It began with a simple idea: to give UK self storage customers a way of finding all their local self storage firms, which would let them choose the one that would be most convenient, and/or offer them the best deal. This initial aim has been more than realised, while its success has enabled the vision of Storage.co.uk to grow in scale.

These have been some of the highlights of the last two years:

Building online presence – Having started from scratch, Storage.co.uk now receives thousands of individual visitors each week, all looking for the best possible deal for self storage. Thanks to plenty of hard work on the web-design front, Storage.co.uk is now regularly one of the top two unique search results in Google for both the search terms “Storage” and “Self Storage”.

Generating business for the self storage industry - Storage.co.uk’s membership has grown to include practically every self storage facility in the UK, with more companies asking to be added every week. Over three thousand new customers have requested quotes from self storage firms since we started offering that service. As industry estimates suggest the typical customer spends about £1900 with a self storage firm after signing-up, customers referred by Storage.co.uk have potentially generated a grand total of more than £6.4 million for the industry.

Familiarizing customers with self storage - Storage.co.uk has also helped foster an increased awareness amongst the UK public about what self storage is and how it works. This has been achieved through a mixture of sources, including articles that on the website, our busy self storage blog, entertaining videos, Facebook and Twitter. Lots of people have contacted the office with general questions about self storage, which we have been only too happy to answer.

Excellence in self storage awards - Storage.co.uk has sponsored two sets of awards for excellence to the best self storage firms across a range of categories, including for excellence in web design, customer service and innovation. These have been very gratefully received, with many self storage companies displaying the award winners’ badge on their website, and emailing to thank us for our support.

National Declutter Week - Storage.co.uk was pleased to launch National Declutter Week in October 2010, which encouraged people to improve their lives through decluttering. The results were so promising we’ve decided to hold another one this year from 7-18 March (to tie in with the theme of Spring Cleaning), which we hope will be met with even greater support and success. We promote four options for householders and office workers with too much clutter: bin it, give it away to charity (especially hospice charity shops), sell it, or – for those who want to keep it, but get it out of the way – put it in self storage.

Storage.co.uk would like to thank all the people who’ve supported the website over the last two years, and who can look forward to another exciting twelve months in which lots of interesting developments are planned.

As part of National Declutter Week, we want people to hold clearouts at their homes and offices, and to donate the things they want to get rid of (provided that they are in saleable condition, of course!) to charity shops – particularly those run by hospices.

Some self storage centres already have relationships with their local hospice, and we’re hoping others will be forged as part of this event.

Ideally, self storage companies can agree to help out hospices by lending them some of the commodity they specialise in – space – to help process all the extra donations that National Declutter Week will bring in.

Something people might want to know in advance of National Declutter Week is how the things they donate will help the hospices to do their valuable work. Here are some ideas from two hospices that have been in touch with Storage.co.uk.

Lindsey Lodge Hospice, Scunthorpe

Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Scunthorpe provides a good example of the costs involved with helping people reach the end of the lives with as much dignity as possible.

They run a total of eight charity shops spread around North Lincolnshire, one of which is shared with Dove House Hospice in Hull. These include All Dressed Up, a boutique-style fashion-only outlet located in Scunthorpe itself, as well as a dedicated second-hand bookshop in Ashby.

These shops fulfil a vital role in generating funds for the hospice, as in order to meet all its costs, Lindsey Lodge has to generate £3.50 per minute, which enables them to help 400 people each month.

The costs of delivering hospice care are significant for the hospice. A patient’s meals for a whole week come to £50, while £250 is needed to provide a day’s nursing care for each individual.

Clearly the shops would benefit from having some extra stock to help them reach these targets. As Mel Banham, their Head of Fundraising, told Storage.co.uk, “Every donation helps Lindsey Lodge Hospice to raise the money needed to provide special care and support for people in their time of need.”

St Peter’s Hospice, Bristol

Another good example of how hospice charity shops work comes from St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol, the only hospice caring for adults with life-limiting illnesses in that area.

Astonishingly, their network of nearly 50 charity shops puts out 10,000 newly-donated items for sale every single day. As they are keen to point out, nothing goes to waste. They try to sell as much as possible directly to the public, but items which are unsuitable for general sale are sent to a recycling company who process them and pay St Peter’s by the kilo.

Interestingly, the highest-quality items are sent on to shops in Eastern Europe where they are resold, while lower grade objects tend to go to Africa and Pakistan. Bras, official football shirts, silk scarves and track suits are all especially valuable in Africa.

