July 19th, 2010
Last week we spotted Mark Palmer’s article in the Daily Mail:
Small homes, lots of stuff…no wonder self-storage is thriving…
It’s a great piece which explains the dilemma for today’s small home owner – and how self storage presents an ideal solution. But – as you might expect if you’ve experienced ABC Selfstore’s passion good honest value -there’s one thing that’s been grating us. In the article Mark highlights, “I was paying more than £180 a month at Access for a 50 sq ft unit. …it was like having another mortgage” and goes on to highlight the tempting deals that ‘rue you in’.
Now, we don’t know quite how much stuff Mark had to store – but it occurred to us there’s a chance he’s fallen in to the classic over-estimation trap. Understanding just how much you can fit into a storage unit is crucial in managing costs. Whist you can always size-up – if you need more space – and size down if you need less. But it pays to get it right first time and it’s much less hassle later.
Caring storage companies – like us – will help you make sure you get it just right. As a starting point check out our space estimator – but if you’re still not sure talk to one of our team. They’ll be only too happy to help.
And don’t forget to check those terms and conditions.
Is there a minimum storage period or (like with us) do you only pay for the days you stay? That way, if you do need to scale up or down on your unit you won’t be stung with an extra fee. If you’re really lucky you’ll get some other helpful services thrown in – such as Free Van hire – to get our stuff to your storage unit.
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July 2nd, 2010
With Roger Federer’s shock defeat to Tomas Berdych it looks like Andy Murray will have his best chance yet to win the All England Lawn Tennis Club Championship. Or Wimbledon, to give it its more familiar title.
Wimbledon is a 9 minute drive from our Wandsworth Store. Handy then – if you need somewhere to store your spare rackets, whites and shoes while you are competing – along with any merchandising stock.
But even if you’re Roger Federer or Venus Williams it seems you can’t be sure of seeing out the full two weeks of the tournament. As if the disappointment of coming home early isn’t enough – imagine being hit with a bill for storage for the full two weeks (or heaven forbid month) when your stuff was already being shipped to the next tournament venue. You can almost hear McEnroe, ‘”you cannot be serious, you’re billing me for a month when I was only here a week? Everyone can see that’s out o’ line, man’”
Store with us and you only pay for the days you stay and at our Wandsworth site and you can even claim the VAT Back too. Game, Set and Match in the Value and Service Championship to ABC Selfstore then.
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June 29th, 2010
Okay, it seems that our early thoughts around an unlikely scenario post general election turned out to be not-so-unlikely. With the exception of Vince Cable becoming Business Secretary (rather than Chancellor of the Exchequer) we were almost spot on about the coalition government.
Maybe we should add Psychic consultancy the great list of customer extras you get in store at ABC Selfstore? Somewhere the good folk of Camden and Islington, Wandsworth and Southwark can come to find out what destiny will bring them over the next month. We read runes for you would make a good strapline.
We’d have to adapt our methodology. No tea-leaves or Tarot cards at ABC. We reckon it’s all in the bubble wrap. So what does therapeutic god of popping plastic predict for the coalition over the next year?
Well we’ve already seen the Daily Telegraph break yet another parliamentary expenses scandal – and a high profile cabinet member leave office.
“removal van for Mr Laws please… ”
It’s not just Iain Duncan-Smith that thinks he’ll be back though. We popped the plastic fantastic, beseeched the bubble-wrap and we think he’ll be back in the cabinet within the year, maybe sooner.
Stranger things have happened and you never know when the call will come. So a sage choice in the mean-time would be to put the Law belongings into storage – preferably nearby at a convenient London location that charges by the day and has no notice on move out. That’ll be somewhere like ABC Selfstore in Camden then.
Come to think of it that goes for any Cabinet Minister with a yet-to-be-revealed-by-the-tabloids-skeleton-in-the-closet. If you’re worried you might soon be needing to ‘do a Mandleson’ and take a break from government for a while – then we’ll be able to help. We’ll even throw in some fee Van Hire to help you save those expenses…
Posted in 2010 Election, About ABC Selfstore, Business storage, Free Van Hire, Household storage, Self Storage News, Van HIre | Comments Off
June 7th, 2010
So you’ve got some things that need shifting and have decided self storage is the answer – the tricky bit is getting it from A to B. It’s too valuable for the dump, too big to fit in the car and trying to haul it down the stairs on your own would just end up with a you-shaped-Banksy-esque mural impressed on the hallway wall.
