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Living in a small apartment can be challenging, especially when it comes to finding space for all your belongings, and making the most of your limited space is crucial. Below are some suggestions for you.

Declutter Regularly

One of the first steps to maximizing space in a small apartment is decluttering. Regularly go through your items and decide what you need, what you can store, and what you can donate or discard. This not only frees up space but also helps you maintain a more organized and tidy living environment.

Use Multi-Functional Furniture

Invest in furniture that serves multiple purposes. For example, ottomans with storage compartments, beds with drawers underneath, and fold-out desks can provide additional storage while saving space. These pieces of furniture help keep your apartment tidy and clutter-free.

Vertical Storage Solutions

Utilize vertical space by installing shelves, hooks, and hanging organizers. Walls are often underutilized in small apartments, but they can offer a lot of storage potential. Vertical storage can help keep your floor space clear and make your apartment feel more open and spacious.

Optimize Closet Space

Maximize your closet space with additional shelves, hanging organizers, and shoe racks. Use vacuum-sealed bags for bulky items like bedding to save space. Closet organizers can make a significant difference in how much you can store.

Create Designated Zones

In your apartment, create designated zones for different activities, such as sleeping, working, and relaxing. Keeping these areas separate helps maintain order and reduces the feeling of clutter. Use furniture and storage solutions to define these spaces clearly.

Use Self-Storage for Less Frequently Used Items

Consider renting a small self-storage unit to store items you don’t need immediate access to. Self-storage units come in various sizes, so you can choose one that fits your needs without breaking the bank. For items that you don’t use regularly but still need to keep, a self-storage unit can be a lifesaver. Things like family heirlooms, extra furniture, or rarely used kitchen appliances can be stored off-site, freeing up space in your apartment.

Regularly Review and Update Your Storage Needs

As time goes by, your storage needs may change. Regularly review what you have in your self-storage unit and your apartment to see if you can consolidate or remove items. Staying on top of your storage needs helps prevent unnecessary clutter from accumulating.

We don’t know what is stored in each tenant’s storage unit, so we need our tenants to be responsible and never store the following:

Flammable or Explosive Materials

Never store items that could catch on fire easily like full gas cannisters and gas bottles. We have seen several gas bottles in abandoned storage units, and this makes us very nervous. Obviously cardboard boxes, documents and books are allowed, but dangerous items like fuel, fertilizer and flammable chemicals are not allowed.

Hazardous Materials 

Items like acids, chemicals or radioactive materials are not permitted. If they spill, they can cause serious health problems and difficult clean up issues.

Liquids

Liquids are prohibited, because if they spill or leak they can cause serious damage to the unit they are stored in as well as to neighbouring units.

Perishable Food

Perishable food and open food containers are not allowed. Even a small amount of food will attract pests, including insects and rodents. This can lead to an infestation not only in your unit, but in the rest of the facility. We treat the facilities on a regular basis, but food in a unit will make it impossible for us to keep out insects and rodents. Food can also rot and become very smelly and make the facility unpleasant for all of our tenants.

Illegal Items

Illegal drugs, weapons and stolen items are prohibited. If the police have a warrant directed to Store All we are bound to obey it and grant them access to the storage unit.

Below are some things to considering when shopping around for a storage facility.

Security

When you store your items at a self-storage facility, you need peace of mind knowing that they will be as safe as possible. Be sure to look for features like video surveillance, electronic gate access and good lighting when choosing where to store your items. Store All offers coded electronic access, CCTV (recording 24 hours per day), motion and smoke detectors, a monitored security system, individual door alarms (Lears only), a security guard at night (Pine Commercial only), security fencing and good lighting. Contents Protection is also offered for an additional fee.

Location

A location close to where you live, work or are moving to, is key when choosing a storage facility. An easily accessible location is also important. Store All is the only self-storage company in Barbados with three locations, and each is only minutes from the ABC Highway, making them easy to get to, day or night.