In total, St Peter’s Hospice raises a total of over £1.8 million per year through its shops, of which over a third comes from the recycling of textiles mentioned above.

This shows that anything people want to donate as part of National Declutter Week can help the hospices do their valuable work – even if it’s been found lurking at the back of your wardrobe.

As the longest established self storage construction contractor in the UK, Active Supply and Design have been in operation since 1991, having started with the help of a grant from The Prince’s Trust and a small business loan.

The company initially worked mainly in the shelving, racking and mezzanine floor sectors where the best utilisation of space is a prime factor for success. The team at AskActive head office consists of sales, design and admin staff, all of whom have been with the company for some considerable time. Their wealth of knowledge and experience combines to ensure a successful build time and again, and has fuelled our expansion of self storage facilities throughout Europe.

The importance of design

The success of a self storage facility is largely dependant on the correct self storage design and effective self storage installation. Building regulations stipulate many rules which must be taken into account at the design stage, including escape distances, width of corridors and fire protection – to name a few. By choosing the right construction partner at the outset, many of these obstacles can be overcome with little or no extra financial impact.

The correct choice of self storage construction partner is also paramount in ensuring that maximum revenues are obtained from your building. This can only be achieved by the best utilisation of available space and appropriate unit layout.

Active Supply and Design consistently achieve the above – and much more – for their clients, resulting in an increasing amount of repeat business from industry leaders.

The team at AskActive are able to offer informed help and guidance, should it be required, and have an in-depth knowledge of how self storage facilities operate once up and running. This puts Active in a unique position, and makes them an obvious candidate for anyone considering entering the European self storage industry or expanding their current facility.

Active in Europe

Active Supply and Design’s expertise in self storage installation throughout Europe has resulted in a diverse client base, ranging from small independent operators to some of the largest providers of self storage in Europe. Active Supply and Design currently have installation teams in France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain and Ireland, amongst others.

Self storage in Europe is expanding rapidly, with France, Germany and Scandinavia demonstrating the fastest growth rates as demand for the product increases with the increasing public awareness of the offering.

One company fits all

Active have the widest of product ranges. All self storage products supplied by Active are manufactured in the UK to the most stringent of standards, with walling, partitions, doors and mezzanine flooring all made to order in a variety of colours to suit the clients’ corporate image. Active insist on high quality for their self storage products to ensure many years of trouble-free use. Zero maintenance requirements are standard.

Self storage design and construction are an important part of this exciting growth industry and are key to a successful business model. Active Supply and Design pride themselves on being able to produce the most efficient, cost-effective solutions combined with the highest service levels.

Please visit the askactive.com website for further information and an insight as to what Active offer, as well as testimonials from clients.

As a result, gyms throng with a new burst of activity from those who’ve pledged to get fit; DIY stores bustle with positive-thinkers who’ve at last agreed to decorate that spare room, while others stock their bookshelves with the classics they are determined to finally find the time to read.

These are not lazy stereotypes; according to a recently published survey conducted by Channel 4, the top three New Year’s resolutions people claim to have embarked on are

1. lose weight

2. get fit

3. eat more healthily

Pledging to read more was the tenth most popular option.

Of course, the sad truth is that most of these resolutions will have been dropped before 2012 is even a month old, according to responses people gave to another part of the survey. This is understandable; after all, old habits are often the hardest ones to break, and – unless someone possesses a really burning desire to change part of their life – then it’s not going to happen by accident.

Decluttering

Interestingly, people who’ve made a New Year’s resolution to declutter didn’t crack the top-10 most popular choices, which is a shame because it really doesn’t require that much effort.

After all, anyone who’s serious about getting fitter has to make wholesale changes, altering their diet while finding ways of threading exercise into their day, and stick to it for months to see any real results. By contrast, decluttering can be done in just a few afternoons, and doesn’t need to cross your mind during the rest of the week if you only want to do it at the weekends.

The benefits of decluttering are obvious: giving you more space in which to live, work and have fun, while reducing the family tensions caused by arguments about who is responsible for all the mess that litters your home.

It can also benefit worthy causes, as most people give their unwanted stuff away to charity shops, where it can be resold to people who have a genuine use for it.

It may even be a way of netting you some cash – not to be sniffed at in these straitened times (save more/spend less was the most popular resolution after the ones to do with fitness) – if you find you have something lurking in your attic which turns out to be of value.

Even if you do have to declutter things which can only be thrown away, this isn’t as environmentally damaging as it sounds; most councils now run multi-purpose recycling centres where all kinds of scrap metal, wood, plastics and other materials will be reconstituted for a new use, keeping your clutter out of landfill.

