Storage boxes for self storage

Standard storage boxes

On the face of it, storage boxes are simply cardboard boxes. Usually supplied flat-packed, you simply pull them into shape and secure the seams with packing tape.

Like specialist mailing boxes, most purpose-built storage boxes worthy of the name are well made, with good, strong cardboard, creating a firm structure when assembled ‒ well capable of supporting a heavy load and keeping their shape.

They are relatively expensive. A single standard-size box bought from a self storage facility will typically cost £2‒£3, although packs of multiple boxes will bring the price of individual boxes down in proportion to the quantity purchased.

Is a storage box really worth that much?

Surely you could just go along to a supermarket or wine merchant and get storage boxes for free (whisky boxes and banana boxes are particularly strong)?

Yes, you could. But have ever tried? Say you want ten or twenty storage boxes. Supermarkets these days are in the habit of destroying their cardboard boxes as they are emptied in the aisles, so you would need to talk to a kindly floor manager to get that quantity of empty boxes put aside.

Then commercial product boxes tend to be varying sizes. So forget it if you picture your storage unit filled with neat stacks of storage boxes.

There are three advantages of buying purpose-built storage boxes from a self storage facility:

1. The boxes are well made, and unused.
2. You can buy a large number of them all the same size.
3. You can get hold of as many as you think you need straightaway, and more again if you need more.

No such thing as a standard storage box

In fact there are many different sizes of storage box, and they vary from supplier to supplier. The best we can say is that each supplier has a standard size ‒ or rather a set of standard sizes.

Usually storage boxes are quoted in three sizes: small, medium and large. But there can be considerable variation within those divisions. Here are the storage-box dimensions offered by just two companies:

SMALL STORAGE BOX

Company A: 35 x 27 x 33 cm

Company B: 46 x 32 x 30 cm

MEDIUM STORAGE BOX

Company A: 55 x 35 x 33 cm

Company B: 46 x 46 x 30 cm

LARGE STORAGE BOX

Company A: 46 x 46 x 45 cm

Company B: 44 x 46 x 61 cm

The moral is: if you want neatly stacked storage boxes all of the same size, choose one supplier and stick with them.

Note too how storage boxes are almost always quoted in centimetres, but storage facilities are usually quoted in square feet. That is square feet of floor space, not cubic volume ‒ so if you want to know how many boxes you can stack one on top of the other, you have to find out the height of the unit, and the height of your boxes, and will probably have to work it all out with the help of a metric‒imperial calculator…

Are you as strong as your storage boxes?

When choosing your storage boxes, it is important to think about what you want to put in them. That may sound obvious, but… It is tempting to buy large storage boxes, but remember that these will be very heavy indeed if filled with books, papers, vinyl records etc.

And remember also that, if you intend to stack storage boxes one on top of the other in your storage unit, you will need to fill the bottom storage boxes solidly to the top of the box, or they will collapse.

Large storage boxes, therefore, are really designed for lightweight contents.

Plastic storage boxes

This is another option. Plastic boxes come in many, many different sizes. For the range of sizes given above, they cost between about £8 and £15 pounds each, so they are considerably more expensive than cardboard storage boxes. But then they are considerably stronger and more rigid, so they don’t have to be filled solidly to be stacked.

Archive boxes

These are specialist storage boxes designed to hold office files and papers. They are usually about 46 x 37 x 28 cm, have lids, and handle-holes at each end.

Wardrobe boxes

These are tall cardboard boxes designed for clothing, with a rail inside for hangers. Effectively they are portable mini-wardrobes, and cost around £9‒£12 each.

Vintage clothing and fabric storage boxes

It is best not to hang really precious items of clothing on hangers when in storage for a long time ‒ it puts too much stress on the seams. Instead, fold the clothes into large, flat boxes, carefully wrapped in acid-free paper to prevent staining (by the acid in the wood-pulp in the cardboard).

Serious collectors of vintage clothing and textiles may want to consider buying specialist acid free textile storage boxes, made to museum standards, but they are expensive: £25 a box or more ‒ top of the range in the world of storage boxes!