Maintenance & Cleanliness

When choosing a self-storage facility, the maintenance and cleanliness of the facility are extremely important, as they are an indication of how the company cares about its tenants and their items. Locations that aren’t well maintained or strewn with litter should be avoided. Store All takes great pride in the appearance of our three facilities. Our managers walk the properties daily, and we have a painter and a maintenance person who rotate between the properties daily.

Customer Service

Storage often happens due to some form of disruption, and tenants need often require information, patience and professionalism. Store All’s team is well trained, and the members are dedicated to helping our tenants with their storage needs. Our storage professionals are knowledgeable, polite and are simply nice people. They are often mentioned by name in the reviews left by our tenants.

 Access Hours

Often tenants need to get access to their items outside of business hours. Store All offers keypad access to indoor storage from 6.00 am to 8.00 pm daily, and access to drive-up storage 24 hours per day, for the convenience of our tenants.

The Most Common Reasons For Renting A Storage Unit

Moving

Storing your items when moving to a house is the most common reason for storage. Quite often the contractor has not finished your new home and you have to move out of your existing residence into somewhere temporary.

Disruption

Unpleasant things happen like divorce, death in your family, or a natural disaster, and self-storage can help make life easier at this time.

Making room for a new or existing family member

When you are expecting a baby; an elderly relative comes to live with you; or when your child graduates from university and moves back in, you will need more space. Self-storage can help.

Decluttering – get your house of garage back

You don’t want to get rid of your items, but your cupboards are full, and you can’t get your car into your garage. At this point self-storage can help you reduce the clutter in your house, and you won’t have to part with your items.

Downsizing

Whether it’s retirement, less family members living with you, or for some other reason, moving to a smaller place means that you often have too much stuff, and self-storage can be the answer.

Home renovations

Renovating or remodeling your house is sometimes necessary, but it can take months. A storage facility can be the perfect place for furniture and appliances that may be damaged during the process.

Business storage

Your office should be organized for you to function efficiently, and sometimes you need space to store excess inventory, office equipment and files. Storage is a great solution as you only pay for the space you need.

Student storage

During summer, foreign students in particular need somewhere to store their items, preferably close to the campus.

Stage your house to sell it

When you decide to sell your house, it shouldn’t be full of clutter and all of your personal items. The prospective buyers need to picture themselves living there, and it’s difficult if the house is full of your personal belongings.

Renting your house

If you decide to rent your house, either long-term or short term, like Airbnb, you will probably leave some furniture and appliances, but you won’t want to leave your personal items.

Storing a Vehicle

If you are abroad for an extended period of time, you may want to store your vehicle or motorcycle at a secure storage facility.

If you need items from your storage unit on a frequent basis, the key is to organize them properly so that you are not digging around in piles of unlabeled boxes that are behind furniture and appliances. You don’t want to have to pull everything out of the unit to start your search.

Choose one box size box that is easy to stack and to lift

Boxes that are the same size are easy to stack and to organize. Store All’s medium size box (18”X18“X16”) is a great size because it won’t be as heavy as our larger boxes.

Label and number each box

Label or mark each box on the top and on the side(s) with a box number, the room it came from, and a detailed description of the contents. If you will need items frequently from a particular box, you may also want to label or mark it differently from the other boxes so that it stands out.

Determine which items/boxes you will need to access frequently and pack the unit carefully

Give careful thought to what you will need frequently from your storage unit and pack accordingly. You may want to place your furniture and appliance against the wall opposite your boxes leaving a path down the middle of the unit. This will allow you to access both the boxes and the furniture easily. Place the biggest items of furniture at the back against the wall.

Create a detailed list of your items

Record each box number and the corresponding list of contents.

Place the map of your contents inside the storage unit where it is visible

Draw a map showing the location of the items and numbered boxes. Then stick the map close to the entrance of the unit. This will help you find your items easily and save you valuable time.

Do not get a storage unit that is too small

If you pack your storage unit to the rafters it will be very difficult to find items. If your budget permits get a slightly larger storage unit so that you can have room to move around and find your items. Luckily Store All has a wide range of unit sizes to suit your needs.

Consider using shelves

If you are going to be storing your items for a long time, you may want to consider installing shelves in your storage unit. This will help you keep your boxes organized and will help you find your items quickly.

