Storing Furniture: What Does It Really Cost?

Furniture belongs to the basic necessities without which everyday life would be extremely uncomfortable. Nevertheless, there are situations in life where one wishes to have a few less pieces of furniture. Moving, renovations, inheritances, and household mergers are among the most common circumstances in which the pile of furniture quite literally grows over one’s head.

Fortunately, a number of options are available today to store excess furniture for both shorter and longer periods. Selfstorage, Full-Service-Storage, and rented basement rooms or storage halls offer alternatives to free up space at home while keeping belongings safely protected from environmental influences or unauthorized access.
However, the question arises: how much does it actually cost to store furniture?

As you can probably imagine, there is no uniform answer here. After all, the price for storing furniture depends on several factors, including:

• The quantity of furniture items to be stored
• The size and nature of the individual pieces of furniture
• Your location and the common market price per square metre in your area
• How long you need storage for your furniture
• How transport to the storage unit and, if necessary, the return transport is handled
• Additional costs and need for services, including insurance, security measures, air conditioning, etc.

Furthermore, prices for storing furniture can vary greatly depending on the provider even within your location. As a starting point, however, you can assume that the nationwide average for storage space is currently around 26 euros per m². In the table below you can see the benchmark values for various storage sizes and how these change depending on the amount of storage space rented:

This data represents storage prices per m² in Germany from January to July 2025; collected April 16 and published May 5, 2026.

What Factors Determine the Prices for Storage?

As already mentioned, the quantity of furniture, the duration of storage, your location, and the required services are among the price-driving factors when it comes to storing your furniture. The largest component in calculating your final rental price is the storage space you need to accommodate all your items.

When calculating the required square metres in your storage unit, not only the number of pieces of furniture is decisive, but also the size of individual pieces that cannot simply be divided or dismantled into their components. These include solid wood wardrobes, large sofas, or antiques that were manufactured before the era of flat packs for self-assembly. The more furniture of this kind you have, the more storage space you will need.

Your place of residence, or desired location for the furniture, can also have an enormous influence on your rental bill. If you live in a large city where living space is scarce and expensive, storage space will also be less available. In cities such as Berlin, Munich, or Stuttgart, the prices for storage units per square metre are therefore considerably more expensive than, for example, in the Ruhr metropolitan area.

Regional price differences: The most expensive and cheapest cities for self-storage

Location is the decisive factor for the monthly rental costs of a storage unit in Germany. A direct comparison shows stark contrasts: While metropolitan areas and regions around Stuttgart (such as Leonberg or Kornwestheim) dominate with peak prices of over €36 per m², significantly more affordable offers can be found in cities like Mainz, Nuremberg, or the Ruhr area. Often, fixed storage costs can be halved by choosing a location just outside the expensive city centers.

This data represents storage prices per m² in Germany from January to July 2025; collected April 16 and published May 5, 2026.

But even in large German cities, bargains can often still be found with regard to storage space if you search for storage facilities outside the urban centres, in commercial areas outside the city centre, or at motorway junctions in the surrounding area.

How Services Influence Storage Costs for Furniture

In addition to the actual rental costs per square metre, further expenses are generally incurred when storing furniture. Unlike other household items that can easily be divided and packed into boxes, furniture is bulky and cannot simply be transported in the boot of a car.

In most cases, at least a delivery van must be rented, or, if the house or apartment is being completely emptied, a removal company. Added to this are costs for removal helpers, the loss of valuable working time, and possibly also the need for childcare.

There are exceptions here as well, for example if you decide to make use of Full-Service-Storage. With this storage option, transport and removal helpers are already included in the rental price and you only need to pack your belongings safely and appropriately before they are collected and transported to the storage facility. With Full-Service-Storage, your furniture is stored professionally and space-efficiently in fully air-conditioned and well-secured premises, in order to avoid damage and excessive rental prices due to wasted space.

How Many Storage Rooms Do You Need for Your Furniture?

The question of the size of storage space needed for your furniture arises as soon as you want to obtain individual quotes from landlords. If you book too few square metres, you will find yourself with too little space on moving day and will have to organise more space in an already stressful situation. This can easily lead to higher costs and the additional concern that your storage landlord has no further space available. If you book too many square metres, you pay unnecessarily for space that stands empty and provides you with no further benefit.

Determining the required storage space is therefore of the utmost importance. The required storage space depends on how many items you wish to accommodate. The contents of a single room obviously require less storage space than storing the entire furniture of your household. Your lifestyle also plays a role, as a follower of minimalism requires far fewer boxes than a collector of antiques.

As a rule of thumb for calculating an approximate storage room area:
Size of the living area/room in m² x 10% = m² storage unit.

To calculate the storage space for your furniture more precisely, several options are available:

1. Use a storage room calculator, which many professional Selfstorage and Full-Service-Storage landlords offer online. With a good storage room calculator you can determine the scope of all your furniture in just a few clicks.
2. Measure your furniture piece by piece and calculate how many additional boxes you need for the remaining items. Add everything together to calculate the area required for your belongings.
3. Ask your storage space landlord for advice. Professional Selfstorage and Full-Service-Storage providers can assist you in calculating the required storage space with professionally trained staff.

