When Storage Is the Smartest Part of a Move
Moving is hard. You’re juggling your normal obligations on top of complex logistics, often on a compressed timeline. It would be one thing if you could go to sleep in one house and magically wake up in the new house with everything all arranged for you, but the truth is that even with professional movers, the transition between houses is an awkward gap.
During our 20 years of helping families, professionals, and military personnel relocate to and from the DMV, we’ve noticed how storage can smooth out the process. Here are several ways storage can be the smartest part of your move.
The Gap Between Two Front Doors
Every move has two dates that rarely match. Job start dates, lease ending dates, closing dates, and renovation timelines mean that you’re rarely going to move out of one place straight into another.
This gap between the two front doors (whether it’s days or months) can easily turn into an expensive, time-consuming hassle. It’s too easy to overpay to extend a lease or to rush your new housing decision. You can also burn a month’s worth of weekends and evenings hauling boxes to a relative’s basement or a self-service storage unit.
That’s why we offer full-service storage. We know you need a safe, climate-controlled place to store everything while you start your new job or find the right place to live. We fold the storage process into your move.
Job Relocations Can Move Faster Than You Can Plan
Corporate and military relocation timelines barely give you enough time to think, let alone plan an entire orchestrated move. Instead of doing it all before you relocate, you have to pick the most important action items and let everything else fall into place later.
You may have time to evaluate school districts, but not find a new home. You may have time to arrange for movers to come and pack everything for you, but then need to find temporary furnished accommodations until you can get more settled.
During a move, storage lightens your burdens. With our full-service, integrated storage, we come to your house or apartment and pick everything up just like we would during a move. Your items are carefully inventoried, but instead of transporting them to your new house, we lock them up in our secure facilities in Arlington and Alexandria.
That means you’re free to get to your new location and dive into your life. You don’t have to rush into a decision about neighborhoods or housing because you have the time and space to get to know your new location first. When you’re ready, we deliver everything to you, just as if we had picked it all up from your old home one to three days earlier.
Blending Two Households Takes More Than a Weekend
Whether you’re moving in with a fiancé or blending two families with children, combining households includes a negotiation of which stuff makes the cut. You may not have room for both living room sets, but you may not be willing to let go of yours yet.
This is not pressure that people moving in together need. You don’t want to be fighting about lamps and armoires when you should be celebrating a new stage of life.
Storage gives you time to get used to the new space and how you enjoy it together. You don’t have to be in a rush to abandon your stuff, but can take a measured approach that gives both of you the breathing room to decide.
Sell Your House for More Money
Buyers fall in love with space and possibility, but they struggle to see past oversized furniture and walls covered in family photos. A well-staged home for sale gives buyers a chance to picture their own lives in the rooms, driving higher offers and faster sales.
However, staging means you have to clear away some of the signs that you live in your home. You want fewer furniture pieces, clear countertops, organized bookshelves, and minimal personal items for as long as it takes to sell to the right buyer.
Storage allows you to stage your home for buyers while still enjoying your space.
Renovations and Clutter Don’t Mix
When you start a renovation, you’re excited about the end result, but you have to be prepared to live through the process. What you don’t want is for your house to achieve its beautiful new look only to realize your furniture has suffered from dust and paint splatter.
Empty rooms are easier to renovate, which means you get your result faster. You could put everything in the garage, but if your timeline stretches into summer in the DMV, you’re looking at heat and humidity that is as damaging (or more damaging) than the renovation process.
Our secure, climate-controlled storage facilities are a safe place to keep everything you want to move out of the way. We’ll come pick up your boxes and furniture and then return them to you when your house is done.
Storage for Extended Travel and Overseas Assignments
When you’re far away for months or years, you want to know that your belongings are safe and well cared for. Long-term absences, in particular, expose the weakness of self-storage. You can’t drop by to check on your unit or catch a problem before it ruins something irreplaceable. You’re trusting everything you’ve worked hard for to a padlock and thin walls.
That’s why our storage solutions include several layers of security, from pre-screening all employees with background checks to cameras and authorized-only entry. We know that whether you’re gone for six months or six years, you want to come back to belongings that have been protected from heat, humidity, and cold, and can be delivered to your new location when you need them.
Give Yourself Room to Breathe
If you’re moving, the best thing you can do for yourself is give yourself the space and time to make sound decisions. If you rush into housing or other decisions because you feel like you’re under pressure, you’ll have to live with that choice for months or years. Storage is how you create that space.
We have helped professionals and families relocate to and from the DMV area for more than 20 years. From military moves (yes, we’re GSA-approved) to corporate relocations, we’re at your service. Call us at (703) 889-8899 or request a free estimate online.
