Sold our House - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

[boiler7904]

Like the title says, we sold our house (half duplex).

Realtor set the sign 8pm on Wed 8/21
Got two calls for showings on Thurs 8/22 before it went on MLS that afternoon
Two showings on Fri 8/23 and an offer from the second person through the door
Counteroffered on Sat 8/24
Under contract before noon on Sun 8/25
Had the inspection on Wed 8/28
Appraiser comes this afternoon
Closing currently scheduled for 9/27 and we have to be out on 9/30

Needless to say it went way quicker than we thought possible and have no idea what we're going to buy. Of the 7 we've looked at the last two weeks only 1 was remotely feasible but we would outgrow it in the 5-6 years and be in the same situation again.

We're looking forward to the changes that about to happen (including the new garage!) but just a little stressed out.

Reality is that we're going to be moving in with my inlaws for at least a couple of weeks if we buy an existing home or possibly as long as 7 months if we build.

That means that almost everything we own and don't need daily is going into a storage unit - hand and power tools, washer & dryer, furniture, clothes and so on down the line.

I know to keep batteries for cordless tools and car detailing products where they won't freeze. Makes sense to me to drape plastic sheeting over furniture so dust doesn't accumulate. Also makes sense to me to set a few mouse traps in the unit going into fall. Things like holiday decorations are in Rubbermaid totes but the rest will be a mix of cardboard boxes and more totes.

What other tips do you guys have?

 

[SARG]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Best advice. Be patient. I've had ours under contract for the third time now & our "next closing" is due the same as yours.

Ain't a done deal until the paperwork is signed.

 

[jd_1138]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Be patient and make sure you fully and completely check out any houses that you are thinking about buying. And make sure the new house has a huge garage that will keep you happy for years to come! Cheaper to buy a great place upfront then to have to deal with the expense and hassle of adding on.

 

[Cougar]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

How do you get a long with your inlaws.

We did the same thing when we sold our first house.
We get along good so it worked out great.

You will have a big advantage when you find the right house.
You can make an offer with no contingencies.

 

[pmiranda]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Be sure to pack your essential tools and stuff for getting the new house set up in well labelled boxes separate from the specialty tools you wont be using for awhile. In any case, accurate labeling (even writing inventory if you can on) the boxes will pay off when you need something before you have had a chance to unpack.
If you have time, try to put tools in crates or boxes that you'll want to keep them in for years so that you're already organized when you move in.

 

[CNGsaves]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Inlaws have a farm or live in country ??

Consider a shipping container to store your stuff for 7 mths. Having all your stuff on-site would be better than messing with driving to public storage every time you want something . . . real PITA.

Check into renting shipping container (best option) or worst case you could buy and resell when you're done using it.

Best of luck on the move !!

 

[XAMfed]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Make sure you label boxes very clearly. I would plan on your stuff being in storage for up to a year, so make sure you load it that way. Things you may need up front, Furniture and appliances in the back of the unit.

I did this 4 years ago. (went from a house to a loft in a new city) I used Orange duct tape on everything that needed to be up front, so when we were loading the storage unit we knew what to look for.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

When I moved back from South Carolina to Oklahoma, I knew my stuff would be stored for a while before I was able to get living quarters established on my farm land that I had bought and even longer before I had a shop built. I bought a 28' enclosed car hauler for 6500.00 new with a vnose and etrak. Household stuff was stored in it for about 2 years and all my shop stuff plus my 69 camaro for another 3 on top of that. Now that I have my shop up and the trailer empty, I sold the car hauler last week for 5500. So the move and storage cost me 1000 for 5 years and 1200 miles. Couldn't have done it cheaper. During the 3 years waiting on the shop, I had a space cleared out up front where the walk door was for farm animal feed storage and access to my tools.

Funny thing is, the guy I sold my trailer too, is using it for the same purpose for moving out west.

 

[willf650]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

When I moved two houses at once into one new house we rented a POD. It's a little more expensive than a storage unit but was worth the money. We packed up one household into it and had them haul it away and store it for two months. When we were ready we called them up and had them drop it off. Both times it wound up in the drive way for easy loading and unloading. We only had to move stuff once instead of to the storage place and then to the new house. Since it was basically a box trailer we packed it floor to ceiling, put more stuff in it than I think we could in a regular storage locker.

I did wind up renting a storage unit as well and wound up paying on it for almost 8 months after we moved. I just wound up leaving stuff in there instead of moving it because it was a pain going back and fourth. All lot of my machinery got rusted up big time in the storage unit. For some reason the humidity in the storage unit was worse than either my garage, shed or basement. Don't really know why.

 

[rsanter]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

i did almost exactly this.
a year ago I sold the larger house (3400 sqft) and was on a house hunt. it became apparent it was going to take longer than expected.
box up as much as you can and you need to label the boxes on the end as to what room, who's stuff and what it is.
get hanging boxes for most of your clothes (Uhaul) and label them. when you put them in be sure to mark them and make them easily accessable. I had to access the boxes several times.
use cheap bed sheets to cover furnature but whats even better is to take some of the furnature apart to protect it and to take less space in storage. I took the dining chairs apart and fit them into 2 of the hanging clothes bokes with towels between the pieces for protection.
prioritize your packing. pack up the decor items first and put them in storage first, they are the last things you will need.
collectables get packed and stored next.
fine china and formal china goes next
ETC

I finally got into another house and the basic stuff for the house was moved in and set up in 2 days and we were moved in.
the spare bedroom still has all the boxes of decor and collectables and I am going through that little by little

as I was packing up that was a perfect time to set things aside for yard sale. things were set aside in the front room and we moved everything else. then we set the yard sale/estate sale up in the front room of the house and brought people in to look over the stuff. worked out really well and I sold tons of stuff. there was a delay in the sale closing so as long as I had the house I kept the stuff set up and did estate sales for a few weekends in a row before having to pack the remains up

bob

 

[theoldwizard1]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I would lay down some 2x4s to lift and wooden furniture off of the floor. This way you are protected from any minor flooding.

If you think that it will be in storage for a year or more, buy plastic bins with lids for the small stuff. Much better than cardboard boxes. These you can put on the ground. If they are strong enough, you can put the wood furniture on top of them.

 

[my68spit]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Build a "loft" in your storage unit to better utilize vertical storage space in the unit itself. We did this when we were in the same position you are in (lived with my parents for 6 months). having the vertical storage made things more easily accessible when we needed to get in there and not worry about everything falling on top of us when we needed a box from the bottom of the pile. Especially nice if you are going to be using the storage space during transitioning seasons.

 

[jd_1138]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

......snip.......Household stuff was stored in it for about 2 years and all my shop stuff plus my 69 camaro for another 3 on top of that. Now that I have my shop up and the trailer empty, I sold the car hauler last week for 5500. So the move and storage cost me 1000 for 5 years and 1200 miles. Couldn't have done it cheaper. During the 3 years waiting on the shop, I had a space cleared out up front where the walk door was for farm animal feed storage and access to my tools.

Funny thing is, the guy I sold my trailer too, is using it for the same purpose for moving out west.

Sounds practical and smart. In the mid 1990's we had to move from Texas to California. Faced with a $2,500 truck rental charge (UHaul and the other places had too many trucks in CA I guess, thus the rates), my dad said to hell with that. He bought for $700 a nice former bread truck with a Chevy small block V8 in it. And he tuned it up and replaced the exhaust manifold (leak) and rebuilt the carb.. We used it to move out west, and he re-sold it out there for like $1,500.

 

[boiler7904]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Thanks guys.

My inlaws don't have acreage so a pod, shipping container, or enclosed trailer in their yard isn't an option.

Thought is to put all of the holiday decor in the back of the unit and then boxes down one side. The one storage place I talked to suggested pallets on the floor to keep moisture out of any of the wood legs on our furniture. Anything that can be taken apart will be to condense it. Everything is going to be covered with plastic sheeting. Tools are pretty organized and will be accessible without being really visible at the front of the unit - I'm just concerned about moisture and rust forming. I've seen a product that supposed to help prevent that but can't think of the name.

 

[jd_1138]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

I've seen a product that supposed to help prevent that but can't think of the name.

