What you should know before renting storage space

Almost every important decision in life raises the question: Where to put the things? It does not matter whether it is a career change, a move, decisive family changes such as an addition to the family or a change in relationship, or even business matters.

Even a change of year or season can bring space problems. Where to put the tires, the garden tools, or the documents that the tax office may still demand over the next ten years? And who wants to decorate the living room all year round with Christmas decorations just because there is no space left for the packaging?Anyone who lives in major cities in Germany nowadays knows how difficult it can be to secure living space and then also to keep it. Disorder restricts living space. To create more space, the disorder has to go.Renting storage space or just a small storage place outside your own four walls is of course ideal here. However, before you finally decide on a storage solution, you should inform yourself about the following points.

Find the right storage place near you with BOXIE24

If you are looking for suitable storage space for your belongings, you could not fall into better hands than with BOXIE24. Our Full-Service-Storage offer provides a safe place even for the most complicated demands.

Our friendly and helpful staff will not only stand by your side with the safe storage of your items. BOXIE24 also takes over your logistics and transport – and that in most cases free of charge.

Our storage units can be found all over Germany. In doing so, we are represented in 27 cities in the federal states Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen and Sachsen.

In addition to our official locations, our hard-working freight forwarders also pick up items in more than 70 further cities to store them in safe and clean storage units of your choice.

What different types of storage spaces are there?

When it comes to storage places and storage spaces, there are in Germany just as many options as there is need. It does not matter whether you run a business and want to store half your inventory in external warehouses, or have a family that wants to keep once dearly loved but no longer used toys for eternity.

Which type of storage makes sense for you depends on various factors:

How much space do you need for your items?
What kind of items are they?
Can you create the space on your own property or in your own house?
How high is your budget for storing your items?
How often do you need access to your things?

Once you have determined these points, the following storage options are available to you in Germany.

Self-Storage

Self-Storage is one of the most popular types of storage in Germany. Households and companies can store their superfluous items in units set up specifically for this purpose.

Renting storage facilities does bring additional costs for the household or the business. In the end, however, you will find that storing outside the home will still be cheaper than converting garages, cellar rooms, or attics. And you also keep the Bauamt off your back.

In addition, Self-Storage units are solid buildings, in contrast to the standardized storage boxes or containers on the market that can be set up in the garden or on properties rented specifically for this purpose. These are generally not suitable for storing furniture, files, and other everyday items.

Damp cellar rooms, cold attics, or leaky garden sheds are also not suitable for storing textiles, upholstery, or paper. Even seasonal Christmas or Easter decorations can lose their attractiveness from one year to the next after damp storage.

Anyone who does not have additional secure, dry storage space available or does not want to restrict their living space is generally in good hands with Self-Storage companies.

Customers who choose Self-Storage usually need between 1 and 10 m².

The prices for renting a storage unit vary not only from provider to provider, but are also dependent on the location. In addition, the size of the storage space used and the rental period are important.

Self-Storage companies generally calculate the rental price per m². The price usually becomes lower the larger the rented area is. Long-term rental contracts over many months or years are also in almost all cases cheaper than short rentals that are concluded only for a few weeks.

Warehouse rental

Anyone who needs more than 10 m² to store their belongings will generally have to rely on warehouses. Warehouses or warehouse rental are often used by business operators who, due to lack of space, want to store not only tools, but also their inventory securely.

Many warehouse customers come from the area of online retail and E-Commerce, who run their business from the Homeoffice, but cannot or do not want to store their goods in their own house. Some warehouse providers have even specialized in E-Commerce and offer tailored solutions that also take packaging and shipping logistics for parcels into account. With this solution, even students in tiny student rooms can run a business on the side.

Rented warehouses generally come with plenty of space for pallets and larger items in order to optimize the storage area.

That is why it is important that the landlord not only offers good access and loading options for delivery vans or LKW, but also provides pallet trucks or forklifts that transport the large and heavy objects to their assigned places.

In contrast to Self-Storage, warehouse rentals are intended more for the long term and are based on the need for large storage units. The square metre price for warehouses currently lies between 4 € and 20 € per m², depending on the rented size and the desired location of the place of storage.