National Declutter Week

People often find it easiest to get on with things if they’re given some kind of target date or deadline. With that in mind, Storage.co.uk is sponsoring another National Declutter Week in 2012, scheduled to run from 7 to 18 March (thus embracing two weekends). Please see our National Declutter Week pages for more information.

U store depot provides Self storage facilities with 24-hour access in purpose-built individual storage rooms. We also provide storage for pallets, bulk goods and removal crates. We currently have in excess of 5000 sq ft of office accommodation for rent. And we are in the final throws of finishing seven business units each with 1600 sq ft for use by new businesses looking for cost-effective start-up terms. A 45,000 sq ft warehouse attached to our self storage business is our next project! Anyone need more space?

Giving space to the Foyle Hospice

Three years ago we approached the Foyle Hospice in Derry/Londonderry as we felt we could offer them free storage facilities for bulky donated items.

The Foyle Hospice have a 300 sq ft unit permanently rented to them at nil cost, and whenever extra space is needed they can use an 80 sq ft unit as a temporary overspill.

You would be surprised by the amount of stuff our self storage customers leave in a specially designated area for the hospice to use in their local charity shops: wardrobes, beds, chests of drawers, televisions, pushchairs, toys, clothing – the list is endless!

We explain to all new customers that unwanted items can be donated to the hospice and sometimes customers declutter before putting their belongings into storage, saving them space in their unit. Others leave items when they vacate.

The Hospice finds our 24-hour access ideal for their needs as they are able to get into their unit at any time.

Contact your local hospice!

Why have we done this? It’s an easy way of putting something back into a very worthy local cause, and our storage customers feel that they don’t need to throw away stuff they have outgrown that can be used by others that will appreciate it.

Contact your local hospice fund raising manager today! I am certain that he or she will be delighted you did.

Despite the current economic climate, the UK Self Storage industry has proven to be a resilient business, with the average consumer storage period increasing from 22 to 37 weeks in the last four years alone.

In an era of cutbacks and downsizing, a number of businesses and consumers are taking advantage of the flexible nature of a storage unit, attracted by low rents and the convenience of hassle-free rental agreements.

A solid business in hard times

It is no secret that the economy has forced a number people to reassess their finances, with a large number of homeowners opting to convert their homes instead of moving. With spare rooms becoming offices and attics becoming bedrooms, many homeowners are short of storage space, which has created a demand for on-site storage facilities.

This combined with factors such as a rise in UK divorce rates and a growing number of people relocating, downsizing or moving into flats has created a rise in demand for storage space for personal and sentimental belongings.

Business enterprise

And it’s not just homeowners who are looking to downscale and cut costs. A number of low-level entrepreneurs and businesses are taking advantage of storage units and finding new uses for them, from self-contained gyms to music studios, from recycling centres to offices. An increasing number of tenants are creatively using their units to boost their businesses.

“We’re seeing a change in the proportion of business customers to private customers. This is part of the recessionary effect,” Rodney Walker, CEO of the Self Storage Association revealed.

“If you are starting a business in today’s landscape it makes sense to use a facility that is flexible and cheap. For start-ups, self storage has always been a potentially more cost-effective way of getting established,” Walker continued.

The flexible nature of a storage unit enables the tenant to create a space not just to hoard belongings, but to create a working space at a pinch of the cost of typical commercial property.

Out The Box Thinking – Case Study

Based in London, one South African melodic punk rock band, has converted their rented self storage unit into a studio.

“We used to have to travel into central London to get good studio time to work on our album, but the cost of studio time was expensive and the time travelling took out of our practice time,” founder of the band Dale Anderson commented.

Searching for a more local studio space, after research the band secured a large storage unit towards the back of the facility where they were able to create a studio to record their material.

“They had a great space we could use and as we generally only practice during the evening, we don’t tend to disturb people with the loud music,” Anderson continued.

“Our converted storage unit has not only saved us money, but also means we can practise a lot more, which has enabled us to complete our second album.”

Market Penetration

When compared to more mature markets, the levels of market penetration in the UK are low at just under 0.5 sq/ft per person. The US has more than 7.4 sq/ft per person and Australasia has 1.1 sq/ft per person. Despite such high levels of market penetration, the market in the US continues to grow at 10-15% a year (based on net lettable space).

On this evidence it is clear that the UK market has much further to grow, and with so many new and innovative ways to utilise self storage facilities, the market shows no sign of slowing down.

UK Self Storage Investment Opportunity

Typically only available to large scale businesses, UK self storage has now been opened up as an opportunity for individual investors by the Self Storage Investment, an arm of the London-based company Experience International.