Once you’ve lined up your storage and roped in a mate (or two) you’ll need to get yourself a suitable vehicle. Usually a white van. If you’re really unlucky it’ll come adorned with the traditional dashboard fayre of the previous tenants: a copy of the News of the World, the wrappings of a McMeal, a half eaten Ginsters and an empty ‘grab bag’ of Walkers cheese and onion. And a fuel needle that’s below the red.
Then you’ll have to go and pick it up, get back through the London traffic to your pad, load up, drive to your self- storage centre, drop the van back off at the van rental place and finally get back to your pad. Or to put it another way – from A to B, back to A, then to C, then back to B and then back to A again. Six trips, minimum, all through van-loving London traffic.
There’s a far easier answer though. You could just store with ABC Selfstore and we’ll throw in a 1/2 day’s Free Van Hire. You pick it up from us and leave it with us when you’ve unloaded and you’re done. And as our van offer is in conjunction with Streetvan it’ll come without those (un)savory dashboard extras. To find out all the details give your nearest store a ring.
Tags: About ABC Selfstore, advice, Household self-storage, London, space, storage
Posted in About ABC Selfstore, Business storage, Free Van Hire, Household storage, Self Storage Lifestyle, Self Storage News, Van HIre | Comments Off
April 29th, 2010
Back in 1997 – when the people of Britain had decided to kick the Tories into touch and give Tony Blair’s brave new labour a punt – outgoing chancellor Ken Clarke pulled a man-of-the-people PR master stroke. All the major papers in the days following the election carried pictures of Ken loading up his self-drive van at 11 Downing Street. He could probably have had ’staff’ relocate the Clarke posessions from number 11 to another Westminster flat – but this was an era lost for ever – a chancellor being prudent, a politician saving the taxpayer money.
So will we see anything of the like this time round?
Vehicle mascot and ‘man-in-a-van’ nicknames at the ready – we fast forward the ABC Selfstore blog to May 10th – when the post-election weekend party hangovers have subsided and the physical reshuffle of the Westminster personal effects begins…
Dave close shave Cameron swings his Transit left off of Whitehall into Downing Street – only to find Gordon the Gaffer Brown’s Luton blocking the road as the former PM attempts a three point turn. His silver haired troll-doll called Alistair swings cheerfully in place of the more traditional fluffy dice. New chancellor (in what’s a Tory/Lib Dem alliance) Vince ‘McQueen’ Cable chuckles to himself as he queues his Mercedes Sprinter behind Close Shave Dave’s Transit – appreciating the fact that once again he predicted this chaos coming. He scrolls his ipod to an extended playlist he compiled especially for this occasion. Hendrix’s Cross-town traffic blares out of Cables’ open window echoing off the Ministry of Defence and down towards Horse Guards parade. A member of special branch politely asks him to keep the volume down.
Close Shave honks his horn.. and shouts out the window, “Oi, Brown – you gonna be long? I’ve got a country to run.” Gordon just shrugs his shoulders – and grinds a gear – he’s too cut up to care. Cable scrolls his iPod to the Moody Blues ‘Go-Now’ and cantankerously turns the volume up to full – just as Gordon finally emerges from Downing Street. His Luton shudders left onto Whitehall and begins the long slow journey back to to Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath…
Beads of sweat roll from Dave’s forehead as he looks at his watch and realises that he’s got to unload the van on his own (heavy lifting is against doctors orders for pregnant wife Sam) and have it back at the hire place in Witney before 8pm – or there’ll be a hefty surcharge. Getting out of London on the A4 will be murder.
Of course, they could’ve saved themselves a whole heap of bother. They could have simply rented a self storage unit somewhere nearby (ABC Selfstore Camden is just 3 miles up the road) and moved their stuff ahead of the election.They’d have got free van-hire thrown in too.
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April 19th, 2010
With Mortgage lending up more than 24% the housing market could finally be moving out of the doldrums. What is clear is that selling a property is more competitive than ever – and when it comes to selling a house or flat there are plenty of ‘tricks of the trade’ to help buyers choose your property over one down the street.
There’s a whole heap of advice out there to take – from media personalities like Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsop of Location, Location, Location fame right through to consumer champions Which?
