How Big is a 60 Square Foot Self Storage Unit?

Welcome to this article in the Fundamentals Series on the explorage.com advice centre, giving you all the tips and advice you need to help choose and book the perfect self storage for you. In this guide, we are going to talk about some real-life examples so you can learn exactly how big a 60-square-foot self storage unit is. 

Understanding the Size of a 60-Square-Foot Self-Storage Unit

In a nutshell, a 60 square foot self storage unit or room gives you enough space to fill it with the contents of a one to two-bedroom flat. Of course, it's a subjective measurement. You might be an extreme hoarder, in which case you might need slightly more space and a 70 square foot unit would be more suitable for your needs. You might have a very minimalist flat with no bulky furniture that you need to put into storage, in which case a 40 to 50 square foot self storage unit might just do the trick. 

Factors Influencing Your Storage Needs

However, as an industry guide and general rule of thumb, 60 square feet gives you enough space for a one to two-bedroom flat. When we talk about square feet, of course, we're talking about the floor area. If you had a 10-foot long by 10-foot wide room that would give you 100 square feet. It's important to remember that as well as the 60 square feet of floor space that you're renting, you are of course renting all of the airspace that sits above it and is contained within the privacy of your self storage room and container. 

Maximizing Space Efficiency in Your Storage Unit

To get the best value for your money you need to stack things on top of each other and stand furniture on end where possible to get as much stuff into the space as possible. Check out our savvy guide to packing here. You might find that you can put a small sofa on its end, perhaps a chest of drawers, a small wardrobe. Another handy tip is to put items inside cupboards and drawers. You can also stack boxes with personal items and put clothing and bags on top of furniture. 

Metric vs Imperial Measurements in Self-Storage

In the UK we have clung desperately to the imperial system, bless us, despite having moved to the metric system in 1967. However, for self storage, we still sell it by foot. 60 square feet gives you the equivalent space of 5.57 square metres if you are more familiar with the metric measurements. Different types of self storage operators tend to have different types, or different sizes of rooms, however, all are pretty flexible.

Types of Self-Storage

Indoor Self Storage

Indoor self-storage is like a warehouse subdivided into rooms, like a hotel for your things, where you get a personal secure storage room with communal corridors from which you can easily access it. These types of facilities tend to offer more variety since they're more able to easily divide the space into lots of different sizes of rooms and they are likely to have an indoor 60-foot self storage room for you. Indoor self storage facilities are most commonly found in larger cities and towns. 

External Self-Storage

External self storage facilities, however, are more like shipping containers or bespoke containers, that are found in rows upon rows, in a secure yard. You can drive your vehicle right up to your units and load and unload directly which is very handy especially if you have bulky items. 

However, because they are containers they are slightly more restricted in size and so your usual size of shipping container, which is 20 feet long would give you 160 square feet of space.

Most external self storage facilities also have half-size containers, which gives you 80 square feet of space, which is a bit closer to the 60 square feet that you need for a one to two-bedroom house. Since external self storage is slightly more economical than indoor self storage you can be more generous with the space that you rent.

Warehouse Storage

We also have warehouse storage where you can drive to a warehouse and unload your things into a 35 square foot wooden crate. The operators on-site will then forklift it into a space. This is very economical and it is a great solution for long-term storage where you don't need routine access. Of course, the beauty of this is you can take as many or as little of these crates as you like. 

For example, to get to 60 square feet, you can rent two crates giving you 70 square feet which is slightly more than you need, but again given the value for money, you might be able to afford to be a bit more generous on the space. 

Mobile Storage

Mobile storage is very similar in that it's usually a 35-square-foot crate although some storage operators do offer mobile storage by the box. In these cases, the storage operator will come, collect and drop it off at your door. This is an excellent choice if you don't have access to a vehicle. You can check out our full guide on the types of self-storage here. 

Contact Us for Expert Advice

If you have any questions, our friendly Welsh team is available 24/7 to give free, impartial and experienced advice. Just call us on 08000988864 or send an email to support@explorage.com. If you have any comments or suggestions on this article please get in touch with amybriscoe@explorage.com Happy Storing :)