The storage facility will probably sell these plastic tubs that supposedly will **** up moisture. If you can afford it, an indoor climate controlled unit would really protect your stuff. Might cost twice as much but might be worth it. I think indoor 10x20's go for about $100/month here in Ohio.

 

[Shopteacher]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Im sorta in the same boat, Sold our place, but they had close/possession (cash deal) within a week of walking through it, wow what a ride, all my stuff got slammed into boxes and shoved into my dad's basement, who is kind enough to let my family encroach right now....its been a week and a half, and we get possession of our new place in 17 days, 7 hours, 21 minutes....you get the drift, not only am I excited to get into the new place, but my wife two kids and two dogs will be excited to have a house of our own, again.

 

[boiler7904]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

The storage facility will probably sell these plastic tubs that supposedly will **** up moisture. If you can afford it, an indoor climate controlled unit would really protect your stuff. Might cost twice as much but might be worth it. I think indoor 10x20's go for about $100/month here in Ohio.

No one has climate controlled units available right now. Standard 10x20s in my area are $100 a month.

 

[polexican23]

as someone already mentioned, LABEL all boxes. Shoot number them and make an excel file of what is in what number. It sounds like a lot, but I only moved this path month and didnt label squat. I am still unpacking and cant find anything or remember where I packed it.

 

[yuk]

throw away all crayons and candles!!!
they will melt all over everything.

 

[eljefino]

Re: Sold our House Sold - Everything's Headed to Storage - Tips?

Sounds practical and smart. In the mid 1990's we had to move from Texas to California. Faced with a $2,500 truck rental charge (UHaul and the other places had too many trucks in CA I guess, thus the rates), my dad said to hell with that. He bought for $700 a nice former bread truck with a Chevy small block V8 in it. And he tuned it up and replaced the exhaust manifold (leak) and rebuilt the carb.. We used it to move out west, and he re-sold it out there for like $1,500.

Can always get an old school bus that someone started converting to RV. You want someone else doing the labor of ripping the seats out and painting the darn thing.

 

[cglasgow]

What other tips do you guys have?

Once you're in your new place, get out of the storage unit as quickly as damn possible. They turn into money sinks. Put it off a little bit here, a little bit there, and next thing you know you've been paying storage fees for years and years for stuff you don't need (else you would have gotten it out of storage). At that point you would have been money ahead just throwing it all in the dumpster. BTDT.

 

[imok]

I was in a similar situation. If you use a public storage facility try to leave enough room around the inside perimeter of the unit to spray for bugs as they will migrate from other units. My facility had someone spray once a month on the outside but that was not enough. I also covered the floor with tarps to keep everything off the concrete.

 

[garrett1812]

I just finished doing the same thing (Lafayette, IN). A few tips:

Climate controlled storage is expensive, but if you can get a small climate controlled space for important items, do that, and store the rest in another larger unit.

If there is the option, use inside access. That will keep your items warmer, and keep snow from piling near you door (and water coming in).

Find plastic pallets and put those down on the floor first.

Really cheap desiccants:
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/dri-splendor-silica-gel-flower-preserve-247262/
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/white-sheer-wedding-favor-bag-193649/

 

[dhubbard422]

We used a combination of palettes and row of semi-commercial (i.e. modestly priced) metal/wood shelving down one side of the unit to keep stuff off the floor. The shelving is really nice to organize the stuff you think you may need access to while y'all are in limbo. You do have to leave a walkway in the front of the shelving in order to enjoy the easy access and this may require a larger unit, but in retrospect, I would have put up another row of shelving.

Hope your time in limbo is short!

 

[Todd.Brock]

Best advice I can give is go to uline.com for boxes...cheap as hell compared to anywhere else. If they are slightly damaged, they will send you more. Get a dolley from SAMs club or Craigslist. I use it all the time and loan out as needed. Best 50 bucks you will spend. last, get the packing tape dispenser and tape combo pack at SAMs. And a **** load of sharpies... Good luck. And get your boxes from uline.com. Don't wait and have to pay uhaul prices.

 

[gunguy]

If you really want to know how much stuff you have, MOVE!