Close to the top of nearly every expert’s top-tips is de-cluttering – removing furniture and clearing away the personal effects to improve ’space appeal’.That’s easier said than done. You need to find space somewhere else for all that stuff. What do you do if your parents loft is as good as 300 miles away and your local friends face the same challenges to you when it comes to being able to swing a cat in their ‘living’ room.
One answer is self storage. Of course you don’t know if you’ll reach ’sale agreed’ within a week, month or year so it’s worth finding a storage company that has a short minimum term agreement and most importantly ‘No notice on vacate’. For most the minimum term of notice is a month – if you’re one week into your third month when you complete you’ll be left paying for 3 weeks of storage you don’t need.
With ABC Selfstore in Camden, Wandsworth and Southwark we charge by the day, there’s no minimum term and you can move out whenever you want. So if you get really lucky and sell your house in the first two months you won’t be end up being stung for more than the days you store.
Of course – it’s likely you’ll want to hang on to your storage until you complete and it’s time to move (why lug stuff back to the property only to have to move it out again) – and the same great value applies, however long your stay.
Tags: house prices, house selling, property selling advice, property selling hints and tips
Posted in About ABC Selfstore, Household storage, Self Storage Lifestyle, Selling property, hints and tips | 1 Comment »
March 24th, 2010
It’s a tricky thing to plan business development when there’s so much uncertainty about what – economically speaking – is likely to happen next. So it’s understandable that most of us don’t want to take any undue risks. As the much talked about green shoots of recovery start to sprout you might be looking at ways to expand your business – but how do you keep expansion risk-free with the added uncertainty of a volatile economic climate? Especially when part of that expansion is likely to be limited by the cost of the physical space you need to operate your business.
Priya Cinar, Store Manager at ABC Selfstore Camden in York Way explains, “We’re seeing more and more business customers looking for flexibility in the way they use physical space. Some want to be in a position where they can plan stock storage around demand, others to be ready to react – either way – to uncertain economic conditions. Flexibility is the key and being tied into a long-term lease doesn’t really allow that. Our business customers like the fact that they can rent the storage space they need by the day, without being tied into lengthy contracts.”
So if you’re about to take delivery of your summer colections, need to move clutter out of the office to make room for new staff or just need more storage space – self storage is well worth considering.
And if you’re new to it ABC Selfstore’s website – www.abcselfstore.co.uk/flexible – has a handy ‘Self storage for beginners’ guide.
Tags: About ABC Selfstore, business, economics, green shoots of recovery, rooms, storage, units
Posted in Business storage, Self Storage News, hints and tips | Comments Off
September 29th, 2009
In the third of our series of hints and tips on self storage we look at the steps you should take to avoid injury when moving your things in and out of your unit…
Self storing almost always involves lifting, pushing and stacking – and there’s usually some sweating, grunting and “left-a-bit…hang-on…right-a-bit” that comes with it.
If you’re moving heavy items into store then it’s worth taking some time to prepare yourself. We’re not talking about a 3 month body building course at the local gym here – just a good look at some of the guidance that’s out there on manual handling (the proper name for lifting and moving things).
There’s a lot you can do to reduce the chances of causing yourself a mischief when manual handling and they’re largely a question of good technique.
Before we get to the technique though – the best advice is to err on the side of caution. If you think moving something is beyond your limits – it probably is. So our advice is to get some help if you need it. That could be in the form of a professional moving service (and we can recommend one that shares our passion for great service and value), or it could be asking a mate or two to help you out.
Once you’ve worked out what you can and can’t manage make sure that you (and anyone else you’ve roped in) understand the basics of lifting and moving. It’s a common response these days to take the view that Health and Safety has all gone a bit overboard – but for manual handling there’s some really good advice that makes a lot of sense. It won’t stop you moving what you need to move, but it should help you do it with a greatly reduced chance of straining yourself (or worse).
That advice is from the experts – the Health and Safety executive no less. So rather than reproduce it here’s a link to their booklet ‘Getting to Grips with Manual Handling’. Pages 6 and 7 are the ones we think are most relevant.
Happy storing. You can find out more hints and tips for storing on our website in our Self-storage for beginners section on our website [link]
Tags: About ABC Selfstore, advice, building, Camden, home improvements, Household self-storage, lifestyle, London, rooms, self, self storage, Southwark, space, storage, Wandsworth
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