Getting a Storage Locker For Travel

Before we left to go on our big adventure, we asked the question ” Is it worth it to buy a storage locker when travelling?” It is easy just to say “yes” and buy one, dump it all in a storage locker and deal with it when you get home.

But it’s not that easy there is a lot to think about. In this article, we answer all the questions you need to think about before you just buy a locker and dump everything you own it. Is it worth the cost of the locker when you travel? How easy is it to get storage and move all your stuff? Would it be better to sell all the bits and have the money now? how long do you need the locker for? how big of a locker do you need? and what can you do instead of having the monthly payment of a locker?

Is The Cost Of The Locker Worth It

It might seem easy to weigh up a locker’s costs and work out if you need one. Months needed times by the cost per month, this would give you how much you are planning to spend. Then how much everything in the locker is worth would give you an idea of whether the locker would be worth your money.

But there is much more than just this, my aim is to save you as much hassle and save you as much money as possible. Even get you some extra cash for your trip.

Downsize your stuff before you get a locker

This is key, Makes sense the bigger the locker (if you need one at all) the more money you have to spend. When you leave to travel you need to downsize your bag to a backpack or a suitcase. When you travel you will realise how little stuff actually need.
Here is my advice to downsize the kit that you leave behind;

Sell

90% of things you sell you can buy for nearly the same price when you get back. Plus the fact you are not likely to buy 95% of the things you sell as you don’t need them.

Vinted

Vinted is the best place to sell clothes at the moment, with no fees for the seller, it’s easy to get paid and simple to send via post (The price for postage is brought by the seller so no extra costs for you). My recommendation is to sell cheap and bundle discounts to get rid of clothes quickly.

A tip is to buy a printer, it is a bit of an outlay, but between me and Holly we were able to make £650 on Vinted, selling old clothes in just 28 days, We sold 90% of the clothes we posted on the website. We started without a printer but went to a shop and got them to print the labels it was more hassle than it was worth.

Cash for Clothes

Cash for clothes or a place similar is a place that gives you money per kilo for old clothes, around 50p a kilo. This isn’t a good way of making money. I personally wouldn’t recommend just going there with all your old clothes without trying to sell them online first.

We went there with the 10% of clothes we couldn’t sell on Vinted and we made a few pounds, it was mainly a good place to get rid of clothes

Ebay

I have got mixed reviews for eBay, I have used it for years but now I have noticed the fees being very high and sometimes not worth even selling things. But some things still sell very well.

Here is my advice, Things selling at a low value (under £2) aren’t worth your time. For example, I sold a book for 99p and after fees, packaging, tape, and the petrol to take the parcel to send it I made around 6p.

But I sold an old camera accessory for around £70 and found a coupon for no fees. So it can be worth selling stuff on eBay.

Sell things on eBay that you can see that are selling well, Bundle things up for a higher selling price.

Having a storage locker is easy when you get back

Might seem a little weird to say this but having a locker is like having a tiny house that you visit with all your stuff.

Yes, you might be a traveller that has no idea when they want to stop travelling but even having a locker for you would make your life easier. Let me explain why.

When you travel the one golden rule is to pack light, doing this means only packing what you need. For example, if you are travelling to a summer destination you’re going to pack shorts, not coats. But when you decide on a ski town for your next trip, what do you do with your summer stuff?

Having a locker is like having a life-changing room for long-term travellers. Swap winter for summer or if you like us, change from backpacking to live in. That means dropping off all the universal plugs, travel towels and the smaller plain wardrobe and changing it to more homely stuff and even digging out the old ps4 and Dr House DVDs

How Long Do You Need A Storage Locker?

The problem with a storage locker is you plan to have it for 3 months, then after you make a couple of different decisions you end up paying for it for over a year. Many would say that is a massive problem. You are spending all this money which could be used to travel, they are not wrong. If you don’t use it to its full potential

How to use a locker wrong

• It’s full of stuff that you don’t know if you want to keep
• You are no longer travelling
• You are just keeping it because you can’t be bothered to empty it
• It’s not full (ie you have gotten a bigger locker than you need)

How to use a locker right

• Use it as an extension of your backpack
• Store it with valuables that you can’t or don’t want to see
• Store your memorabilia
• filled to the brim
• Use it to gain opportunities

How to use a locker to gain opportunities

When we got a storage locker we planned to have it for only 3 months, but now we are looking at having it for over a year.

Having the flexibility of a storage locker contract you extend without doing anything has helped us massively. For example, if we had left our extra stuff with a friend or family then just asking them to leave it there for another year might be a little rude. We would either have to stop travelling or get a storage locker anyway.

Having the flexibility of the storage locker we were able to take a live-in job and even have our home luxuries to take with us. We were able to do this without getting rid of all our travel accessories and leaving larger stuff in the locker.

We are able to use the locker to change our travel styles, without worry or a cost (other than the monthly costs of keeping a locker).

Again you might be thinking is it cost-effective to have a locker and a live-in job? Well for us the price of a monthly locker plus the live-in fee, is still 50% lower than rent if not more.

Want to know more about getting a live-in job, read this

What other options are there other than a storage locker?

Maybe a storage locker doesn’t fit into your travel lifestyle, but you still have some stuff you need to sort away, when you are away. Well here are some other options.

Friends and family

They might be able to hold on to things for you, they might have a loft, garage or spare room you can use to put your stuff in. There might be a trade like they can use the stuff when you’re not there.

Sell it to replace it

This one might be a little extreme for some people but, you can sell everything you have, and then just buy the replacement when you get back. This is better for a lot of longer-term solutions. Normally if you buy it where you sold it, you shouldn’t pay much more for the items (just fees). You might just find the price has gone down.

You now know if you need a storage locker

But have you ever thought about travelling around Europe? You Should! Here are some articles to get you started

Unwritten Rules of Backpacking Europe

Everything You Need To Pack For Backpacking Europe

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon.