Professional furniture storage or self-storage: which one is right for you?

There’s an ever-increasing number of furniture storage solutions available in Belgium these days. Demand for these services has risen in recent years, as numerous circumstances in people’s work and private lives require storing furniture:

• Construction work at home: major renovations or repairs after damages
• Inheritance following death: when your home is too small to accommodate all the family furniture of sentimental or financial value
• Moving abroad: a new job (diplomatic or other), lengthy stays overseas for personal reasons, etc. You don’t always need to carry out a lock, stock and barrel move by sea from Belgium, as your new accommodations may be either fully or partly furnished
• Reconstituting a household: it’s common to end up with two of many household appliances or with more beds than needed for the alternating presence of children at home.

When faced with all the different offers, how are you supposed to recognise the qualities of a professional storage firm? Find out the key differences between furniture storage and self-storage.

Difference between furniture storage and self-storage

The principle behind self-storage is simple enough:

As its name suggests, you pack up your own belongings in cardboard boxes and other containers. You then take them to the lock-up or warehouse as directed by the self-storage firm. Some addresses are protected by surveillance cameras and require you to enter a code to access the premises, but that’s not always the case.

If you look closely, you’ll see that they bill for storage space by the square metre. However, a warehousing location constitutes a volume and should therefore be measured in cubic metres. Due to this fact, self-storage can be up to three times more expensive than a turnkey storage service.

In contrast, furniture storage services are removal firms approved in Belgium by the CBD. They can store a minimum of 10 cubic metres for you in various types of containers and cases, maximising volume savings. Their packing cases are made of wood, while the metal containers they use are similar to standard shipping containers (a little over 30 cubic metres). One container roughly meets the storage requirements of a family of four, made up of two adults and two children.

A secure and professional furniture storage service

A furniture storage firm places a container outside your home and then packs and loads your furniture. The advantages are considerable:

• Less handling for real savings
• Reduced risk of damages

Your furniture packed by professionals

Wrapping in paper padding helps protect your furniture from dust, scratches, etc., and is known as soft-packing by professionals.

An inventory of your furniture items

The team of professional movers carries out an inventory on site. Each item is labelled carefully and numbered in ascending order. One paper copy is signed and retained by the storage firm, while you keep the other one. This precaution also facilitates recording any withdrawals you might want to make during the storage period. Is your son or daughter leaving for student housing or moving elsewhere? For example, withdrawing a table, chairs and a wardrobe is carefully recorded, and the resulting reductions in volume may also have a favourable impact on your bill.

Loading carried out by a professional storage firm will be as compact as possible in order to minimise any loss of space.

Storing your furniture

How will the firm store your belongings? Here as well there are some different approaches:

• Self-storage doesn’t guarantee the absence of traces of rodents or damp on your belongings at the end of the storage period. It’s purely and simply about renting the surface area. Any deterioration that occurs during this contractual period is not the responsibility of the firm who hasn’t carried out the packing.
• The Belgian storage firm, conversely, takes an additional precaution: the colour of the sealing tape differs according to the party that did the packing: the mover or the customer, a difference reported precisely on the inventory.
• In all cases, you can take out storage insurance to cover the risk of damage being incurred at the storage location (fire or flood).
• The billing system also differs according to the type of firm: professional storage firms invoice on a weekly basis, while self-storage firms charge for the whole of each month started.

Prefer to entrust your furniture to a professional storage firm? Then contact Maison Genné!

Get in touch with Maison Genné to get more information or a quote for storing your belongings in a secure location in Belgium. We can offer you a solution tailored to your specific requirements and to the type of furniture to be stored.