Time to start packing … and thinking about storage …
As I’m going to be at sea for almost a year I will be moving out of my house and, as I’m not working currently, I’m looking to do some travel and other adventure activities around the Clipper Race training.
Fair warning: This isn’t an exciting adventure post … it’s a pragmatic, boring planning post, but might be useful information resource and thought process for someone in the future!
When you start packing your life into boxes you start really questioning what’s worth keeping and what isn’t … as well as wondering why you have it in the first place …
This value assessment becomes particularly relevant if you no longer have any income and you need to start saving money or paying race fees!
Giving up my home is one thing … that’s quite an obvious decision given the costs involved and it’s a rental so I’m not having to sell it … but it can be quite hard to work out what to sell, donate, throw away or keep because everything I keep comes with a cost …
… but, I’m also acutely aware that the faster I can get out of my house and on the road (so to speak …) the more money I can save and the more things I could do!
My landlords have been extremely supportive … I have been renting with them for 6 years now and almost living in their back garden as I’m their neighbour … and I’ve discussed with them the plan to do the Clipper Race, so they know I will be leaving eventually. They very graciously let me move on to a rolling contract with just 1 month notice required from me.
As much as it would be nice to stay in the house until the Clipper Race, when the income money tap is switched off and you start living off your savings those big luxuries have to go … and quickly!
Significant savings achievable …
Roughly speaking, taking rent, council tax, bills etc. and alternative accommodation into consideration, for every day earlier that I leave, I could save about £150 (or c. £4,500 a month …).
Yes, I know … living in a house with a garden and garage, 30 mins from Central London is … well … not cheap!
Just think of what could be done with the savings …
So, to help my decision-making process, I started to research container storage or self-storage options as it might be easier for me to just decant stuff into storage and then gradually get rid of things (if I want to …).
Let’s start with the simple challenges …
- Location is quite important
- I’m going to want somewhere on, or near, the South Coast in the UK as
- a) I’ll be training and sailing with Clipper out of Portsmouth; and
- b) If I do go travelling in Europe I’ll likely be coming into South Coast ferry ports or airports
- I’m going to want somewhere on, or near, the South Coast in the UK as
- As I do my research, if I can’t find the price on the website … I’m moving on to the next option!
- Side gripe: Filling in forms to get a quote can be really frustrating … there really shouldn’t be anything complex to publishing prices. It’s not like car insurance …
- How much space am I going to need, and what represents the best value for money?
How to store stuff and how much space is required?
Good question! Let’s start with how I’m going to store things …
As I’m thinking of travelling and also might want to dip in and out of storage boxes for gear (e.g. snowboard kit vs. climbing kit vs. sailing kit etc.) I’m thinking of hard, tactical style storage trunks.
There are super tough, high quality boxes by Peli (www.peli.com) which I’d love to have, but they are insanely expensive!
Not knocking Peli … it’s great kit … but getting these is total overkill and would be a bit like buying RIMOWA travel luggage when you only take a few long breaks a year …
My alternative comes from Plano (www.planostore.com), a US company supplying hunting, military, tactical kit, and sold via Cadet Direct (www.cadetdirect.com), a UK supplier also of kit to military and cadet forces etc.
These are simple molded storage cases a la Peli … ok they aren’t as rugged and wouldn’t be airtight, waterproof, chemical resistant etc. … but they work for storage and are a fraction of the price!
Maths and space calculations incoming …
I’ve got 10x the Gorilla Large Storage Trunk, which has about 100L – 120L of usable storage space, at c. £55 each plus 6x Sportsman Medium Storage Trunk, which has about 60L – 80L of usable storage space, at just under £40 each.
In total, this give me about 1,360L to 1,680L of storage for a total of about £750.
For comparison, that’s just a little bit more than one Peli 1740 Protector, which has about 120L to 140L of usable storage …
Stacking 9x those Large trunks is c. 100cm x 150cm x 120cm = c. 1.8 m3 or about 65 cubic feet (c. 3.3ft x 5.0ft x 4.0 ft).
Plus the 6x Sportsmans at c. 80cm x 40cm x 35cm which = c. 0.7m3 or c. 25 cubic feet
In addition, I have a half dozen or so other storage boxes that are about 60cm x 40cm x 40cm so let’s call that another c. 0.6 m3 or c. 22 cubic feet
In total, roughly 3.1 m3 or c. 110 cubic feet … give or take some rounding.
That’s just the boxes I have which are for relatively small things. I may have other things to store so I’m going to double that for now as an estimate to c. 6.2 m3 or c. 220 cubic feet.
I’ve also got some IKEA storage shelves which will help with organisation and each will take up about 0.8m3 or c. 30 cubic feet (i.e. another c. 100 cubic feet).
A 10 ft container (half a TEU) has internal dimensions of about 2.8m x 2.3m x 2.3m = c 14.8 m3 or c. 575 cubic feet, which should mean that it is more than adequate for my storage needs … a full 20 ft is about 1,200 cubic feet (a Twenty foot Equivalent Unit = TEU) should be a luxury!
I haven’t factored in furniture yet, as I’m not sure if I will keep it or not … but I’d like the flexibility.
I also have some larger, awkward shape items that won’t go in the storage boxes and will take up container volume.
Finally, it’s worth allowing for some access in case you need to get into boxes to retrieve kit etc.
Where do I find a container and how much will they cost?
I made a decision to avoid storage facilities like Big Yellow and go for container storage. It’s pretty common, is a good alternative, is often easier to load and unload items, and usually represents more value for money.
