Anyone used self-storage to help declutter a house?

[ClutteryClara]

We have way too much stuff cluttering up the house. As both my partner and I work long hours. we just find little time or energy to try and sell stuff. We seem to endlessly have charity bags lurking around making the house look messy and we take these to the charity shop eventually. My DP has realised that there is a self-storage place right by where he works. We've just been entertaining the idea of hiring a space there and putting all our crap in there.

We will photograph some of the saleable items with a view to Gumtreeing them or Ebaying them. We've got stuff like air-dryers, musical instruments, old toys (some collectable), loads of books/maps, shoes, ornaments. To organise ourselves to sell that stuff from home would just take up too much time and space. We thought if we had a place where all our saleable stuff was centralised and accessible it would a) clear more space in our house and b) be a simpler way to sell stuff. It would also mean that we wouldn't have strange people turning up at our house snooping in our garage! And if stuff doesn't sell and we don't use it in, say, 3 months our aim is just to give it away/bin it.

Wondering what people think of this idea - crazy? Waste of money? No idea how much this type of storage would cost -we were thinking of a space the size of a small Luton van. The emphasis would definitely be on getting rid of stuff rather than making money hence us even entertaining the idea of forking out cash on storage in the first instance Any thoughts on this? Has anyone done something similar or who have storage and an idea of cost?

My friend started doing this ten years ago. She now has one double and one single storage unit. I'd say most of it is rubbish she should throw out. It seems like a lot of money being wasted each month.

The units get more filled and the prices increase.

I did this once. At the end of the term all of the boxes just came back again and into our now rammed garage.

It was all kids toys. For the fees I could have chucked out every toy and bought just a select few new ones. But now the good toys and the tatty ones are all rotting away in the garage.

It’s just easer to sell as you go on FB. If it doesn’t go in a week charity shop it

very little on that list is worth anything. The UK is floating on a sea of ornaments, toys, china.

pick a charity and tell then to take it all.

I agree with the others, don’t put it in storage. Look at your house. This is your space. You can only have enough stuff to fill this space. I also agree with the others that most of your stuff is unlikely to be worth anything. Make a plan to drive as much as you can to a charity shop this week.

Don't do it, you just move the stuff elsewhere and there it stays!

Gumtreeing stuff from a storage unit would be a PITA.
People saying some time after 2, then coming at 4. Not turning up at all.

Just get rid of it. It’s called the sunk cost trap. You will end up spending a lot more emotional energy as well as time for very little financial reward. And probably end up with more stuff not less....

We have started to declutter. The thing is when you look at most things, say if it cost £20 new, unless it is likely to appreciate in value then you might say sell it for £10, plus postage. Factor in that it takes five minutes to clean it up five minutes to weight, photo and advertise it. Ten minutes to obtain appropriate packaging, pack, seal, address it. Ten minutes to take to the post office probably longer . That's half an hour before you have even gone near the self-storage which could easily take half an hour of taking it, storing, going to collect, unlocking, finding it, locking etc. If you get paid more than £10 an hour you are better off doing some overtime and charity shopping it.

Obviously it can work - if it is your business and you streamline the selling and postage because taking one thing to post office is same as five things. Also if you would otherwise be sitting at home while the baby sleeps (as if!), or you can't work etc. Or for higher value items. You need to judge what the costs are as well as the gain.

Have a look at the Sold items on eBay and check what your stuff is actually worth. Send the things not worth much to Charity now, and spend some time listing the more valuable items for a realistic price. Prioritise the things that will release most space. Facebook and Gumtree are good for bulky, heavy items. Good luck!

Don't do it. I've done similar except it's my large loft that is my storage unit. Which is ok in that it's free, but what I've actually done is hide my clutter rather than sort it, & it's a case of out of sight, out of mind. Now I'm moving so I have all the junk in the main part of the house plus half a house worth of clutter in the loft to sort. I am slowly doing the Marie Kondo book now - which is brilliant. It's the only method I've found (& I am a veteran of decluttering books) which seems to be working for me. For the first time in my adult life I feel like I could finally get to a point where my home is organised and uncluttered.

Also agree with suggestions to find an ebay seller for any stuff of value (& just give rest to charity). I paid 50% of selling price to someone to sell a lot of things for me. It maybe seems like a lot but it was worth it for not having to find the time/energy to list items, take photos, work out prices, work out how to post/arrange collection. It was £400 in my pocket rather than a theoretical £800 (minus ebay fees) I might get if I could find time to sell things.

What a waste of money - to store things to sell but your main priority is to get rid of stuff, not make money? That doesn't make sense at all.

Just get rid. The majority of above posters have given you ideas of how to do this.

And don't dismiss Marie Kondo - she talks about keeping and surrounding yourself with things that give you joy. So you can have vintage tins, objects, photographs, old cameras and you can display them to your hearts content. Direct quote from her Spark Joy book, "Our goal should be to create a living environment filled with the things we love."

I agree with FoolandFitz. Just noticed your post about Kondo, OP. It's really, really not like that. I don't want a minimal show home (just as well really ), but Kondo is great for getting your home however you really want it. One of the best things for me is that now the clutter is going I can actually find and see the stuff I really love. It's about working out what you really want to keep and enjoying it rather than stuffing it at the back of a cupboard under a pile of clothes that haven't fitted you since 1995. Read the book and see what you think - it takes about 2 hours to read and could save you a lot on storage.

@Labradoodle: ...get rid of the kids...

That's SERIOUS decluttering

I read that Angelina and Brad, when still married, had a separate house for the kids. I thought that was utterly genius.

You want to store it away for re-cluttering? Don't.

We will photograph some of the saleable items with a view to Gumtreeing them or Ebaying them. We've got stuff like air-dryers, musical instruments, old toys (some collectable), loads of books/maps, shoes, ornaments. To organise ourselves to sell that stuff from home would just take up too much time and space. We thought if we had a place where all our saleable stuff was centralised and accessible it would a) clear more space in our house and b) be a simpler way to sell stuff. It would also mean that we wouldn't have strange people turning up at our house snooping in our garage! And if stuff doesn't sell and we don't use it in, say, 3 months our aim is just to give it away/bin it.

But you won't. It will be out of sight and out of mind and before you know it, you'll months and years down the line and considerably poorer for the costs of the unit. You won't suddenly get more time to deal with the stuff by putting it in there. In fact, the time you spend sorting out it could be the time you use to take the lot to a charity shop (forget trying to sell it/make money, just clear it out and free up a load of mental space. It's a sunk cost now anyway.)

Any money that you would make by selling stuff and all the bother of photographing, posting etc could end up being less than what the storage unit costs so get rid of it now while you are sorting, any stuff that is particularly valuable put up for sale immediately.

Or have couple of car boot sales, probably easier if there is a lot of stuff.

We cleared out our loft as it was just a place for unwanted clutter, now the only stuff up there are Christmas decorations and leftover wallpaper

So self storage companies know that most people think they're only going to store for a month or two. In reality most people end up storing for an average of 18 months!

It becomes hassle to move your stuff once it's in storage - but the direct debits keep coming off. They offer discounts for the first few months knowing that people will stay much longer. It can end up costing 3 or 4 times what you paid at the start.

Having experienced this myself - make sure you keep checking what you're being charged and shop around or switch providers like you would do for utilities etc. 'StorageMonkey' reviews all of the top storage providers and you can see their prices and offers.