Get rid of as much as you can - donate, sell, toss, give away all that stuff. Unless your middle name is Grizwald, even consider off loading the holiday decorations. If your kids are grown and out of the house, tell 'em to pick up their stuff. De-clutter. If you haven't used it or worn in the past year, get rid of it. Be ruthless.

Then re-read the above posts about packing and organizing.

Good luck and enjoy the new place when you get it.

Jim

 

[snorky18]

Invest in plenty of shelving, and your storage unit will be better organized, You'll be able to find things, you'll be able to have a smaller unit to hold the same amount of stuff (which can save you $, depending on how much you spend on the shelving and how long you end up keeping the storage unit), AND you'll have shelving to put in your new garage.

Ditto rubbermaid containers - think about what you would like to use long term in the garage, and organize your storage unit around it. Personally, I like the wire mesh shelves with the $20 wheel add-on kits. 18" and 24" wide, 3' and 4' long.

Our last move we had pros do the moving, putting stuff into storage, and bring it back, and it occurred to us while we were unpacking that we hadn't seen our wedding photos yet - we ended up finding them in one of the last few boxes, but anything sentimental like that we would never again hand over to movers. They did lose/break a few things.

 

[pmiranda]

On my next move I think I'll number each box on both ends and inside the lid and take a picture of the contents with my smartphone. Then when you need to find something, flip through the moving album on your phone and the box number will be right there in the lid in the picture where you see what you were looking for.
Of course, that won't be for another 10 years and we'll probably have nanotech RFID tags on everything that I load into the hovertruck for the move

 

[ChargedUp!]

If you really want to know how much stuff you have, MOVE!

Get rid of as much as you can - donate, sell, toss, give away all that stuff. Unless your middle name is Grizwald, even consider off loading the holiday decorations. If your kids are grown and out of the house, tell 'em to pick up their stuff. De-clutter. If you haven't used it or worn in the past year, get rid of it. Be ruthless.

Then re-read the above posts about packing and organizing.

Good luck and enjoy the new place when you get it.

Jim

This is key here! We just built a house as well and ended up using 2 pods for storage. They don't stay on your property unless you want them to. Cost $172/mo and like stated, they bring it right to you.
We thought we got rid of stuff and we did but after unloading the second pod, we should have got rid of much much more. Give to goodwill or similar and take a tax write off. If you aren't using it, you don't need it! Purge, purge, purge!

 

[e-tek]

May have been said already - but in all my years the main thing I see people fall down on is MOISTURE CONTROL. A moist environment will wreck anything and everything. It'll soften, damage and break boxes, photo's, particle board furniture and any paper goods. It pits and/or rusts all metals. It causes photo's to stick to glass, allows mold and fungus growth and destroys padded items like furniture. Wood will stain and electronics will deteriorate. Cars and mechanical stuff will rust inside and out. Engine will sieze.

The best thing is to rent a temperature controlled unit, but even so, you should buy a moisture meter and check for yourself, then ask if there's any warranty against moisture damage or if the heat goes out. In addition, I always use at least 2 Dry-Z-Air bags, hanging over buckets (they **** water from the air and it drips off the bottom) to remove airborne moisture. Lastly, keep everything OFF the ground to avoid wicking moisture off the cement and to allow air movement around your possessions.

Good luck with your adventure!

 

[Playwme]

Spend the money to buy proper packing boxes and don't try to overpack them. If you stick to the same sizes they stack a lot better and make better use of the space.

Use the opportunity to clear out unneeded stuff too. I've helped a lot of people move house (due to owning a box truck) , and some of the stuff they keep but don't use is astounding. It's often the kind of stuff ou could get from the local recycling centre for a couple bucks but they'll haul it interstate, taking up valuable room in the truck only to put it in the garage when they get where they're going.

 

[finn]

Our house sold in one day too but the deal fell through before closing so we had to realist. Second time took a few weeks to get a satisfactory offer but we finally closed on Frida
We also bought a 24' vee nosed car trailer for $5000. Today it goes to a new home for $4999.