Full-Service-Storage

Traditional storage space solutions require you to organize your own transport and also take the time to place the stored goods in the storage units.

Anyone who only has a small car often has to make several trips. Anyone who has no vehicle available is even worse off and is either dependent on outsiders – or on expensive car rental providers. Added to this are often problems with childcare or lost working time.

Full-Service-Storage is the optimal storage option for those who have neither time nor money nor patience to waste.

Full-Service-Storage refers to a storage solution that aims to offer a complete service from the living room or Homeoffice all the way to the warehouse. Full-Service storage therefore includes not only storage, but also the transport of items both to and from the chosen storage facility.

Rent a garage space

When it comes to storing superfluous items, many households and businesses face the problem of additional motor vehicles. Motorcycles, motorhomes, and classic cars. These are not used all year round, but still require a secure parking place, mostly in the cold season.

Real estate companies in most major cities in Germany have long since discovered this need and nowadays offer, in addition to houses and apartments, the rental of garage spaces and indoor storage for cars.

However, when renting garages and vehicle parking spaces, there are some pitfalls that must be observed. For one thing, contracts with garage landlords can contain some ancillary costs that many vehicle owners were not prepared for.

In addition to the rent for the garage or the parking space, additional costs are usually incurred, such as video surveillance, Grundsteuer, Straßenreinigung, Abfallentsorgung, Versicherungen, and Winterdienst. In addition, another electricity bill for the household or the business could also land on your doorstep.

Rental costs for garage spaces vary greatly and are dependent on supply and demand at the location. In major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and München, separate garages are usually unfindable and hopeful vehicle owners have to make do with underground parking spaces. These do provide cover from wet weather, but otherwise offer little protection from access by unauthorized persons.

What can you store nowadays?

Furniture

Who doesn’t dream of inheriting big? But when the inheritance comes, “big” can take on completely different dimensions. Where to put Grandma’s venerable oak furniture if you yourself have strictly fallen for minimalism?

Other changes in living circumstances can also lead to a surplus of furniture. Anyone who has ever moved in with a new partner knows the problem. Very few people need two sofas, two beds, and an unmanageable number of cupboards, shelves, and kitchen modules.

The problems with storage increase because furniture in particular cannot easily be exposed to the elements. In order to store the furnishings for the next generation, the furnishings must be kept in dry, well-tempered storage places without moisture.

When storing furniture, you not only have to make sure that it is properly dismantled and disassembled. The safe transport of large and bulky furniture is just as important.

So that the furniture also arrives safely and undamaged at the storage facility, it must first be packed. Furniture blankets, bubble wrap and stretch film not only protect sensitive surfaces on the way to storage. They also keep individual parts, such as the upholstery on sofas and armchairs, in place.

Household goods

Along with the furniture, there is usually also a large number of kitchen appliances that you have no use for at the moment. Nevertheless, you do not want to simply throw the items away. You never know when you will be able to use them again.

If you suddenly find yourself with two food processors, fully automatic coffee machines, or vacuum cleaners, you quickly run out of space for actual cooking.

Household textiles are another topic when a household changes. Curtains, sofa cushions, bedding, and towels can quickly accumulate and take over living space.

Most household items are not suitable for traditional stowing away in cardboard boxes. For one thing, they are too often heavy. For another, long-term storage destroys even the supposedly most stable cardboard box through humidity and damage during stacking.

Many storage space landlords therefore offer robust and easily stackable storage boxes and moving boxes made of sturdy plastic that store items safely, dust-free, and dry for years.

Files and documents

It does not matter how environmentally conscious we are and try to limit paper use. Every year we are nevertheless covered with letters from authorities, insurance companies, Krankenkassen, etc. To top it all off, the responsibility lies with us to store this pile of paper securely for a certain period, usually ten years.

Anyone who runs a company is punished twice. In addition, private and business files and documents must be separated from each other. You quickly run out of space and the storage of paperwork can quickly take up an entire room.

File storage and document retention are areas in which storage solutions can be particularly helpful. Most storage spaces can often be converted into archives with simple means. A well-organized filing system in which your documents are sorted in advance by date and subject area is of course a prerequisite.

