You have stuff you use certain times of the year. Maybe it is the boating accessories you take to the lake each summer or the fishing gear you spend the spring using. Each holiday there are decorations for outside and inside. Your winter sports gear needs a place to stay during the summer. Using a mini storage building is the extra space you need to store your off season things.

The idea of a mini storage building evokes pictures of boxy, metal garage type buildings lining highways and dark industrial areas. The facilities built today are more modern, architecturally pleasing and made to blend in with their surroundings.

There are a few steps to take when picking a facility to store your belongings and packing the items correctly.

Estimate how much space you will need to store your off season items. Make a rough sketch of possible ways to arrange your items so they are organized and easily accessible when you need them. Choose a mini storage building and pack to the ceiling instead of paying for unused space in a larger unit. These mini units are specifically designed for small loads.

Check with facilities in your area to get an estimate on the square footage of their mini storage building . If your equipment takes up vertical space, be sure to get height measurements as well.

Ask about the monthly rental cost and if there is any security deposits required. Is there a minimum time to rent the building? Insuring your contents might be your responsibility so be sure to ask. Find out when you can access your belongings. Most mini store building facilities allow access 24 hours a day for free, but some will have restrictions and charges. Ask what type of security the facility uses. You do not want your valuable gear ending up in the possession someone else.

Will you need a flashlight to access your belongings at night or is lighting provided? Will you need electrical outlets? Ask if the buildings are wired for electricity. Will you need controlled conditions for your items? Storing holiday candles in a building that can easily reach over 100 degrees can lead to disaster. The building needs to be dry for those heirloom linens and electronics. Having your building temperature and humidity controlled usually costs extra.

You should give some thought to how you will organize your belongings. Pack carefully. Use boxes that close in size for easier stacking. Plastic containers will hold up better than cardboard. Leave room to walk between boxes and gear. Fill the boxes to the top with padding to keep them from collapsing.

Treat anything metal with a rust protector. Finding your lawnmower with huge rust holes next spring can be disappointing. Lay plastic sheeting and old bed sheets on the floor to protect from condensation. Leave room around the walls for air to circulate.

Do not store flammables or combustibles in your mini store building. This includes gasoline, oil, cleaning fluids and paint thinner. Empty all gas tanks in your lawn mowers, boat motors and other gasoline powered equipment.

Storing your off season holiday decorations, outdoor furniture, kids toys, winter clothes, golf clubs, skis, bicycles, tools, camping gear, and lawn equipment in a mini storage building allows you to free up space in your home. With a little planning and organizing, you can have your belongings stored and easily accessed when you need them.

Source : Self Storage Blog

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A little effort can go a long ways towards protecting your items while they are in storage. Anything worth paying to store is worth protecting it while it’s stored. For the safety of your items, those in neighboring units and in consideration of the owner/management of the storage facility, it pays to pay attention to pest control. Here are 10 Storage Tips to Keep Bugs, Mice, & Ants Out of Your Unit.

1. Before moving furniture into storage clean it and vacuum thoroughly. Get all the crumbs, debris and stains off sofas and chairs including down in the cracks and crevices. Any “extras” left in here is a calling card for bugs and once started it affects not only your stuff but that in other units too.

2. Thoroughly clean appliances, large and small, for the same reason. Those crumbs in the toaster tray, the food stuck on small appliances or pans invites in problems you don’t want. Clean means nothing to attract bugs or mice and without food and shelter they will not stay.

3. Mothballs work well in boxes of clothing. Be careful though and use cause as they can stain clothes. Putting some in the unit, where they won’t stain the contents, is a good idea however. Cedar scented blocks and sachets can be made or purchased to be tucked into boxes of clothing or household goods like towels, blankets and sheets. A good sachet can last three to four months, enough for short term storage.

4. Don’t be afraid to use contained insecticides – roach and ant baits can be an inexpensive thing to put in the corners as you don’t know what others have stored in their storage sheds.

5. Use mouse and rat baits, or traps with peanut butter instead of cheese. Don’t use the traps if you don’t check it regularly – leaving one sit in the trap doesn’t catch others after the trap is sprung.

