All across the country, Christmas decorations are being put up and at any given minute someone, somewhere, will be asking themselves, “Where the heck am I going to put this tree?” It’s a universal truth that no matter how large and comfortable your home is, at Christmas there always seems to be too much furniture and/or too many people, and hiding gifts effectively becomes something of a tour de force.

If your home is reaching bursting point, or if your seasonal business stock is stacked as high as legally permissible, and you really need more space, have a look at the ways in which others use self storage for extra space at Christmas.
 

1. It’s a great hiding place 

If you have small children, their gifts will probably be large and awkwardly shaped (ever tried wrapping a scooter?) and there’s no way they won’t be spotted before the big day, wherever you hide them in the house. If you have older children, their gifts will be small in size (if not in price) so they’ll be easier to hide, but there are fewer places where those children can’t reach… 

Even if you have very well-behaved children (and grown-ups) in your house whom you can trust not to go snooping, keeping gifts in the house is impractical: the shed is too cold and prone to damp; the loft is scary; under the bed is where the cat sleeps (you don’t want to annoy the cat at this time of the year — they’re already eyeing up your tree) and gifts placed on top of the wardrobe look really creepy in the dark. You’re left with the spare room, if you have one, but you’ll probably need that before Christmas to store other ‘things’ — like your parents or visiting friends.

Solve all your storage woes by putting your gifts into self storage. They’ll be kept safer and drier in your indoor unit thanks to our stores’ CCTV and intruder alarm coverage. Depending on the size of your unit, you might even decide to use it as a space to wrap your gifts without fear of anyone barging in or shouting up the stairs that there’s an emergency that can’t possibly wait or be dealt with by someone else (such as, there are no more clean cups).
 

1a. A little extra something to think about...

By far the best thing about storing your gifts at Safestore is that at many of our stores you can have items delivered direct to the store and our fabulous team will keep them safe for you until you can stash them in your unit. Gone will be the days of queuing up outside the Post Office depot on a Saturday morning to collect a parcel that was too large for your letterbox or that needed a signature!
 

2. Stocking up for seasonal sales

Shop owners and online retailers can rejoice! If you have extra stock lined up to sell in the run-up to Christmas or over the January Sales, you can store it in your self storage unit where it will be kept clean, safe and dry until you need it. You’ll give yourself more room to move in your shop (or in your house if you run your online business from home) and many of our stores have 24-hour access available so you can retrieve your stock, package it up and send it straight off to your customers without delay. Our stores are even designated DHL drop off points, so you can send your parcels via DHL straight from the store, or make your own arrangements.
 

3. Furniture/seasonal goods

Anyone who’s ever unloaded a 6’ pine tree from the back of their car and wrestled it into the house will tell you that it’s surprisingly difficult to accommodate a spruce without moving a few key items of furniture. You will need to prioritise — obviously, the sofa and the TV will have to stay, and that coffee table is pretty useful, but do you need the extra side tables or the bookcase over Christmas? As well as making it easier for people to move without falling over things, placing a few items of furniture into self storage over the Christmas holidays will make your house look larger, tidier and more inviting.

An alternative to storing your Christmas presents in self storage units could be to move your non-seasonal goods (like camping gear and sporting equipment) into your self storage unit and replacing them with the presents. 
 

4. Reclaiming your spare room

If you’re fortunate enough to have a spare room, it probably becomes a bit of a dumping ground during the year when it’s not being used to accommodate guests. Then Christmas rolls around and suddenly you’re faced with finding somewhere for grandad and his dodgy hip to sleep, or Aunty-Janet-with-her-allergies who can’t sleep on the pull-out sofa because a cat once sat on it. If you need to sort out your spare room to give your guests a bedroom over the Christmas holidays, you can easily put the things you store in the spare room into your self storage unit. Whether you decide to reclaim them and return them to the spare room when everyone’s gone home or keep them in your unit for the longer term is up to you. 

Further reading: 12 Ways to use your spare room
 

5. Decorations

There comes a point when the decorations are no longer fun. They’re not a novelty, they’re just taking up space and gathering dust. With the New Year comes the chance to take everything down again and have a good clean and organise. Storing your decorations in your self storage unit until they’re next needed will keep them safe (no more broken baubles to shred your fingers on) and easy to access for next year (did we mention how scary the loft is?).

It’s worth noting the following points about self storage with Safestore, if you’ve never used us before.

• Most of our stores have ample parking onsite and some have units that you can drive up to for unloading. 
• There are over 120 stores nationwide and they’re all close to major rail and/or road networks so you won’t have any trouble finding one that’s easy to reach from wherever you are. 
• Our units range in sizes from 10sq ft (about the size of a large car boot) right up to warehouse-sized spaces. Depending on the location of your chosen store and the size of unit you need, you can rent self storage with us from as little as £10 per week. 
• Whether you want to keep a unit for a week or two before Christmas, or for the whole of next year is up to you, and you can increase or decrease the size of your unit at any time. 

Christmas is enough of a challenge without having to spend a lot of time figuring out where to put everything or banging your shin on furniture that doesn’t belong there. Have a think about making life easier by using self storage this Christmas.