Decorating a room - what should I do with all the stuff?

[verybusyknitter]

Hi decorating Mumsnetters, I'm looking for some practical advice about what to do with all the stuff when it's being decorated.

This year we want to renovate a much neglected sitting room. This will involve preparing the walls, maybe a bit of remedial plastering, painting walls and ceiling, making the skirtings nice and sanding the floor. Also new curtains.

The room currently has a sofa-bed, a dresser full of stuff, a few other bits of furniture and many Billy bookcases. We reckon there's nearly a thousand books on the shelves. There is simply no room anywhere else in the house for this stuff and anyway the furniture will be difficult to move.

We are not experienced decorators/home improvers and intend to get trades in to do everything. But what happens with all the stuff? Can they work around it all?

Any advice gratefully received.

Could you put it into storage for a while? Decorating is much quicker and easier without stuff in the room.

You really need to move it if doing flooring. For a coat of paint you could put in the middle of the room with a dust sheet provided there was ample clearancearound it but sanding a floor with be a hell of a dusty job and a pain the arse if you have to keep moving furniture.

For us that meant cluttering up other rooms with boxes, bits of furniture etc and selling some pieces we didn't intend to reuse.

You may want to consider renting a storage unit for a few weeks.

I had more rooms done and got rid of some furniture but put all the books and small stuff in storage boxes in the shed. The sofa and coffee table were placed in the middle of the room and covered with dust sheets. They were able to plaster, decorate and fit a new floor around that. Hope it goes well.

Thanks everyone, I think storage may be the only practical approach for us. Daft follow up question (I don't have much experience at all with practical house related things)... if we rent some temporary storage, are there people out there we can hire to move said stuff to the storage? And take care of the heavy lifting for us?

You can always find man and van people on local fb or next door site. I have used Big Yellow Storage in the past.