An inventory makes it much easier to organise, memorise, and access items in your self-storage unit. With good inventorying skills, you can reduce the chances of missing or misplacing your stored items. Whether you’re decluttering, holding up your belongings while moving cities, or setting up a new distribution centre, an inventory can help you keep it all together.
What’s more, your
inventory will serve as your map for finding and retrieving your items quickly
and easily. Here’s a step-by-step guide to keeping a well-rounded inventory for
your storage unit:
Go for an Early Start
One of the major
obstacles to good inventorying is the overwhelm. There’s probably just too much
to account for within a short period of time. But one way around this
impediment is starting early. Once you’ve arranged for the self-storage unit
and the move, you should swing into inventorying action immediately.
Organise in Categories
Start your inventorying with a formula for categorising items. You can
categorise by rooms, boxes, or the nature of items. For instance, you can create
different categories for wooden furniture, clothing, frail items, breakables,
etc. It’s also advisable to create a category for things you need to discard.
Create your Master List
Now, you can create a list and populate each category with corresponding
items. Ideally, you should use a spreadsheet. Compared to a paper list, a
spreadsheet makes it easier to edit your inventory and also save multiple
copies on different devices or cloud storage. That way, you can easily access
and make changes to your inventory whenever you need to.
Visualise your Storage Space
In the same vein, you should also visualise your storage unit in its
entirety. This will help you easily identify exactly where any specific item is
kept. You might not be able to take clean photo showing the position of every
item, so it’s advisable to draw a map instead.
We’re not talking about a sophisticated map here – just a doodle showing
the four walls of the storage unit and the positioning of items or boxes.
The map can be labelled with the names of items, categories, or boxes.
Update your List to Reflect any Recent Changes
Now, you have a well-detailed inventory that can help you prevent losses
and damages to your belongings. The next step is to maintain this list and make
sure it serves its purpose well at all times. You don’t want your inventory
list to mislead or confuse you, so it’s important to update it regularly.
Ideally, you should update your list the moment you move something in or out of your storage unit for any reason. While updating your list, you should note down the reasons for any changes you make – not just add or delete items – for future references. Also, you need to double-check your list after updating it to make sure everything is accurately stated.