Self Storage Spaces, Units and Rooms by Lok'nStore

The self storage industry has been wrestling with itself over the last few years, trying to decide whether it offers customers storage spaces, storage units or storage rooms. It could be that the self storage industry cares much more about this than the customers and users of self storage services.

At Lok’nStore, we don’t mind what you call our self storage rooms because it’s what you put in them that's important - not what they’re called!

What is a self storage room?

Lok'nStore self storage rooms are clean, rectangular steel spaces with clean, painted or polished concrete floors. Each one has a door with a padlock clasp on the outside. While renting the room, it's your padlock, and you’re the only one with a key. Each room is on a long corridor of similar units behind padlocked doors inside our secure premises.

You can do what you like with it (apart from living in it and some other legal exceptions - see our FAQs), but obviously, it’s best to fill it with the things you want to store. You can, of course, change sizes at any time if you find that you need a smaller or a larger room. Apart from our lockers, which are half-height and are more like cupboards, all our spaces are walk-in storage rooms.

You can spend as much time as you want going in and out of your room – within opening hours. When we lock up at night, there’s no access allowed for anyone. This is why we don’t offer extended access like some companies - when we lock up, we’re locked up! No one can get into the building…

Why do people use self storage?

In days gone by, people had one or both of the following at home… [1] fewer things and [2] more space. People used to have attic or loft space with old furniture and boxes gathering dust. Nowadays, many attics have become loft conversions or extra bedrooms. Some people used to have spare bedrooms or what was once called “box rooms”. But now you'll find that most people don’t have spare rooms - or any spare space! When did you last hear of someone with a “box room”?

People’s garages used to be for their cars, but you can’t have a car in the garage, that wardrobe, your tool kit, a workbench, and three bicycles! (Oh yes, and the 24 tins of paint and grandma's china.)

The solution is self-storage – so let us be your extra attic, garage or store room. We are the extra space that people don’t have anymore.

When do people need storage?

Of course, running out of space isn’t the only reason that people use Lok'nStore. Much of our storage is for people who are moving home, moving abroad or having renovations done.

In many cases, people store the things that they want to keep but don’t use much: Things you only use on holiday or during the holidays (Christmas decorations or fold-up beds, for example) or sports and hobby equipment that comes out once or twice a year; deck chairs for the three weeks of summer; or indeed grandma's china which comes out for those special occasions.

The joy of self-storage is that you can put your things away in a dry, clean, safe room and still get to them when you want to… pop into Lok’nStore, open up your unit, take what you want, and you’re off again.

How do people use self storage?

Imagine an empty spare room at home that you suddenly have available. You could put everything in there that you hadn’t the space for before. You could free up space right across the rest of the house. Unfortunately, that room doesn’t exist. So the best alternative is to store it with us.

If you need to access your things, retrieve things from time to time, or want to put more things in store... or maybe to exchange or re-sort things in your storage unit…that's fine. Treat us like your spare room. Come and go as you please: It is, to all intents and purposes, YOUR ROOM.

Where do people store?

Most people take storage within 5 miles of where they live for the simple reason that it’s only a few minutes from home. Of course, people do use storage centres slightly further afield, but that’s probably for one of two reasons… [1] there isn’t anywhere nearer or [2] they find that some companies, like Lok’nStore, are much better value (we always beat everyone else’s prices) so they may store a little further afield to get a better price than the nearest centre - but one that’s still handy enough to visit. Choosing the location (and the easiness of the access & parking) is critical, depending on how often you need to visit your things.

Who else uses us?

Some householders choose to use Lok’nStore to store things like papers and documents or archives that they don’t really need at home but don’t want to (or mustn’t) dispose of them. If you don’t need regular access or to change things around, you can fill the storage room to the ceiling and leave it there, knowing it’s safe and sound until you need to have it again.

We’ll have a room just the right size for you – from 12 sq. ft. to 200 sq. ft. and even bigger if you really need it… But that should be enough - you can store everything from a large family home in a 200 sq. ft. room. Please feel free to come in and see us to talk about your storage whenever you like. We'd be happy to see you and to help with any queries.

Some customers call our storage units “storage rooms” because "units" sounds a bit too business-like for somewhere that’s housing your treasured things.