At Store All we take security very seriously.

We offer coded electronic access at all three of our facilities, and we stipulate that all codes are seven digits long, as four-digit codes are easy to guess.

We also have CCTV that records 24 hours per day at all three of our facilities.

In our indoor storage sections at Pine Commercial and Gibbons, we have motion and smoke detectors, and a monitored security system.

At our Lears facility, each drive-up storage unit has an individual door alarm, while we have a motion detection system in the drive-up storage section at our Gibbons facility, and these are both monitored.

At Pine Commercial there is also security guard at night from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am, who does routine patrols.

Each of our facilities has perimeter security fencing and is well-lit with LED lights at night. Also, many of our drive-up units have metal, security lock covers.

We also only sell cylindrical/disc locks and encourage all tenants to use these locks as opposed to locks with a long shackle.

Contents Protection is also offered for an additional fee.

Our facilities at Pine Commercial and Gibbons also have generators that turn on automatically in the event of a power outage, so our gates and CCTV will continue operating. There is also a generator at our Lears facility that is manually operated, and once turned on the gate and the CCTV will continue operating.

We also constantly stay abreast of trends in self-storage security and will continue to upgrade as the technology improves.

When moving large, heavy items you don’t want to injure yourself in the process. Below are some tips to help you prevent injury and also damage to your items.

Think it through before you start

Before you rush at it, carefully look at the large items and take measurements and get an idea of how heavy they are. Then make a plan to help the move go smoother. Decide on how much help you will need from family or friends, or if you need to hire a professional mover. Also, decide on what moving tools you will need. In addition, you will need to remove as many things as possible before you start. For example, remove furniture legs, shelves and handles, and remove drawers or at the very least empty them. This reduces weight and makes it easier to move the items.

Protect your items During the Move

When moving, wrap your items with moving blankets, cardboard and bubble wrap. Make sure to tape the covering to the item so that it doesn’t fall off when you are moving it. This also protects you when moving the heavy item, in case you lose your balance and bump into something.

Push a heavy item instead of pulling it

Pushing a heavy item is much easier on your body than pulling it. Pulling also places much more strain on your back than pushing. However, you don’t want to scrape the floor so put down cardboard, a moving blanket or an old sheet under the heavy item. This also helps make the pushing easier. Also, you can consider buying furniture slides or gliders that will make pushing much easier. These are basically plastic disks that fit under heavy furniture, so that it will glide easily across the floor when you push it.

Buy tools to make your move easier

Moving and lifting straps, sometimes called a shoulder dolly, take the weight off of your back, and they leave your hands free help to manoeuvre. They also place less strain on your body by lowering the centre of gravity on the item that you’re moving.

Stair rollers attach to heavy items so they can be easily rolled down the stairs. The rllers should only be used by more than one person, and only if they can safely guide the items down the stairs.

A hand truck or utility dolly is an upright tool with two wheels used to stack heavy boxes. Also, a furniture dolly is flat and has four wheels, and sometimes the hand truck can be converted into a flat, furniture dolly.

Turn a chair on its side to go around corners

A large chair can be difficult to move, so turn it on its side so it looks like an “L” and move it back-first through the doorway. Then hook it around the door frame and ease it through the opening.

Stand your couch on its end to move it

Turning into a room with a horizontal couch can be extremely difficult. Therefore, before you enter a hallway, turn the couch on its end and slide it to the doorway and then manoeuvre it through. If it’s taller than the door opening, simply tilt it away from the doorway and push it through the opening.

Carry a tall, heavy item on its side

Tall items like a wardrobe or a dresser are awkward to move. Two people should move the item and turn it backward at an angle, and have one person carry the top while the other carries the bottom. This is especially effective when going up or down stairs.

We know that moving is very stressful, and we hope that these tips help things go smoother.

Moving house is never straightforward. People often think that you simply pack up your belongings and get someone to move them all to your new house. In fact, there’s much more to consider during the moving process, and it can be even more stressful when something goes wrong. Therefore, it’s important to plan the steps so the move goes smoothly. Below are some tips to help with your move.

