Container or indoor storage? An honest comparison

Most people comparing storage look at the monthly price and the square footage, decide they're roughly equivalent, and pick the cheaper one. Then they spend the next six months discovering what they actually signed up for.

The two products differ in ways the listings don't show. Here's what actually separates a drive-up container from a room inside a building - including the cases where the building wins.

The corridor tax

This is the big one, and nobody mentions it until you're living with it.

With an indoor unit, your van stops in a loading bay. From there, everything you own travels by trolley - through a door, along a corridor, into a lift, along another corridor, into your room. Then you do it in reverse. Every single time.

For one move in and one move out, it's an afternoon of extra work and no more than that. But if you're a trades business pulling tools out twice a week, or a household that keeps remembering something in the boxes, that walk is the entire experience of owning the unit. It's why people who've had both rarely go back.

With a container you reverse up to the doors, unlock, and you're standing in front of your things. A sofa goes straight from the tailgate into the container. There's no lift to wait for, no bay to book, and no trolley.

Space for the money

A 20ft container gives you around 160 square feet - roughly a single garage, and enough for the contents of a two to three bedroom house or about 250 packing boxes. Ours are £190 a month, and as we're not VAT registered, that's the actual figure. There's nothing to add on top.

Compare on the total, not the rate. Indoor storage is usually quoted per room, and the rooms are smaller than people picture - so the honest comparison is what you pay for the space you'll genuinely fill. Ask what a unit big enough for your house move costs at the place you're comparing, then put the two numbers side by side.

The other thing worth asking about is extras. With us the padlock is included, the £150 deposit comes back when you leave, and there's no admin fee, no set-up fee, no rates and no service charge.

Access that actually means 24/7

Plenty of storage advertises 24-hour access. It's worth reading the small print, because it often means the building is open 24 hours on weekdays, or that out-of-hours access costs extra, or that reception hours are what really govern when you can get in.

Our yard is on mobile phone entry through electric gates. You open them from your phone, at four in the morning on a Sunday if that's when the job needs doing. There's nobody to sign you in, because there's nobody to sign you in.

Three things people worry about

"Isn't a container damp?" A shipping container is built to cross oceans on a deck, so it's weatherproof by design. What causes damp in any storage - indoor rooms included - is putting damp things in and closing the door. Let furniture and fabrics dry properly first, leave a gap for air behind stacked items, and don't seal a lawnmower in with wet grass on it.

"Isn't it cold?" It is. A container is unheated, and that matters for a few specific things - which we come to below. For furniture, white goods, tools, stock, garden equipment and the contents of a house mid-move, it makes no practical difference.

"Is it as secure?" Steel doors, your own padlock, electric gates, CCTV, and a yard that's lit throughout. The thing that makes storage secure isn't the roof over it - it's who can get through the gate, and whether anyone would notice.

When indoor storage is genuinely the better answer

We'd rather say this plainly than have you find out later. Choose a heated indoor room if you're storing:

• Paper archives, photographs or anything that will sit for years and mustn't cockle
• Artwork, antiques, or a piano - anything where a temperature swing is a real risk
• Wine, or anything else with a storage temperature written on it
• Some electronics you're keeping long-term rather than between homes

And be honest about the vehicle question. Drive-up is the whole advantage of a container, and it's a much weaker option if you'll be arriving on foot or by bus. If you can't get a van or a car to the door, an indoor unit near a bus route may genuinely suit you better.

So which is it?

If you're moving house, running a trade, holding business stock, clearing a loft, storing a motorbike or between properties - a container will almost certainly serve you better, for less, with far less walking.

If you're storing a small number of delicate, valuable or climate-sensitive things for a long time, pay for the heated room. That's what it's for.

Storing in Brighouse

Our yard is on Calder Street in Brighouse, HD6 1LZ, a couple of minutes from the town centre and handy for Rastrick, Elland, Halifax, Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Bradford.

Hire is rolling and monthly with a one-month minimum and 14 days' notice to leave, and paying 6 or 12 months upfront saves up to 10%. We can usually get a padlock on and your phone set up for gate access the same day.

Not sure whether 160 square feet is the right amount? How big is a 20ft container, really? walks through what fits. Otherwise get an instant quote and the price is in your inbox in about a minute, or call 07795 477231 and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right fit.