6. For additional natural deterrents look to herbs. Catnip is said to repel ants, lavender repels moths, sage repels slugs and mint can be effective against many kinds of pests. Mint and tansy are said to repel mice, although tansy can cause allergic reactions in some people.

7. Stick to canned goods and securely sealed (screw on lids) jars packed to prevent breakage if you absolutely must store food . Because it attracts pests, food is highly discouraged.

8. Buckets from bakeries can be used to store rice or grains. It’s strongly suggested this be for a minimal amount of time in a storage unit. There are so many factors that are beyond our control that it pays to use caution. Boxed foods and plastic bags simply offer no resistance to mice and bugs, resulting in an infestation of pests that no one wants.

9. Make sure up around the top there are not holes that birds can get into. Having a bird trapped in a storage unit can be very messy and unpleasant!

10. Avoid storing candles in warm climates and those with liquid like snow globes in cold ones. Some units are not protected from heat and freezing, and not only can the items become damaged but anything under it also. This, in turn, can attract pests due to the oils or dampness. If you must store items like this go for a climate controlled unit, which better protects all of your items.

Paul Darden is owner and CEO of Buckingham Storage, the only Richardson self storage facility with a 24/7 onsite management team. Darden specializes in the brokering, marketing, feasibility studies, and developing of self-storage personally brokering over 130 self-storage facilities throughout the southwest to both national and regional self-storage operators. For more storage tips and information, visit http://www.buckinghamstorage.com

Life simply works best when we have our physical environment really work. When we’re organized, we can think more clearly, we’re more efficient, and we can take on projects that have lain dormant for months or even years.

Whether your storage room is at home or at work, the following advice applies. The key is always keeping the appropriate things in the storage room instead of allowing this room to be a place where things get put because there’s no other place to put them.

Remember, good, lasting organization doesn’t happen overnight. It is crucial to start smart because decluttering takes a lot of effort at the beginning. I strongly recommend getting expert advice in order to see results quickly and avoid getting bogged down in too much “stuff”. You’ll save yourself hours and hours of work if you listen to the right people.

If you’re cleaning the storage room, following these simple steps will at least get you started:

Step #1 in Cleaning the Storage Room – Sort Everything in the Storage Room. Always ask yourself, “Does this really belong here?” If it does, make a place for it. If it does not, find another place. For years, I had many things in our storage room that I never actually used. Therefore, the storage room became a place filled mostly with things I didn’t need plus several things that I used a lot, like wrapping paper, and office supplies.

Finally, I decided that I wanted the storage room to be a room that we used, like an extra room of the house where we put things that we’d need.

So, I sorted everything in the storage room into three categories: 1) keep, but never use, 2) stay in storage room, and 3) go somewhere else in the house

Step #2 in Cleaning the Storage Room – Clear Everything Out. All of the things that I wanted to keep but didn’t need to have readily available, like old pictures, family history, financial records, etc., I put up in the attic. I even put holiday decorations in the attic. I knew that I would need them once a year and since my attic is very organized, I figured that I could climb up there every few months to get holiday decorations.

Step #3 in Cleaning the Storage Room – Store Things Efficiently. Make the best use of your space. Instead of having a two-foot high CD storage unit that would carry 100 CDs, we converted a tall book shelf into a CD tower by getting extra boards cut for shelves and spacing them only far enough apart to place CDs on them.

Then, we set up bookshelves for all of the books that we wanted to keep but weren’t reading at the time. We also stored all of the children play toys that didn’t need to be out all of the time, but did need to be accessible. The wrapping paper supplies we put on shelves so that we could pull out paper, or bags, or bows without having to re-arrange a lot of boxes.

Now, our storage room stays organized and we use it daily. Having that extra usable space lets us keep our house clear of things that we don’t need available all of the time.

