Storage Tips — Pack it right. Find it later.
Get a unit slightly bigger than you think you need.
Leave a center aisle, about 24 inches wide. If you can't walk in, you can't reach the back without unpacking everything. A few dollars a month — small price for not rearranging your whole storage unit every time.
Climate control isn't optional for the things you actually care about.
Wood furniture warps. Photos fade. Electronics corrode. Instruments crack. Shenandoah Valley cold winters and hot summers can damage your valuables in just one season.
Pick a facility on your normal travel patterns.
A unit 20 minutes off your route gets visited half as often. If you're already passing it on the way to work or the grocery store, you'll actually use it.
Ground floor beats elevators and stairs every time.
The first time you have to wait on the elevator, or fit your furniture into it, you'll wish you'd thought about this. Stairs are a full stop.
Use real moving boxes, not free grocery store ones.
Standard moving boxes stack square, hold up under weight, and don't smell like ripe bananas. Heavy items in small boxes, light items in big ones. Moving boxes in standard sizes are just a few bucks each — cheaper than a coffee.
Take care of your mattress.
You spend a third of your life on it — more than any other piece of furniture you own. A few-dollar mattress bag keeps it clean, protected, and ready for the day you bring it back home. Small effort, big payoff.
Heavy on the bottom, fragile on top, mattress against the long wall.
That's the formula. Books and dishes go in first; lamps and glassware go on top; mattresses stand on edge against the longest wall to free up floor space.
Label every box on at least two sides.
One side always ends up against a wall. A label you can't see is worse than no label at all.
Use a combination lock instead of a key.
Keys get lost. Combinations don't. You can also share the code with whoever's helping you load or unload without handing over a physical key — and easily change it later if you change your mind.
Photograph everything before you load it in.
Pictures of every box and major item. Useful for insurance, useful for remembering what's actually in there, and useful for not double-buying stuff.
Pay attention to security beyond the gate.
A gate alone isn't enough. Look for camera coverage, lighting, and on-site management. For valuables, an in-unit camera is worth considering.
Make sure 24/7 access is included.
Storage that's only available 9–5 isn't really yours. Moving days rarely fit business hours.
Got questions?
We've heard most of them, and the unusual ones are the ones we want to hear. Ask the chatbot in the corner, call our staff, or come by the office and we'll show you around.
Give us a callA few categories of items can't be stored anywhere — flammables, perishables, lithium batteries with charge, firearms/ammo, anything illegal. Full list lives in our FAQs and on the rental agreement.