Don’t try to move without help of experienced movers

It will be tempting to use friends and family to move your items, but hiring professional movers will eliminate many problems on moving day, as they will have experience that will help things go smoother. The movers should be skilled at disassembling and re-assembling furniture and assessing the size of the move, so that it can be handled in a safe, organised manner.

Always research your movers

Thoroughly check out your movers before committing to hiring them. Carefully look at reviews and references from previous customers.

Always get a quote

If you do not arrange a survey or a quote, you will be left unsure of what the job will entail, and how much the overall cost of the move will be.  Always get an accurate quote on the total cost.

Contact the movers well in advance

Many people only contact the movers a day or two before their scheduled moving date. Plan ahead, and avoid unnecessary stress by not leaving this until the last minute. Book the movers months in advance so moving day goes as smoothly as possible.

Declutter in advance

Clearing your home of any old, unwanted items before your move can save you time and effort, but more importantly it can save you money. Consider donating, recycling or throwing away things you don’t need, and cutting down on the amount of items that you need to move. It’s also a good idea to rent a skip if you think you’ll need to get rid of a lot of items. Don’t pay to transport items that you don’t need at your new house. However, if you have too many items for your new house, and you don’t want to part with them, consider renting a storage unit at Store All.

Create an inventory of your items

Creating an inventory of all your items helps to ensure that nothing is lost during the moving process.

Don’t leave packing your belongings until the last minute

Packing always takes longer than you think, which is why it’s better to start as soon as possible. Packing up your home in an organised manner should not be left to the last minute. It takes at least a month to prepare in advance of your moving date, so as the date approaches, you should only have a few boxes left to pack.

Start by packing the least used rooms

A good starting point will be rooms and items you use the least. Leave everyday items until the day before the move and keep any essentials items such as medication, food and clothing separately.

Have a plan

Create a plan with a room-by-room checklist of how you plan to pack, along with all of the packing material you’ll need. When you’re labelling boxes be as specific as possible. Label the box with the room you intend it to go into in your new home, and bullet point a few of the items in the box so you know what it includes. Never leave a box blank. This will help a great deal when you are unpacking.

Don’t spend too much on boxes and packing material

Boxes and newspaper are easy to acquire and are often free of charge. You can also rent plastic bins from Store All or purchase packing materials and boxes at our Pine Commercial and Gibbons locations.

Pack heavy items in small boxes and do not overpack

Heaviest items should always go in the smallest possible boxes and try not to overpack them. Always try to use small boxes for heavy items and big boxes for lighter ones. If not you may hurt your back or one of the movers.

Don’t forget to take measurements at your new house

Make sure to measure the clearance space at your new house before moving day. You don’t want to arrive at your new home only to find that your furniture won’t fit through the front door. You also want to make sure that the furniture from a particular room can fit into the newly allocated room.

Dealing with paperwork

Store important documents, such as passports, house deeds, wills and insurance papers in a particular box. This should then be placed somewhere where you will not lose it. It may also be a good idea to create electronic copies of important documents by scanning and saving them, so that you always have access to them.

Take time to clean your new home

If possible, try to get into your new home to clean it before you move your furniture in. This will make unpacking a lot easier and you won’t have any unpleasant surprises.

Don’t forget to change your address

When you move, remember to record your final utility meter readings, and inform the relevant utilities of your change of address. Consider using your phone to take photos of the readings on the meters. You should also register with the Barbados Light & Power, The Barbados Water Authority and your broadband provider in advance of the move.

Forward your mail

You will want to make sure that you still get your mail, so you may want to forward it from your previous address to your new one. This gives you more time to update your address at your leisure, without worrying about not getting something important.

Pack a moving day kit

Before your moving day make sure you have packed a moving day kit of essentials. This will contain necessary items that will get you and your family through the day and the first night, such as toiletries, bottles of water, snacks, a kettle, tea and coffee, cutlery, plates, phone and laptop chargers, tools, school supplies and so on.