Investors looking for a low-entry, hassle-free investment can purchase a StorePod – an individual storage unit situated within a self storage facility – and enter into an agreement to sub-let the unit to a well-established management company, who in turn sub-lets the units under licence to end-users.

With guaranteed returns, investors receive double-digit yields from a 6 year lease already in place. The lease is expected to average NET returns in excess of 10% for the initial 6 year period (guaranteed 8% NET yields for years 1 and 2).

And with a secure exit strategy in place and an optional buy-back scheme, investors can secure a steady income from the booming self storage industry.

For more information about Self Storage Investment, please contact Experience International on 0207 321 5858 or email enquiries@experience-international.co.uk or click here storage investment

You’ve probably spotted that this is more than a week. This is because we wanted to give people two whole weekends to get on with sorting through their clutter.

At a time of year when many people are busy making New Year’s resolutions (and may already be struggling not to break them), we hope this gives people a target date if they’ve resolved to finally get on top of their clutter. It’s an uncomfortable fact that we all have a spare room, garden shed, attic or cellar that we keep meaning to clean out without ever getting round to it, but if you wait until National Declutter Week  (NDW) you can even combine it with helping a good cause.

This is because Storage.co.uk is linking up with hospices around the country, trying to create a virtuous circle (or rather, triangle) of giving.

Declutterers – Hospice Shops – Self Storage

When people have their National Declutter Week clear-out, we want them to take all the stuff they no longer need to their local hospice charity shop, where someone can find it a new home.

Hopefully, so many people will do this that the charity shops will run out of room for all their new stock, which is where self storage can come to the rescue. We want self storage firms to “adopt” their local hospice, lending them free space for a period during and after NDW while the charity shops get on with selling the items.

We hope to raise lots of extra money for hospices this year so they can continue their important work.

There are 220 hospices in the UK, and each year they help nearly 250,000 people suffering from terminal illnesses to reach the end their lives in a dignified and peaceful environment, making their last few days as pleasant as possible.

They can’t do this work without the support of the general public, which is why many hospices run their own charity shops in order to raise funds.

Storage.co.uk hopes that we can give them a real boost if enough people organise a National Declutter Week clear-out, providing a great source of additional stock.

Self storage’s great charitable record

Many self storage companies already have relationships with charities, lending them space so they can store things people have donated. This makes sense for both parties; the charities get free space, which would otherwise be expensive, while the storage firms can make use of surplus units and raise public awareness of their business.

Most towns have their own hospice, as well as at least one self storage centre, so we’re encouraging them to “adopt” each other to take advantage of National Declutter Week.

If you would like information about your nearest self storage centre, or your local hospice charity shops, you can send us an email at listings@storage.co.uk.

National Declutter Week posters (see the picture above) are available on our website for download.

We all feel the pinch after Christmas and start the new year looking for ways to change our life, even slightly, for the better. I know I am not alone in puzzling the conundrum that arrives uninvited in your thoughts when you are trying to do something more important (drive, eat, sleep), and that is: how can I make the money that comes into my account each month larger and the money that leaves my account smaller!

Extra income, minimal effort

There are lots of easy (and to me, boring) ways of making savings, buy one less coffee a week, one less take away, one less night out. But I hate to start January thinking of ways to make this year less fun. So how about flipping it on its head and finding new ways of earning more each month for not doing anything. I have always been a fan of the Money for Nothing (or almost nothing) idea, and go through occasional burst of activity looking through my old DVDs and CDs, listing them on Amazon, and watching the pounds arrive into my account with pride at my recycling efforts. Occasionally I manage this with larger things like furniture and clothes on eBay. But there is still a little effort required – mostly around bubblewrap and posting – that tarnishes my enthusiasm, and so these bursts of extra income are short-lived.

So how about a way of earning a regular monthly income without that Soviet-style queue at the (aptly named) People’s Post Office?

The eBay of storage

Aspiring to be the ‘eBay of storage’, Storemates.co.uk is a totally new business idea – earn money by storing a local person’s possessions in your loft/garage/spare room/shed, for a small but useful monthly fee. Essentially Money for Nothing (at least, once you move the stuff into said loft/garage/spare room/shed).

By listing your “unused” space, registered users can search for your storage space for free and, once they find you and you agree the terms, you become Store Mates. Easy extra income: kerching!