Tire and wheel storage

Not everyone needs comprehensive storage of goods or items over a longer period. Sometimes the need may involve only a few weeks or months. Anyone who, for example, has just completed the annual tire change may wonder what to do with the tires or complete wheels that are inappropriate for the season.

Before you order a parking place for your tires or wheels, however, you should prepare for storage. Make sure that your tires are clean and check the air pressure. You should also inform yourself with the manufacturer about whether your tires must be stored lying down or standing up.

The storage of tires and whole wheels is usually seasonal and is limited in time to a maximum of eight months. In most cases, the minimum term for storing tires is two months.

Wines

Although most storage providers generally prohibit the storage of food, there is nowadays a need for storing wine.

Wine lovers know how difficult it can be to store an ever-growing wine collection within their own four walls. Some even come into conflict with the Bauamt in their attempts to expand the wine cellar.

In addition, wine must also be stored under certain climatic conditions; otherwise, a collection of the noble drop can easily decrease in value or even be completely spoiled. Temperature fluctuations, as they often occur in Germany, can be deadly for the wine collection.

Very few storage operators can guarantee an average temperature of 10–12 degrees Celsius all year round. Insurance companies are also reluctant to cover a wine collection in storage.

Tools

Not everyone needs all their work equipment at all times. Sometimes use is seasonal, other times you need certain tools only for specific purposes. In the meantime, the equipment stands around unused, takes up space, and can even pose an injury risk for the family or employees.

In addition, particularly large tools, power tools, and commercially used machines have become coveted theft objects that many prefer to keep under lock and key outside the business premises.

If you want to store tools, you should pay particular attention to insurance. In most cases, storage space rental is covered only with a Basis-Versicherung. Therefore, you should clarify with your insurance, commercial or private, that your tools are also covered by the premium while in storage.

Why should you rent storage space?

Move

According to a study by Deutsche Post, more than eight million people move within Germany every year. Two thirds of them decide to completely or at least partly refurnish. Of course, some furniture or household items are left behind.

Not all furnishings can be sold, given away, or disposed of in time. Nevertheless, the old apartment or the old house has to be left in an empty condition. In addition, it is also about the space in the vehicle that you booked with the moving company.

Anyone who has ever moved knows how stressful the undertaking can be. A storage provider cannot take the move off your hands, but is able to ease a part of the annoying moving logistics for you.

Renovation work

With rising rents and house building costs, despite the high numbers of moves, fewer and fewer households are inclined to swap their cherished home for something new. To still have the feeling of not always being surrounded only by the same old, or to create more living space, many turn to renovation work.

Hardly any renovation goes by without paint and varnish splashes suddenly appearing on the furniture, carpets, or textiles. Scratches, knocked corners, and broken glass also belong to the typical appearance of renovation and conversion work.

Cosmetic repairs on walls and ceilings can easily bring unsightly marks to the furnishings. And who wants to live with seven years of bad luck when an alternative offers itself to bring at least some of the mirrors to a safe place?

Full-Storage providers are an excellent solution if you are already stressed. With this type of storage, you are offered not only transport to and from the storage facility, but also the necessary boxes for safe keeping.

Change in living circumstances

When you enter a new phase in life, you do not always do so voluntarily or planned. Painful separations, the loss of a loved one, or downsizing forced by other circumstances can strike suddenly and throw your life off track.

Even more pleasant phases of life such as the birth of a child, moving in with a new partner, or a long-awaited stay abroad often lead to unnecessary headaches that can easily overshadow the joy over the event.

Renting storage space cannot completely take your problems away, but can at least contribute to bringing some calm and order into an overwhelming situation. Many storage facilities offer quick availability that can be booked online. In most cases, you will be greeted by helpful staff who have experience with people who have to cope with serious upheavals in life.

Often it is about short-term storage of household items and belongings. Storage providers in most German cities offer a range of different storage rental contracts that are suitable for all situations in life and household budgets.

Decluttering

Thorough tidying and clearing out is never a quick matter and usually ends with you ending up with more things than you actually expected despite filled garbage bags. Nevertheless, many do not want or are not able to part with what others in the same household may view as junk.

