When the builders move in, your furniture has to move out of the way, and where it goes depends on how big the job is and how long it will run. For a quick redecoration you might get away with shifting everything into the next room. For a full renovation that takes weeks, you need somewhere furniture stays clean, dry and out of harm’s way until the dust settles. The options run from free and cramped to paid and spacious, and the right one is a trade-off between cost, space and how precious your pieces are.
If you are weighing those options, we cover each one, how to protect your furniture while it is stored, and how to judge how long you will actually need the space.
There are four realistic places to put furniture while work is underway, each with its own trade-offs:
1. Another room in the house
2. A garage, loft or shed
3. A friend or family member’s home
4. A self storage unit.
Which one works best comes down to how much furniture you need to move. Plus, how long the renovation will last, and how well protected you need everything to be.
The cheapest option is to shuffle furniture into a part of the house the builders are not touching. For a single-room project this often works fine, as long as the room you move things into can spare the space without becoming unusable.
The catch is dust and damage. Renovation dust travels. It can get into upholstery and settles on polished surfaces two rooms away from where anyone is working. If you go this route, group everything in the centre of the room away from the work, and cover it properly rather than leaving it exposed.
A garage, loft or shed keeps furniture out of the house entirely, which solves the dust problem. It is a sensible short-term home for sturdy items that are not easily damaged.
The thing to watch is the environment. These spaces swing between cold and warm and are prone to damp, which is hard on wood, leather and anything upholstered. A weekend is fine. However, several weeks over a wet spell is not. So, keep delicate or valuable pieces somewhere more stable and use the garage for the hardy items.
If someone has a spare room or an empty garage, borrowing their space costs nothing but a favour and a thank you. It works well for a handful of items over a short period.
Be realistic about what you are asking, though. A full house of furniture is a lot to land on someone for a renovation that overruns, and it puts the responsibility for your belongings on a friend. For anything more than a few pieces, or a job that could stretch on, it is usually fairer and safer to arrange proper storage.
For a bigger renovation, or a job that will run for weeks, a self storage unit is the option built for the task. It gives you a clean, dry, secure space sized to what you need, well away from the dust and the disruption, with surveillance cameras across the site and access during opening hours whenever you need to collect or drop off.
The real advantage for a renovation is flexibility. Terms are short, with a 14-day minimum and 14 days’ notice to leave. This is so you can match the rental to the length of the work rather than committing to months you do not need. If you are weighing up what size unit a room or a houseful of furniture needs, our guide to furniture storage walks through sizing. Plus, our piece on optimising your storage unit shows how to pack a unit so everything fits and stays protected.
Wherever your furniture ends up, a little preparation keeps it in the condition it left in. Clean everything first, as dust and spills left on surfaces can set or stain over weeks in storage. Dismantle what you can, such as bed frames and table legs, to save space and reduce the risk of knocks.
Match the storage to the job. A redecoration might need a week or two, while a kitchen or a full renovation can run for a month or more, and renovations have a habit of overrunning. Build in a buffer rather than booking the exact number of days you hope the work will take.
This is where flexible terms matter. With a short minimum period and short notice to leave, you can extend if the job overruns or clear the unit early if it finishes ahead of schedule, so you are not tied into paying for space you no longer need.
A renovation is disruptive enough without worrying about your furniture getting dusty, knocked or damp. For anything bigger than a quick redecoration, a flexible personal storage unit keeps everything clean and secure for exactly as long as the job takes. To find the right size, get a quote or contact the Bradford team today.
If you any other questions, please feel free to call us or drop in for a chat.
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