What Additional Costs Must You Expect When Storing Furniture?

When searching for a suitable storage solution for your furniture on the internet, you will generally only be given the price per square metre for the storage space. This price can vary depending on the size of the rented area. As a rule, the price per square metre becomes cheaper the larger the rented unit will be. The rental period is also significant for the final calculation of the monthly rent. The longer the rental contract, the lower the monthly rental amount will be with most storage space providers.

However, in addition to the obvious price per square metre, further costs can arise that many storage space tenants have not anticipated. These can be one-off, or can be added repeatedly to the monthly price over the course of the entire rental period.

The possible additional costs include:

1. Transport
   If you commission a Speditionsfirma to transport your furniture to the storage facility, or agree with the storage space landlord that they will organise the transport, these costs are added on top of the rental price. Even if you organise the storage of the furniture yourself, you must factor in costs for removal helpers, rental of a delivery van or small transporter, and the fuel for the vehicle.
2. Packaging material
   You place great value on your furniture, otherwise you would not be incurring the costs of storage. Therefore you should also pack your inventory properly so that it survives the storage period undamaged. Sturdy moving boxes, furniture blankets, bubble wrap, corner and edge protectors, as well as countless metres of adhesive tape will considerably increase your storage costs.
3. Insurance
   As a rule, your household contents insurance will also cover the stored items, but only for a certain period of time. The timeframe varies from insurance to insurance and you must clarify how long your property in storage is insured. An additional insurance policy may be required by your landlord. Please note that under certain circumstances you should also take out a removal insurance policy if you engage removal helpers.
4. Security deposit
   Some Selfstorage and storage space landlords may require a Kaution before you store your furniture. This can amount to one to two months’ rent. You will receive the Kaution back after the end of the rental period, provided you leave the storage room clean and tidy. The additional costs could nevertheless considerably affect your budget.
5. Ancillary costs
   As with rental contracts for apartments and houses, the storage space landlord could charge costs for air conditioning, cleaning, and security measures such as locking systems and video surveillance. Therefore read your contract thoroughly and pay attention to the small print.

How Can I Save Money When Storing Furniture?

While a number of unforeseen additional costs could arise when renting storage for your furniture, you also have the opportunity to save some money. The prerequisite is that you prepare well and plan the move of the furniture into the storage unit thoroughly.

Here we give you a few tips on how you can minimise your costs when storing furniture:

• Think in volume rather than floor space
  Because the price per square metre of Selfstorage and storage space providers refers to the floor area of the storage facility offered for rent, many people only think about how much space they have on the floor. In many cases, however, the individual items of your furniture and household goods can be stacked upwards. Use the total volume of your storage room to pay for fewer square metres.
• Dismantle your furniture
  Many pieces of furniture can nowadays be easily taken apart and dismantled into individual components. Take the trouble to disassemble your shelves, wardrobes, beds, and fitted kitchen elements before storage. Dismantled furniture can not only be stored more easily and space-efficiently, but transport is also simplified. A wardrobe measuring 120 x 60 x 191 cm reduces to 18 x 60 x 191 cm after dismantling. To find out approximately how large the dismantled pieces of furniture will be, find a model of the same size on the website of a furniture retailer such as Ikea and look at the package dimensions under the product information.
• Use empty furniture surfaces
  For furniture that cannot be taken apart, you may be able to use the empty space as storage for household items. However, make sure that the surface is well protected and that good air circulation is ensured during storage. This prevents your furniture from going mouldy or taking on an unpleasant smell.
• Rent your packaging material
  Packaging material for the move to the storage facility can become expensive. Yet one often only needs the materials this one time. When returning the furniture, you suddenly find yourself with a large amount of waste and empty boxes for which you have no further use. Many Selfstorage and Full-Service-Storage landlords nowadays offer moving boxes for rent. By renting rather than buying your moving boxes, you not only save money and time, but also help the environment.
• Commission a Full-Service-Storage provider with the storage of your furniture
  Full-Service-Storage is a storage system in which most of the work involved in storing items is taken off your hands. Providers such as BOXIE24 operate with a flat rate that includes most of your storage processes, and at a competitive monthly rental price. More on this below.

When Is Full-Service Storage the Better Choice?

Full-Service-Storage is a system in which the storage space landlord takes over the entire process of storing items, including furniture. The storage process begins at your home, as the provider collects the belongings, carries them to the provided delivery van, and transports them to the storage facility. There, your property is stored professionally and space-efficiently in fully air-conditioned accommodation and returned after the previously agreed time. With Full-Service-Storage, only the used area is invoiced.

In contrast to Selfstorage or warehouse rental, where every detail of furniture storage is carried out individually and billed separately, Full-Service-Storage providers such as BOXIE24 operate with flat rates that include not only collection, transport, storage, and return delivery, but also packaging, insurance, and security monitoring. The rental price per square metre for Full-Service-Storage is generally only slightly more than for Selfstorage.

Full-Service-Storage is a particularly better alternative when you have neither the time nor a suitable vehicle available, or simply want to avoid the stress of storing furniture. The properly air-conditioned and heated storage rooms in Full-Service-Storage also offer far greater security for sensitive wooden, metal, and upholstered furniture than cold garages or damp basement rooms.