Go slowly

Moving day is a hard day. It is natural that you will want to get everything done as soon as possible, but it can be exhausting. Have realistic expectations of how much you want to get done. It’s unlikely that you’re going to unpack your entire house by the first night. It will take time to fully unpack and get your new home looking the way you want it, so don’t feel that everything has to be done immediately.

Set up your bed

It’s going to be a hard day, so make sure your bed is set up by the end of moving day, so that you can get a good night’s sleep in your new home.

We hope these suggestions help. Good luck!

At Store All we feel strongly that minimizing our impact on the environment is key to running a successful business. The following are some of the initiatives that we have undertaken so far to reduce our environmental footprint.

Photovoltaics

We have installed photovoltaics on our roofs to cancel our electricity bill and to reduce our carbon footprint. We are producing a large surplus of electricity that we are selling back to the Barbados Light & Power. We are now doubling our capacity at the Pine Commercial location, and installing a new photovoltaic system at the Gibbons location.

Conservation Of Electricity

We use LED lights in our offices and for outdoor lighting, and in our indoor storage units. We also have installed motion sensors in our indoor storage area to reduce electrical consumption.

Re-Use

We have refurbished many shipping containers and converted them into drive-up storage units. We have also installed energy efficient, high speed hand dryers in our bathrooms to reduce the use of paper towels. We also gave re-usable shopping bags to all staff members.

Use Of Rainwater

We capture the rainwater in tanks from the roofs of both of our buildings, and use the water for flushing toilets and irrigation.

Recycling & Composting

We recycle all cardboard, plastic bottles and electronic waste. We encourage our staff to bring their recyclables from home and drop them off at our recycling area. We also compost garden waste and food scraps and use the compost in our kitchen garden.

Kitchen Garden

We have a kitchen garden and encourage our staff members to cultivate herbs and vegetables.

Tree Planting

We conceptualised the Future Trees that resulted in over 4,000 trees being planted in Barbados. We recently donated $3,000 to plant 30 trees along the demo stretch of the Barbados Trailway. We feel that this project is vital to improving the health and well-being of Barbadians, and we intend to lend more support to it in the future.

Clean-Ups

We participate in Clean Up Barbados annually. In 2020 our group removed 5.54 tonnes of garbage.

Environmental Policies

We have an environmental policy in our Company Handbook that each staff member must agree to uphold. A commitment to protecting our environment has also been written into our Core Values. We also have a procurement policy in place that mandates the purchase of inverter air conditioners, energy rated appliances and water-saving devices. We also provide reusable glasses and mugs for customers and staff, and re-useable food containers and cutlery for staff. In addition, we use environmentally friendly cleaners and low VOC paints indoors, and we have plants in our office to improve the air quality.

Green Business Barbados 

We were one of the first businesses certified by Green Business Barbados, and the first one to the re-certified in 2021. Currently we have achieved Tier 3, and our goal is to achieve Tier 4 next year.

Reserve you storage unit

Call Store All or reserve a unit online. A 10% student discount is offered for the first three months. Make sure to reserve your unit early as they go fast. Plan to be at Store All for at least 20 minutes for your tour and to sign the tenant agreement. You will need a lock, and if you don’t have one we have a selection on sale here.

If you’re sharing a unit

Coordinate your ride to and from Store All and make sure you have enough room to transport your items. Consider a combination lock so that you don’t have to get keys made for everyone. Colour–code your plastic bins and/or boxes so you’ll know what’s yours when you remove them. Do not store food as this encourages insects and rodents. If you’re splitting the cost of the unit with friends, ask for the total ahead of time so you’ll know how much to pre-pay for the summer. This will help you avoid late fees.

Defrost & drain your fridge

Remove all food items and defrost and drain your fridge. Always store your fridge in the upright position and leave the door slightly open.

Buy the supplies that you’ll need to store

Use plastic containers, boxes and bags to store your items. Garbage bags are ideal for clothing and bedding.
Use small or medium sized boxes for books. Putting in too much weight will make it difficult to carry.
You should have a cover for your mattress. Also, if you stand your mattress on its side, prop it straight up, as it may bend out of shape and become lumpy if at an angle.

Store All sells all of the packing materials that you’ll need.