 

[Bojans]

We lived with my dad for 11 months while our house was built. We loaded all our stuff into 1 POD and had it stored at their facility. Worked great. I highly suggest hiring professional movers to pack the POD. I thought we would need 2 PODs but they are so efficient at using the space they god us into 1, by having everything emptied and packed we only paid about $200 to have the POD professionally loaded and saved over $100 a month by only needing 1 POD.

 

[Rod N]

I stored my garage and shed contents in a 10' x 17' portable garage in the backyard of a home we rented for 1 year. I put a few patio stones and plywood on most of the floor.
Majority of stuff was in plastic containers and some in cardboard boxes.
Do not do this!!!
The moisture was amazing and lots of stuff went to s##t!
It costs me $100 for a year of storage after I moved and sold the portable garage but still ....

 

[NUTTSGT]

Congrats on selling the house so fast, you're lucky in one way and unlucky in another. . .


I've heard don't like dryer sheets. Buy a box or two and put them all over the storage unit.

 

[chicken89]

your story sounds similar to mine. luckily moved in with in-laws for only 2 months.
best place to get boxes: fast food places. ask for the fry boxes. they go through tons of them, and they are all the same size (helps with storage)
grocery stores have alot of boxes with handle holes in them, but i didn't have much luck getting many (thankfully wife had an aunt that worked at one (egg boxes are the best)). we moved out in Jan, so we were able to go to walmart and get the plastic toes for $4 each, so the valuables went in those with the locking lids.
packing tape: walmart and harbour freight had the same prices, not much difference in the tape quality.
as for storage, we were lucky to know someone with an old farm house that were not using the top floor... so everythign went there. tools went into 2nd SUV, then placed jacks under it to take weight off suspension.

 

[Koy E]

If you are going to keep any delicate electronics in box's or sealed containers use silica packs or crushed chalk in stockings to **** moisture out of the air within those containers. even if you zip lock something or use a air tight container you should still consider the moisture that already exists within that zip lock/container and what damage it can do to your electronics. that's why most electronics you buy that are even air sealed come with silica packs.

 

[LuvAZ]

Lots of good advice here.
We had our stuff in storage for a while after a move cross-country. The one thing that stands out in my mind as far as storage 'advice' goes is that we needed access to our filing cabinet w/all of our financials, tax returns, etc. for the loan officer while we were qualifying for a new mortgage. I recalled when we unloaded all of our stuff that the filing cabinet was buried deep in the back of the storage area!

SO- Keep important $$ records w/you or in an accessible place!

HTH,
Will

 

[619DioFan]

I work in the moving and storage industry. here are some tips-

Cardboard boxes are fine. make sure to use actual moving boxes ( HD and Lowes sell them- fair prices to ) you may find them for free on CL. only use packing tape. duct tape , masking tape , electrical tape- useless.

Fill all boxes full ( so they don't crush ) label them on the side ( not the top )

Mattresses- get mattress bags for them (I usually double bag them- slip on over then slide the other from the opposite end and tape shut )

Wood furniture- if you have nice stuff I would pad wrap then shrink wrap it ( HF sells pads and shrink wrap ) or hit your local thrift store for used blankets and bedspreads . you can also go to any moving company and ask to by " brown paper " comes in bundles of 25 sheets , use this to wrap your furniture ( we use this for overseas shipments )

Upholstered furniture - plastic wrap sofas , love seats , os chairs ( mattress bags work great for this as you can slip the entire piece inside and tape secure- two queen mattress bags will cover a large sofa - one over each end then tape shut- faster then shrink wrap )

Leather furniture - Never , Ever put any type of plastic directly on leather. the plastic will cause the leather to sweat and ruin it. leather furniture needs to be pad wrapped first then plastic wrapped.

Loading - loading is an art form , like a game of tetrix. go on youtube and watch vids of movers loading their trucks. watch how they build a tier. same principle applies to loading a storage unit.

 

[SALIV8]

Use the camper desiccant bags for moisture or better yet a dehumidifier if electric is available. Set it to the % humidity you want and check your stuff every couple weeks to get an idea..plastic over everything may trap moisture?

Do you have insurance? Check on this and use plastic pallets to lift your stuff off the floor...

McMaster Carr sells the desicant bags btw..