storage unit, to give a basic idea of where everything is inside the storage unit.

When you unpack the storage unit, do it in an organised fashion. Keep boxes from the same rooms together, and when you unload them into the house, put them straight in those rooms. Refer back to your plan, so you know which boxes should be unpacked first. You could keep some of the unnecessary boxes in the storage unit while you unpack the essentials, which will also help to keep the house less cluttered.

Above all, make sure you've set a deadline for completely emptying the storage unit. Otherwise, unpacking could carry on indefinitely while you leave various boxes in your storage unit while you deal with other things. Setting a deadline will help to ensure the unpacking of your storage unit will eventually get done in good time.

Unpacking Your Storage Unit Over the Long Term

When your need for a storage unit comes to an end, the obvious thing to do is empty out your storage unit in one fell swoop, and return it all to your house. Right?

In some cases, it might actually be easier to empty your storage unit much more slowly. If you've chosen to get storage rental to help make moving a lot easier, then unpacking your storage unit gradually is only going to help this process even more. Rather than getting everything out of the storage unit and filling your new house up with boxes, you could take your time, and unpack with an organised plan.

Depending on how you sort your storage unit to begin with (each box labelled by room, or ordered by most essential to least essential), taking your time to remove and unpack the boxes might help to make unpacking a little bit easier. If your storage unit is labelled room by room, you could easily take boxes related to one room from the storage unit over a couple of weekends. If by essential to least essential, you can remove the essential boxes at first, and take your time with the others.

Taking your time to empty your storage unit won't add much to your storage rental cost, and will help to make the job go much more smoothly. Why stress yourself out with unpacking when you can take your time? Making moving house easier is what storage rental is all about, so make the most of it.

Packing Up Self-Storage into the Truck

One major step in using self-storage is transporting your goods from your home to the storage unit. This may seem like a relatively simple task, and certainly it is if you've chosen to use removalists. But sometimes when you use self-storage, and only have to transport a few items, it can seem easier to hire a truck and move it yourself. Here are a couple of tips on packing up your moving truck to make moving your self-storage a little bit easier.

If you're putting mattresses into self-storage, load them up first and against the walls. The heaviest of your self-storage items should be loaded up the front, and longer furniture against the longer walls. Drawers and doors should face the walls of the truck, so they don't swing open. Keep the heavier boxes for self-storage on the floor, and lighter boxes on top. Fill any gaps with smaller items, to minimise movement on your way to the self-storage facility.

Remember to spread out the weight relatively evenly, so the trip to self-storage is as safe as possible. If there's a lot of room left when you've packed everything up, keep it all stacked low. Using blankets, sheets and towels as packing pads is a good idea, and pack rugs on last, so you can put them straight on the floor when you arrive at the self-storage facility.

Just a few steps to help making the transportation easier, and help to make your self-storage experience a little more stress free.

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.

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.  

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.