This unique service is the brainchild of community worker Shaff Prabatani, who ran out of living space when his pregnant girlfriend moved into his tiny South London flat. Looking for a cheaper alternative to commercial self storage, Shaff dropped home-made flyers through the letterboxes of all his neighbours asking if they had any room to store his extra items in return for a small rental fee, and the idea of Storemates – along with Shaff’s first baby – was born.

Part of a growing economic challenge to conventional thinking termed Collaborative Consumption, Storemates is built on a sense of mutual trust (backed up by a system of user reviews like Amazon and eBay).

Case study: a New Year’s resolution

Susie Diamond, 38, an engineer from Cricklewood, London, has just listed her attic on the site to rent, and is looking forward to helping someone locally while earning an additional income. She states: ”Money is a bit tight, we’ve got two kids, if we can get £10 or £20 a week, then that’s an extra takeaway or a trip out for the kids. After making space in my loft and listing it on Storemates.co.uk, I walk around the house seeing everywhere as a potential storage space and so a few extra pounds a month.”

So how many boxes could you fit under your bed? That under-stairs cupboard you don’t dare clear out could be paying for your mobile phone each month. Why not make your rooms earn their keep! In fact with a little planning you could get your whole house to pay for itself! Now that is one New Year’s Resolution worth sticking to.

London Gun Services operate from a private, secure location in central London and currently cover London and the M25 corridor. We offer the highest level of services for both UK residents and people visiting the UK for all their shooting requirements. Core to our business is a level of flexibility and personal service, which is run by shooters for shooters.

A complete service, all day, every day

We offer a 24/7 service, which is unique in this industry, and with our gun storage prices starting from £15 per month including VAT we are the best priced in London. We have a cost-effective solution for everyone, for customers who simply do not want to store firearms at home, as well as for those who need secure storage upon arriving in the UK with firearms, or need licence renewal, or are moving house.

We collect and deliver shotguns and other firearms from any London location and hold them securely in our de-humidified facility for whatever period is required before hand-delivering them back to you. All firearms are fully insured whilst in our care with servicing options available.

If you are purchasing from another remote dealer as a registered firearms dealer, we are authorized to receive weapons on your behalf and deliver to you (upon presentation of your original shotgun/firearms certificate and passport/driving licence).

For trade clients we can offer the unique service of being able to accept all transfers and deliver directly to your client within 24 hours. This means you do not have to go through a competitive gun shop to reach your clients.

A full range of gun services

Other services we offer at London Gun Services are:

• Gun Storage
• Gun Repairs
• Cartridges
• Gun Rental/Hire
• Valuations
• Visitors Permits
• Import/Export
• Leather Embossing

More information about London Gun Services is available on our website: www.londongunservices.co.uk

For further details, please call on 0207 622 1200
or email tom@londongunservices.co.uk

A useful way of thinking about it is that the website is a way of presenting the company’s best face to the world. Although we don’t always like to admit it, it’s a sad fact that most of us make snap judgements based on how things look, and the way we evaluate websites is no different – therefore, a self storage company that wants to engage with customers needs to have a homepage which entices them in.

A successful self storage company designs its website as meticulously as shopkeepers plan their window displays, wrapping lots of useful content in an easily accessible package that tells the user what they want to know without them getting lost or bogged down.

Fortunately, most self storage companies recognise what a vital tool the internet is for communicating with their customers, and already have a website that does all this, and more, in many cases. In order to celebrate their achievements, Storage.co.uk runs the Excellence in Website Design award.

Specifically, the judges were looking for “a company website that is attractive to look at, easy to use, and rich in effective content”. Here are the five winners for 2011–12:

Alligator Self Storage – A major player in the UK self storage market, with branches running all the way from Portsmouth to Dumfries, Alligator Self Storage has a superb website which manages to combine reams of useful information with colourful, attractive design. www.alligatorstorage.co.uk

Cardiff Self Storage Ltd – Cardiff Self Storage have put together a first-class website for a single-facility, independent operator, where all the information comes encased in an attractive green colour scheme. www.cardiffselfstorage.co.uk

Ready Steady Store – Another self storage firm that uses green as the dominant colour in their website design, Ready Steady Store has crafted a website which combines a handsome appearance with a very logical and accessible layout. www.readysteadystore.com

StoreIt4U – A self storage firm which knows how to be different, StoreIt4U has taken the unusual step of making most of their website bright yellow, combined with clever animation and several pictures of monkeys. The overall effect is uniquely entertaining. www.storeit4u.co.uk

The Store Room – Employing an admirably straightforward and simple design to great effect, The Store Room is clearly a self storage company that knows less can be more when it comes to website design. www.thestoreroom.co.uk