Storage size guide
What size storage unit do you need?
Pick your home size, or tick off what is actually going in. You will get a unit size, how much of it you will use, and — the part a storage facility cannot tell you — roughly what it costs to fill.
We don't rent storage. We load units and empty them, several times a month, at facilities across the Eastside and the valley. So unlike the calculator on a storage company's own site, this one has no reason to round you up a size.
Storage calculator
The quick answer. Volumes are what a home of that size usually comes to.
Slower, and worth it if your home is unusually full or unusually empty. Volumes are rounded rules of thumb, not measurements.
Bedroom
- King bed and mattress70 cu ft
- Queen or double bed55 cu ft
- Single bed40 cu ft
- Bunk beds (pair)70 cu ft
- Wardrobe or armoire40 cu ft
- Chest of drawers30 cu ft
- Bedside table5 cu ft
- Mirror10 cu ft
- Wardrobe box (30 hangers)10 cu ft
Living and dining
- Sectional sofa90 cu ft
- Sofa, 3-seat50 cu ft
- Sofa, 2-seat35 cu ft
- Armchair or recliner25 cu ft
- Dining table30 cu ft
- Dining chair5 cu ft
- Sideboard or TV unit25 cu ft
- Bookcase20 cu ft
- Coffee table10 cu ft
- TV, boxed10 cu ft
- Rug, rolled10 cu ft
- Floor lamp5 cu ft
Kitchen and appliances
- Fridge-freezer60 cu ft
- Cooker or range30 cu ft
- Washer or dryer (each)25 cu ft
- Dishwasher20 cu ft
- Microwave5 cu ft
- Kitchen box3 cu ft
Office
- Desk25 cu ft
- Office chair10 cu ft
- Filing cabinet15 cu ft
- Computer and monitor, boxed10 cu ft
- Box of files or books3 cu ft
Garage and outdoors
- Patio set40 cu ft
- Exercise machine40 cu ft
- Lawn mower20 cu ft
- Barbecue20 cu ft
- Tool chest15 cu ft
- Bicycle10 cu ft
- Ladder10 cu ft
- Garden tools (bundle)10 cu ft
- Plastic tote3 cu ft
Boxes
- Extra-large box6 cu ft
- Large box4.5 cu ft
- Medium box3 cu ft
- Small box1.5 cu ft
Choose a home size above, or tick off a few items.
You need about
Worked out on an 8-foot ceiling, stacked sensibly, with room left to walk in — about 70% of the raw volume. Facilities vary, and not all of them stock every size.
What fits in each size
5 × 5
A large wardrobe, or a hall closet.
Boxes, seasonal decorations, a mattress on its side, a bike, garden tools. No room for a sofa.
5 × 10
A garden shed.
A studio: bed, small sofa, chest of drawers, a TV unit and fifteen-odd boxes.
5 × 15
A long, narrow single garage bay.
A one-bedroom with everything in it: bed, wardrobe, sofa, dining set and the boxes. Long and thin, so plan what goes at the back.
10 × 10
Half a one-car garage.
The common choice. A large one-bedroom, or a two-bedroom without much in the second room. Appliances fit along one wall.
10 × 15
Three-quarters of a one-car garage.
A two-bedroom house with the appliances, or a smaller one plus a garage — mower, tools, patio furniture.
10 × 20
A one-car garage.
A three-bedroom house comfortably, or a four-bedroom packed tight, with an aisle down the middle so you can still reach the back.
10 × 30
A long one-car garage, or a small two-car.
A four to five-bedroom house, or a house plus a workshop. Not every facility has them.
The choice that costs real money
People choose the unit on size and price, then pick the access type last, usually to save a few dollars a month. It is the wrong way round.
A drive-up unit means the truck backs up to a roller door and the carry is a few feet. Anupper-floor unit means a loading bay, a corridor, fire doors, a lift shared with every other tenant, then another corridor — for every item. From our own jobs, the same furniture typically takesan hour or two longer that way, and longer still on a Saturday at the end of the month. Local work is hourly, so that difference usually dwarfs the few dollars the drive-up unit costs extra.
Worth asking, because facilities never volunteer it: which unit, specifically. A 10 × 10 beside the loading bay and a 10 × 10 at the far end of the second floor cost the same and are not the same job.
Questions we get asked
Do you rent storage units?
No. We load them and empty them — at your facility, with your unit. That is also why this guide has no reason to talk you into a bigger unit than you need: we are not the ones renting it to you.
How accurate is the calculator?
It is an estimate, and deliberately a slightly cautious one. Worked out on an 8-foot ceiling, stacked sensibly, with room left to walk in — about 70% of the raw volume. If your total lands within about a tenth of a unit's capacity, we say so and suggest the next size up, because a unit you cannot walk into is a unit you cannot use.
Should I get climate control?
In western Washington the question is damp, not heat. For more than a month or two, anything wooden, upholstered, electronic, paper or leather is worth the extra. Garden tools, plastic bins and metal shelving are not. Ask whether their "climate controlled" means heated and cooled, or only heated — the two are priced alike.
Drive-up or a unit upstairs?
Drive-up, if the price difference is small. The truck backs to the door and the carry is a few feet. An upper-floor unit means a loading bay, corridors, fire doors and a lift shared with everyone else moving that weekend — from our own jobs, typically an hour or two more for the same furniture, and that time is billed.
Can you load the unit for us?
Yes, that is labor only work. Tell us the facility, the unit number and whether it is drive-up or upstairs when you book — the access changes the time and sometimes the crew size more than the amount of furniture does.
We load units and empty them
No truck of ours needed if you have rented one — that is labor only, by the hour, with a minimum covering up to the first 3 hours. If you need the truck as well, we bring it. Prices by home size are on the moving cost guide.
Renting a truck rather than a unit? The truck size calculator runs the same sums and answers that instead.
House to storage now and storage to the new place later? Say so when you book — two visits planned together schedule better than two booked two months apart, and what goes in last should come out first.
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