One suggestion gaining momentum is to pull the house down and rebuild it somewhere else – maybe off a bend in the Long and winding road or perhaps somewhere in Penny Lane.  The impending demolition means they’ll need Eight days a week to organise the logistics for moving a house from A to B, or more aptly, From me to you.

One solution would be to take it down and not to rebuild it – yet.
Stick it into storage while you decide what to do with it.

As Beatles fans ourselves we were left wondering how much space a dismantled house would use?  What size of unit would you need to store a dismantled house?   We’re sure We can work it out…    …or is it better to just Let it be.

Here’s our quick look at Six of the Most Extravagant Storage Companies in the U.S.

We know it’s not what we normally do with our blog – but we’re excited about some great news for customers at all three of our self storage centres – in Wandsworth, Southwark and Camden.

We’re constantly looking at ways to give better value to our customers. Our Price Promise and only pay for the days you stay guarantee already mean that we can’t be beaten on price.  We also go the extra mile to give our customers friendly helpful service that’s second to none (to see how we walk-the-walk have a look at what our customers say).

When customers are happy it would be easy to be complacent - but if you know us you’ll know that’s not our style. So we asked the people who store with us what we might do to improve our offer.

The result is that we’ve extended our opening hours at weekends.
You’ll now be able to access your unit from 8am until 6pm Saturdays and from 10am until 5pm Sundays.  And don’t forget late night opening until 8pm on Thursdays.

Of course – is that isn’t enough – 24hr storage is available on selected units at our Wandsworth and Southwark stores.

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.  Of course, 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.

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.

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 free Van Hire to help you save those expenses…

If you – like us – got stuck into showing your support for our national team, it’s likely you’ll have adorned your house, car and probably body with various interpretations of the St George flag.  Last Sunday you might even have gone as far as having your face painted, squeezed countless lung-fulls of breath through a Red and White vuvuzela and chanted En-ger-land, En-ger-land. Oh, and probably shouted something we shouldn’t repeat here about the referee.

Following England’s swift exit we’re all facing a dilemma.  Do we leave all the flags in place until the tournament has finished – or take it all down in protest at just how poor our team were?

Either way it’ll be consigned to storage until the next tournament England qualify for. Let’s hope that our World Class abilities resurface and it’s UEFA Euro 2012.

With all eyes on South Africa for kick-off of the World cup on Friday 11th June we thought we’d take a look at the earliest records of the beautiful game – and work out how many modern balls we could fit into our most popular unit.

The world’s oldest surviving football was found in 1981 at Stirling Castle, Scotland.   Dated from around 1540 it survived – stored in the roof space above the Queen’s chamber – for some 440 years.  It’s 440 year storage preservation is even more impressive given that it was made of Cow hide and used a Pig’s bladder as the air sack to inflate the ball.

Whether it was accidentally hoofed up there by an over enthusiastic tradesman who was on a break from renovating the chamber or, as has been suggested, purposefully left there to ward-off spirits – is anyone’s guess.  How nice to think of the castle courtiers chalking up their scores for ‘ye olde keepie-uppie’ on the castle walls – though the court jester would have had a harder time dribbling the ball in those jangly curly toed slippers.

At around half the size of a modern ball the Stirling relic shares little with it’s modern counterpart.  The official FIFA World Cup ball – the Jabulani made by Adidas – is packed with the latest synthetic technology.  It hasn’t been greatly received by players, so – Adidas – if you’re struggling to sell them and need somewhere to store stock – by our calculations we reckon you could fit 972 in one of our 50sq ft units.  Just be careful when you open the door…

How many footballs can you fit in a self-storage unit? 972 by our reckoning.

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.

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.