Almost no international move happens on the dates everyone first agreed. The sale falls through, the visa is late, the apartment isn't ready. Storage is what stops a slipped date turning into a crisis — in our UK warehouses before you go, or with our agent at destination once you land.
Last reviewed:
An international move depends on a British completion date, a foreign completion date, a visa, an employer's start date and a shipping schedule. The chance of all five aligning is close to zero, and the gap is usually somewhere between two weeks and six months.
Most people discover this late, at the point where they are choosing between paying for an empty rental and putting the sofa in a friend's garage. Building storage into the plan at survey costs a fraction of solving it in a hurry, and it takes the pressure off every other date in the move.
Packed at home · Sealed and stored · Delivered when you're ready
These are genuinely different products. Choosing the wrong one is the difference between paying for access you never use and being unable to reach something you need weekly.
Our warehouses · the default for a move
Your belongings are packed straight into purpose-built wooden containers at your home, inventoried, and sealed while you watch. The containers go into our warehouse by forklift and come out onto the vehicle that delivers them. Nothing is unpacked, repacked or handled loose in between — which is why it is both the cheapest and the safest option for anything longer than a fortnight.
Your own unit · when you need access
A room you rent and hold the key to, with access whenever the site is open. Right if you are dipping in regularly for tools, stock or seasonal things. Wrong for a house full of furniture going abroad, because you handle everything twice and pay for space around it.
Overseas · when your home isn't ready
Held by our agent in the destination country after customs clearance, then delivered when you have keys. Almost always cheaper than paying demurrage at the port, and far less risky than accepting delivery into a house you have not finished buying.
Overseas · before customs clearance
Goods held under customs control at destination without being formally imported. Useful when your residence permit has not been issued yet and clearing early would cost you the duty relief. Charged daily rather than monthly, so it is a bridge rather than a solution.
Storage is priced on the space you occupy and how long you occupy it. Work out roughly how many containers your home fills, and you have the basis of the figure.
An indication of space, not a price. Storage is quoted on volume, duration and the declared value of what you are storing, because the last of those affects the cover we have to carry.
Storage is rarely planned from the start. These are the six situations that produce almost every request we take.
The commonest reason by far
You have to be out of the British house on a Friday and cannot get into the foreign one for six weeks. Storage turns an impossible sequence into an ordinary one.
Especially the UAE and the US
Several countries will not release your goods as personal effects until your residence permit exists. Holding them in the UK, or in bond at destination, is usually cheaper than paying port storage while you wait.
Building, renovating, still buying
Taking delivery into a house with no floors is worse than not taking delivery at all. We hold everything and deliver the week the builders leave.
And not ready to decide
Moving abroad forces decisions about a lifetime of belongings, often in a fortnight. Storing the undecided things for six months is a legitimate answer, and cheaper than regret.
Two or three years, then home
Ship what you need, store the rest in the UK. Long-term containerised storage costs a fraction of shipping a household twice and buying it all again at the far end.
Students, sabbaticals, house-sitting
A term abroad, a year travelling, a rental gap. Small volumes are fine — you pay for the containers you fill, not for a room with air in it.
Both are available and the answer is usually obvious once you know what drives the cost. This is the conversation your consultant will have with you at survey.
Quoted monthly, with the terms stated up front. Anything not on this list is named in your quotation rather than discovered on the invoice.
"Secure storage" is a phrase every mover uses and few explain. Here is what it means in practice, and what it does not cover.
Ask any storage provider these questions. If they cannot answer them specifically, that tells you something.
Facilities differ between our UK depots and our overseas agents. We tell you which warehouse your goods are going to and what standard it holds before you commit.
It is priced on three things: how many containers you fill, how long you need them, and the value you declare for cover. A two-bedroom flat for a couple of months is a modest monthly figure; a five-bedroom house for two years is a real decision. Use the calculator above to work out your volume, then let us quote it properly against your dates.
Yes, with notice, and there is a charge. Retrieving a single item means bringing your container down from the rack, opening it, finding the item and resealing. If you already know you will need regular access to particular things, tell us at packing and we will put them in a separate, accessible container — or suggest self storage instead.
Storage is billed monthly from a single month. To release, we normally need one to two weeks' notice so the containers can be pulled and a vehicle booked. Longer notice is better in June, July and August, when everyone in the country is moving at once.
For a move, almost always. With self storage you unload the vehicle into a unit, then load it out again later, so everything is handled two extra times and that is when damage happens. You also pay for the empty space around your belongings. Self storage wins only when you genuinely need frequent access.
Not in a dry, ventilated warehouse, which is what furniture and household goods need. The risk is in unheated garages and shipping containers left in a yard. Genuinely humidity-sensitive things — art, wine, some instruments, leather in quantity — need climate control, and we will say so rather than take the booking and hope.
Vehicles, yes, through partners with the right facilities, and they must be stored drained and disconnected. Wine needs proper temperature-controlled storage rather than a warehouse rack. Both are arranged alongside your move rather than crammed into it.
Yes, and it is very common. Once your shipment clears customs our agent holds it in their warehouse until you have keys. If your residence status means clearing early would cost you the duty relief, we use bonded storage instead and clear when the timing is right.
Nothing dramatic. It rolls on monthly. Tell us when you know, because rates are usually better on longer commitments and it is worth revisiting the quote rather than paying short-term pricing for two years.
Tell us roughly how much and roughly how long. A consultant will come back within one working day.