Taking a longer trip than the average two-week family holiday needs more careful planning. While you can walk away from house and home for a couple of weeks, it’s not a good idea to leave a house full of valuables for an extended period. Safeguarding the lifestyle you’ve worked hard to achieve, so it’s intact when you get back from your travels, is a simple matter when you approach it logically and allow plenty of time.

Consider Self Storage

Photo credit: Scott Meyers Self Storage Investing via photopin cc

Those self storage facilities you see all over town often get overlooked by the average person. If you think they’re just for folks with a boat load of furniture to store, or that they’re really expensive, you might want to think again. They’re a perfect solution for people who’re leaving home for a spell who want to keep their possessions securely locked away.

Here are the key benefits and advantages:

• Short term, flexible rental periods. Choose from just seven days right up to several months or more. Rolling contracts mean you’re not locked into a time frame. Use your unit for as long as you need it, then give just a few days notice to quit when your need ends.
• Huge range of unit sizes. From a few square feet to cavernous rooms that hold the effects of the entire house, you choose how much space you need so you don’t pay for areas you’re not using.
• Convenient locations and opening times. Good road access, plenty of parking on site and late opening hours mean you can drop off your goods easily, at a time to suit you. You don’t have to worry about taking extra time off work, since they’re usually open into the evening.
• Discounts are sometimes available on irregularly shaped rooms or for longer rentals. Ask, to find out if there are any offers.

Organising Removals

There may be times when you want to store more than a few boxes of personal items while you’re travelling. If, for instance, you’re leaving home for months at a time, it’s possible you’ll want to rent out your house and put your own furniture into store.

Doing all the lifting, fetching and carrying yourself is a huge undertaking, especially when you’re also organising travel itineraries and taking care of visas and other documentation you need. A far better solution is to book the services of a removal company who’ll do the heavy work for you.

Here are some tips to organising a flawless removal:

• Book early. It’s vital you get dates pencilled in as soon as possible so you can minimise that chance of anything going wrong at the last minute.
• If you’re moving all your household contents, get the company to come and look at your property and your items, especially if you have unusual or very valuable things to move. At the same time, find out if they’ll need help with lifting, and in what order they prefer to load things into the van.
• When everything is organised, stay in touch with the removal company to let them know of any upcoming changes to your plans. If you need to change dates or times, for instance, giving them plenty of notice means there’s more chance they can fit in with your changes.
• Pack logically, using small boxes that you label with the precise contents. Fill the boxes right up (without making them too heavy) so they don’t collapse when they’re stacked.

Planning an extended trip is work but it needn’t be logistically complicated if you allow plenty of time and think ahead. It’ll be worth it when you can depart on your travels knowing your possessions are safe and sound until you return.