With the magic of Google … one of the first options in my research that comes up is Portable Space (www.portablespace.co.uk).
They have an 8ft container at c. £18 per week, a 10 ft at c. £19 per week, a 12 ft at c. £20 per week and a 20 ft at c. £22 per week.
However, it appears they don’t “host” these units but hire them out to be taken off site. So unless you have a plot of land you can use … this is just a reference / benchmark price.
I think it would be worth paying the extra c. 12% or c. £125 per year to get a 20 ft vs. a 10 ft, even if I’ll never fill it. Plus it provides some options for furniture.
For 2 years rental, that would be around £2,300 or just under £100 per calendar month … roughly equivalent to 15 days in my home …
Do you see where my maths is going yet …?
Saving from speed vs income from sorting and selling …
If I take my time to sort and sell stuff and it takes me more than a few weeks of effort, then it has cost me more than just packing it up and putting it in a container for 2 years …
Yes, I understand that I have to transport stuff to the container and that will cost me in fuel and time etc. … and yes, I will still have to deal with the problem in 2 years if I haven’t sold or disposed of things along the way, but the basic principle is clear …
Either be brutal and clear out your house quickly (sell, donate, trash) or pack it up, store it for a later date, and get out as quick as possible … because unless I’m making a lot from selling things, I’m not covering the cost of staying in the house.
Granted, my economics are a bit skewed, but if staying in your home is costing you say £50 a day, it still means you have less than 2 months to get things together before it would have been cheaper to just store it … and let’s be honest, you’ll probably still end up with stuff in storage somewhere anyway …
While we’re here, Portable Space also sell containers, and a high quality TEU will cost about £2,800 … that’s roughly the same as about 2.5 years of rental … this is worth thinking about (my finance geek head is going crazy thinking about payback periods and residual value …)
Right … back to finding a place that actually can host a container!
Storage options in UK South Coast …
Here’s a good starter list and some prices I found (Dec 2024) in case anyone is looking in future …
- Storage Site (www.storagesite.co.uk) in Stedham near Chichester, is offering a TEU at c. £2,000 per annum.
- In effect this is like paying about £1,700 extra for the land rental over 2 years (about £70 pcm) when you compare it to the cost of a hire from Portable Space. This might be a helpful way to think about it …
- Netherfield Place Farm (www.netherfieldplacefarm.co.uk) which rents a TEU at £150 pcm or c. £1,800 per annum, but doesn’t seem to have space right now but may be an option for others in future …
- Container Storage Units UK (www.containerstorageunits.co.uk) at £250 pcm
- ST Containers (www.st-containers.com) … no prices online …
- Polegate Secure Storage (www.polegatesecurestorage.co.uk) … also no prices online …
- Shipyard Self Storage in Littlehampton (www.shipyardselfstorage.co.uk) at £160 pcm or c. £1,760 per annum (one month free if paid in advance)
- Storage Bros (www.storagebrosuk.com) … also no prices online …
- Arun Self Storage (www.arunselfstorage.co.uk) appears to come in at £2,000 per annum
What about insurance?
I think most places require you to insure your goods stored (otherwise it would be hard for them to price).
Check your household insurance to see if it covers self storage, but obviously there might be a bit of an issue if you don’t have a house any more …
Alternatively, have a look at InsuraStore (www.insurastore.com) – a quick estimate on £20k of cover (which is probably much more than needed) is about £10 a week or c. £1,000 over the two years.
Total cost?
I’m going to assume a total of £4,800 over two years for now, inclusive of insurance – i.e £200 pcm.
The final part of the puzzle … how much does it cost to store stuff …
At c. 1,200 cubic feet – each cubic foot (roughly 30cm cubed) costs about £2 per year / £4 over two years.
Assume a space inefficiency in packaging and stacking and making space to get in and out and double it to £4 per year or £8 for two years.
What use is any of this …?
Let’s go back to thinking about the question – “Sell? Keep? Donate?”
If I have an item that appears bulky (e.g. 1 cubic foot) but has a value if bought new of say £50, but I can only get £10 for it on eBay today, I have a choice to sell it or to keep it and pay about £8.
If I sold it now and needed it in 2 years it might cost me £11 or £12 to buy it again from eBay (inflation as always …) so really I’d only be paying £6 or £7 to store it.
However, by storing it I have a lot more certainty and optionality. I’m saving the hassle of having to find it again at a cheap or equivalent price to what I sold it for and I still have the option to sell it in two years .
For me that option and flexibility has value … and frankly if you’ve read my other post on the costs, £10 isn’t going to move the needle much …
As the item value increases e.g. £100 original cost and possible £20 eBay sale, the relative cost of keeping it decreases e.g. to less than £4 to £6 in this case.
Around £200 / £40 the storage cost could start to pay for itself …
Long story and boring maths short … if I can fit £100 to £200 of goods into less than one cubic foot of space, and my alternative is to sell it and only get 20% of the original value I’m probably just going to store it …
If I’m short on space in the container and the value is lower, then I’ll probably donate or dispose of / send to recycling. I won’t do that if I have enough space though as that would be wasteful.
The converse value dynamic is also worth considering … i.e. if the item is small but has a high value and I can recover a lot of that value through an eBay sale, I might be better off selling it …
e.g. £1,000 value with potential sale at £700 or 70% of original cost
My rationale here is that this is a lot of capital tied up in something not being used for two years and the risk of the value dropping from 70% towards my previous example of 20% is quite high … better to take what I can get from it now and re-deploy the capital. Sell, sell, sell!
If you made it to the end … the next post will be something more interesting … at least I hope you’ll find it interesting …
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