Anyone who starts tidying in the cellar, in the attic, or in the storage room knows how difficult it can be to really create space. Childhood memories, photo albums, children’s books, and dearly loved toys mingle with papers that you did not need 20 years ago.

Storage space for students and trainees

Especially for students, living space becomes smaller every year. Very few can store all their belongings in the student rooms that are available to them.

Anyone who moves into their own four walls outside their parents’ home for the first time is usually shocked at how much has accumulated over the years and now does not fit into the tiny rooms of the student residence or the WG.

In the chaos of the move and the change in living circumstances, it is often difficult to make important decisions. A good storage concept can at least help to minimize the moving chaos.

Students and trainees are therefore among the best and most important customers of storage companies.

Young people in training not only have the tendency to move most often. Statistics also show that fewer and fewer young people nowadays get their driving licence.

Full-Service-Storage with pick-up service is a perfect cooperation partner there. Not only do the providers pick up the items and boxes to be stored, in many cases the service is even free.

Business or commercial storage

The dream of being your own boss and running your own business is big in Germany. Some want only to earn a little extra on the side, others have concrete plans to stand on their own feet in the future.

Many aspiring company founders view E-Commerce as an excellent entry into self-employment. But almost everyone who sells goods from the Homeoffice discovers sooner or later that the space in their own home is limited.

Along with the products, an unexpectedly high amount of paperwork and files soon accumulates. Invoices, official correspondence, and forms tend to migrate from the study into the rest of living space.

Even those who have already rented commercial premises are not spared. Along with the office stuff, something else soon accumulates as well than what is actually needed for operating the trade or business.

Trade fair materials, spare parts, seasonal equipment, as well as packaging material bought in bulk can quickly make the workplace appear smaller than it actually is.

Renting storage space can save you here not only time, but also upset. Specifically adapted storage areas can transform your warehouse into a workplace outside the workplace. In doing so, you not only save space, but also ensure a greater measure of security by moving out of the way all the things that not only get on your nerves in everyday life, but also bump your toes.

Vehicle storage and safekeeping

In April 2025, the number of motorhomes registered in Germany exceeded one million for the first time. The number could probably be even larger if many households did not have to consider the parking place for the coveted holiday apartments on wheels.

Motorcyclists also deal with this space question every year in autumn. Where to put the two-wheelers in winter? At the moment, approximately five million motorcycles are approved for road traffic, and every year there are more than 100 000.

At the same time, however, the number of accessible parking places in public space is also decreasing. And not every neighbourhood is equally enthusiastic about motorhomes parked on the street.

Many offers for parking places apply to parking on the street or outdoors on private property. This exposes your vehicle to the weather, especially in the colder seasons.

In many cases, underground garage operators offer a covered parking option. These do protect your vehicle from the worst weather conditions, but are freely accessible to the public and thus exposed to car thieves and damage.

If you want to store your motorhome, motorcycle, or second car securely, you should look for a garage that enables you to keep the vehicle securely under lock and key.

What you should consider when choosing a storage place for your belongings

For many, choosing a storage place outside their own four walls is the only possibility to preserve the integrity of their living space, to save space cost-effectively, and to improve their own quality of life as well as that of the family or employees.

However, anyone who is looking for a suitable storage facility should think about a few points in advance.

Price

Price is always a decisive aspect when choosing a storage space. Nevertheless, it should not be the decisive factor. In many contracts for renting storage places there are often hidden costs that you probably have not even thought about.

Therefore, you should find a storage provider that keeps contracts and price agreements transparent and informs already in advance about ancillary costs such as insurance, electricity, security monitoring, and where applicable cleaning and waste disposal, and lists these separately.

The deposit is another cost factor, especially if you are already short of cash. In some cases, the deposit amount can amount to several months of rent and continue to burden your budget.

The rent for your storage should be calculated according to an easily traceable price table per square metre. Therefore, already before storing your items, look online for guides and advice for calculating the storage space size that you will ultimately need.

Prices for storage space are dependent on the city in which you want to store your things and start already from 4 € per week. Compare the prices in your city and note what is included in the individual storage rents. Find a price level that is not only fair, but also corresponds to the contents of your wallet.

