Cram de la Cram

Most people think that a storage unit is a temporary solution but more often than not they turn into a chaotic mess not to mention an expensive monthly bill. 

Look at the use of a storage unit as a grand opportunity to organize your life. In order to achieve this lofty goal you should organize your storage unit before you even move one of your belongings into it. Think about what you have to store, how often you’ll need access to the different types of things you’re putting in there and how many of the things you’ll need access to are seasonal.
Here’s an example of an ideal 10 ft wide 20 ft deep storage unit:
In the back end of the storage unit build an 8-foot deep 10 ft wide platform about 4 ft off the ground. Underneath that platform you can store long-term items such as furniture or anything else you don’t want to get damaged or crushed. On the top of the platform you can store other long-term items and boxes.
You now have a 12 ft deep 10 ft wide space left to fill. My recommendation is to use metro-style or industrial storage racks on both side walls of the remaining 12 feet. The shelves should be spaced to handle whatever types of bins you’re going to store. For about $5 a piece you can purchase different colored bins from Walmart, Home Depot or Lowe’s. I try to use a different color bin for each type of thing that’s going to go into it. Obvious choices might be red bins for Holiday storage, orange for Halloween decor, etc. Every Ben should have a number and as you fill them you should take note as to what you’re putting in. Example: “foot massager 27”. Put bins with the heavier things on the bottoms of the racks and the lighter things on the top of the racks. If a bin is particularly heavy you might want to indicate that on the outside. Try to keep like size bins together and as a general rule whenever using boxes also stack them and store them according to the similarly of size. If you have a file cabinet that you might need regular access to, it can be placed on the very end of your storage unit so you can get in and out of it quickly. With this configuration you should now have a 5 foot wide 12 foot long isle of space right down the middle of your storage unit. I recommend getting four rolling storage racks to fill that space. Now when you arrive at your storage unit you can roll the four racks out and have plenty of room inside to go through any of your bins. My recommendation is that you also have 4 plastic drop cloths you can cover the rolling racks with if it happens to be raining during your visit.
My last recommendation on this subject is about security. Although it’s rare sometimes people will break into storage units. For this reason I recommend having two locks on the door instead of one. While it’s true that if someone can break into one lock they could also break into two locks, I think they just might hit all the one lock doors first.