Dr. Isabella Santorini used to be a messy packrat until she and her husband began their family. Since then, she’s mastered the fine art of organizing her house for success. If you’d like to easily make your house a wonderful place to live, don’t waste valuable time and energy. Visit her at: http://www.Inner-Genius.com

Many people wonder how they can build their own shed. With all of the shed designs and instructions available today, it’s really quite easy! Here you will learn a little about the basics of building a shed, and find out about some of the shed designs that are available for you to choose from.

Some people try to go to their local home improvement or hardware store, buy a few tools, some lumber and begin to build their own shed. This is NOT the proper procedure, if you want to do it right. With thousands of storage shed designs available that include step by step instructions, there is no reason to throw up a ramshackle shed. Do it right, and you will be proud of your effort!

You really should begin by deciding where your shed will be located on your property. Make sure you find the most level spot, and that you’re not overstepping the boundaries of the roads or someone else’s property.

The next step should be deciding what type of foundation you will build your shed on. Concrete or wood is fine, but remember that should you ever decide to move your shed, you will have a concrete slab to deal with later. Many shed designs are now built using a wood foundation which works very well.

Once you have chosen a good location and decided what type of foundation you will use, decide what kind of shed design you want. There are many styles to peruse, from a simple square shed to much more elaborate styles. Make sure you have the perfect plan to suit your needs before you begin to build your storage shed.

Another thing to consider – how large your shed needs to be. If you are only going to store a few small items such as flower pots, garden tools, and a push mower, a small storage shed will probably do. But if you have big equipment like riding lawn mowers, four wheelers and things of that nature, you will want to build a larger shed.

Using your storage shed as a work area also needs to be considered. You will need plenty of room to move around your work bench, get to your tool location, etc. Think about these types of things when choosing your shed design and layout.

There are many other things to consider when you decide to build your own storage shed, but these tips will help you get started. With the proper planning, organization and tools, you will be able to build a shed that you will be proud to call your own for years to come! Storage shed plans are easy to come by, so do yourself a favor and do it right.

Learn how easy it is to build a shed that you can be proud of! For tips, ideas and a FREE shed plan, visit The How to Build Blog.

Garages are the perfect place to store all of your junk which you can’t find space for in your home. Everything from sporting equipment, to your treasured tools and even your machines. It was originally used to look after your car however these days have long since gone! If your garage is like mine and is only used to store food then you might need to organize it so you can reclaim your garage.

Garage shelves can normally be built in two different forms. Ones that are already made, or ones that are built on site. Site built shelves are much cheaper and more flexible. You will be able to find all of these things at your local home hardware store, or even lumber yard.

One of the most basic solutions is just a simple shelving system constructed out of plywood and held on strong brackets. You can strengthen the shelf by using braces at the studs.

Another type of shelving unit for your garage may be ones that stand on the floor. The most common and typical type of shelf is between 19 and 25 inches deep. It is normally constructed out of 2×4 wood and is arranged by 25 inches. These sizes can be adjusted in order to accommodate different sizes of items.

In order to store small items then you will need to keep small spaces between the studs. Attaching 1×2 strips of wood horizontally can make these shelving units much more functional for your purposes. This will prevent smaller units from slipping between the studs and falling off the shelf. Small shelves are a fantastic way to organize all of the small items in your garage including your screws and nails.

Another very important thing which you should consider when using prefabricated shelving is the possibility of adjusting the shelving system. By using prefabricated shelves which are adjustable you can set the shelves in at least two separate positions. This will enable a much more flexible and useable shelving system to help you to organize your garage. The pins should be able to be moved in order to move the shelves. You do need to make sure that these pins and shelves are heavy duty so that they will last for a long time. It is important you buy heavy duty shelving so that it doesn’t accidentally fall apart when you throw something onto the shelf!

Another thing which you need to think about when choosing shelving systems for your garage, in particular using prefabricated shelves. You should be careful when choosing shelves which are designed to handle heavy loads. Heavy duty shelves may need to be fixed back against the wall in order to stop it tipping over and crushing anyone.

Focusing on news and information about workbench designs, the author writes almost entirely for http://www.insidewoodworking.com – You can come across his work on garage workbench plans at different sources for garage workbench plans knowledge.