What is the cheapest way to store households goods and furniture for an undetermined period of time?

[IlanaK]

We are moving soon, have not found a place to buy and will have to move in with my mum. We have a three bedroom place so lots of furniture and belongings, only a small part of which will come to my mum's. We don't know how long we will need storage for either. We are in Central London which probably does not help prices. What is the cheapest way for us to store things? Is it best to use the removal company to store, or not?

cheapest would be to find a friend with an empty loft/basement/garage

Not an option. Everyone we know lives centrally and has storage problems themselves. I know we need to pay for storage, I just want to know the best way to go about it.

Get a storage unit. We found Storage King much cheaper than the usual Big Yellow etc, they've been excellent. We use the Twickenham unit and pay £45/month for a 5 foot square unit. We managed to negotiate a 10% discount too. Fits everything easily though we are not storing beds etc.

Should have said if you drive out a bit you will get a better deal than your local one (in London anyway) if you are central - so we took ours to Twickers from Notting Hill - and just avoid it on a match day!

Storage where you can't access the stuff (or not easily) is generally cheaper than self-store type places where you can wander in and out. If you need removals as well, it does generally make sense to combine the two things I think (that is what we have just done; and they do usually use the cheaper non-accessible type of storage).

Cost depends on the volume too, so take apart any furniture that you can easily flatpack, pack things inside other things where possible etc.

Ilanak.... I've just done exactly the same thing... We used to live in Battersea and we used a company called Ois removals. They came and packed everything (you don't have to have their packing service) and stored everything for a really reasonable rate - we also didn't know how long for, but he gave us a weekly rate of £28 per week, regardless of how much we had. I told him we had tons and he said that was the rate he quoted and that was the rate he'd stick to. We had tons and tons of stuff, a 2 bed flat, but enough to fill two vans, but even so he was happy to keep the price the same. The chappy was a lovely Irish guy called Oisin, and all his packers were lovely Brazillians. They were miles cheaper than any of their competitors.

Headfairy - thanks so much for the recommendation. We know a good removals company but they don't do storage. Your option seems a much easier way to do it.