Many storage companies regularly have price promotions or offer discounts under certain conditions. Look for one that corresponds to your circumstances.

Location

Along with the price, of course the location where your items are stored is a topic. What is the best location? Is it appropriate to rent your storage place near your place of residence, or will it be more convenient for you to store your belongings in the vicinity of your employer?

The journey and access to the parking place will be important to you. Find a storage provider that has easily accessible access to the warehouses and boxes. Parking should never be a problem when you want to fetch items from your rented storage place or add new things.

If you want to store larger inventory, you should ensure that delivery vans and Lkw can easily reach the storage location and can unload or load there in peace.

Fortunately, there is sufficient storage space in the cities where it is most needed, such as for example in München, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Köln, Leipzig, Dortmund and Stuttgart.

In addition, you will probably be pleasantly surprised at how many locations are offered outside the traditional metropolitan areas. In many cases, as with Full-Service-Storage providers, the logistics will also be included in the rental price. In doing so, the storage facilities also pick up your items far outside the locations where they maintain warehouses.

Security

Even if you do not want to store the Crown Jewels, your personal property has a certain value that cannot always be calculated only in numbers. These can be nostalgic or emotional keepsakes or also items that are irreplaceable.

Added to this are items that have a real value and in some cases are indispensable for your business or your family. Of course, you want to make sure that your belongings are also stored securely when it leaves your custody.

You should therefore always look for storage spaces that are monitored around the clock, whether through video surveillance or security personnel. In addition, access to the storage premises should be possible only for authorized personnel or entitled customers. Ask whether a visitor log is kept and who has authorized access to the storage spaces.

Your storage unit should always be kept locked and under certain circumstances only you should have a key to your parking place. You can either attach a lock yourself, or rent one from your storage provider.

Corridors and storage places must all be well lit so that you do not fumble around in the dark and can quickly find your stored things – provided of course that you use an archiving system that you will also recognize again.

Please also note that you yourself are obliged to insure your property where applicable.

Insurance

When you rent storage space, you normally automatically receive a basic insurance. This is in principle based per kilogram of stored goods and covers only the absolute minimum. Basic insurance should automatically be included in your rental price for your selected storage place. In the case of Full-Service-Storage, the insurance will also cover the transport to and from your storage facility location.

In addition, many of your items are either covered by a Hausratversicherung or by a Betriebshaftpflichtversicherung. For those who do not yet have insurance for their stored goods or for whom the insured amount is not sufficient, most storage businesses offer optional additional insurance.

If it comes to the worst and you discover damage to your stored goods or theft, you should be well prepared. When processing a claim report with insurances, you should not only be able to provide proof of value, but also provide the insurance company with photographic evidence for your individually stored items.

Flexibility

Most storage providers know how difficult certain life situations can be for their customers. Anyone who looks for a storage place for their belongings has generally experienced personal or commercial circumstances that require an immediate change of the current conditions. Every storage customer has their own, often very specific, needs.

For this reason, you should find a storage facility that is characterized by flexibility and can be adapted to most life circumstances and working conditions, current and future.

In very dramatic life changes, Full-Service-Storage is probably appropriate. In doing so, you receive not only support for storage, but also help with the organization and transport of your stored goods from your location to ours, and the return delivery.

Before you make the final decision online, however, you should inform yourself about some circumstances in the real world. How is access to your stored goods regulated? Can you access your things around the clock or are you dependent on opening hours? Are there enough parking spaces within corridor distance of the storage premises.

How much storage space do I actually need?

After you have decided to rent a storage place, the first question naturally arises: How much space do I need? This is not only about the costs, because storage space is generally calculated per m². The storage provider you choose must also know how much space it should keep available for you.

If you look at the items to be stored, however, it can become difficult to calculate the required space. How many boxes fit on a square metre? How high can I stack boxes on top of each other before the stack is close to falling over and thus becomes too dangerous?

Perhaps you also ask yourself whether storage boxes and moving boxes are an appropriate solution for your storage needs at all. Anyone who tries to store documents, bookkeeping, and other paperwork may be better served with shelves or archive cabinets. But how many metres of shelves do you need?

For the calculation of your required storage area, storage space calculators are available online.