Shipping container storage/longer term storage.

[cruisindub]

Hi folks,

Looking at a shipping/sea container for storage of our household items for a period of time, have concerns about humidity/moisture or excessive heat for personal belongings.
Sea container is cheaper than a local storage unit which is only a tin roof anyhow.
I know my colourbond garage gets extremely hot in the summer.

Has anybody used a sea container for storage for household/personal items and had any issues on return?

Following that, amy tips or hints for longer term storage and ensuring everything fine for on the return?

Im guessing theres a lot of swaggers on the road with their house in storage?......?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

[HEM19X]

Hmm, interesting.

I suppose that you would need a couple of things...a way to have some air circulate through the contrainer without wetting things  & also a way to fix it to the ground so it dosen't end up on the back of a Semi!

[MDS69]

Where are you storing the shipping container, no not your address, but is it in a friends yard or property or at a storage yard. If it was at a friends place and if it didn't detract from the yard appearance too much I would consider building a roof over the container like a car port with about 18 inches or so of gap to reduce the inside temp of the container. They can get extremely hot in there. I don't think a whirly bird would be enough.

[lilstookie]

There are two shipping containers up here...one for storage and one for horse gear and feed. Neither have whirly gigs on top and, while they get hot inside, there have been no issues with mould or rodents. The horse gear container has a door in the side which seals well. The leather doesn't get mouldy and the feed survives the wet season perfectly. We're in the Gulf so water, humidity and heat are a big issue.

Lil

[xcvator]

I've seen this done on several occassionson rural areas. Security of the container was the single biggest problem, very easy to back up a tilt tray truck and winch it on. This was overcome by digging a couple of fairly large holes ( 1m x 1m x 1m) filling them with concrete and embeding a length of heavy gauge high tensile steel chain into the concrete and threading the free end of the chain through a hole in the floor of the container as it was lowered into position. This was then secured by welding it to the floor of the container.Pretty hard to pinch it after that
The other thing that was done was to install limited access covers over the padlocks on the outside to stop bolt cutters/angle grinders. Not much more you can do than that, coz the crooks can still get in through the sides with a demo saw or gas axe
  Keith

[KingBilly]

Rented a 20' container in a local storage yard for 2 years.  Yes, they do get hot but we had no problems.  I wouldn't store anything too sensitive at the top directly under the hot roof.  Kept those things lower with something else stacked on top.  Make sure you get a good container that is water tight.  We had no problems with mould or damp or rodents etc.  Everything came out the way it went in.

KB

[MY0080]

Im currently using a 20 footer for storage. Yes she can get bloody hot, but I dont think anything has perished in there that I know of. As someone previously mentioned, I dont think I'd put anything in there that you thought would be too sensitive to heat. Mould/moisture wise, again I havent noticed any issues yet.

[chester ver2.0]

Out gear has been in one for the last 3 years while we a touring.

Check the door seals and then go inside and shut the door and look for holes of light if it is pitch black all will be OK

As said above store electrical gear on the bottom wrap everything in plastic wrapping and it will be good.

In all honesty the way electrical stuff ages i should have sold my TV and other electrical stuff before i went and just kept the furniture and other things in storage

[myminirocks]

We are just contemplating the options on this as well. Comparing a container on a family members block vs self storage. Good to hear a number of people have had success with shipping containers.

Anyone used anywhere in particular in Brisbane to supply one?

[cruisindub]

Have had to go for a storage unit.
apparently our council object to having a sea container in the front garden.

So, storage unit it is.

Began packing up today. Have until end of month 'o first sh the house renovations.

Only been more than a year in the making. Slowly, ever so slowly. Wife is none to impresses. We've been camp cooking at home since beginning of December and my kitchen still isn't finished.
She's thinks I'll get it finished just into time to move out.

Wife's been made redundant,  I've struggled to get a full time job, of any decent calibre, so we're packing up and moving on.

Next stop..................?

We're going to make a decision at end of the month


Any further tips/hints/ advice and

[cruisindub]

......any further hints / tips/ advice and recommendations for storing our belongings, longer term storage?
  I agree with the electronics / digital comment above regarding how it moves quite quickly in age.

We are not so keen on flogging everything off, alot of memories and history over the years together...

We have just bought some large plastic tubs for various items. Found some pallets to get everything off the ground and plan to use mice pellets and ant dust around everything, with a trap over the top.

What's everyone else done.??

[chester ver2.0]

Yeah pretty much the same as you. We used removalists as they had a couple of options

Take the container where you want it to go
Store the container on their premisis (the way we went)
Unload the container into is own storage area

We just left it in the container.
Smelly paper and moth balls in all the clothing boxes

Oh and the removal company supplied us with this special plastic to wrap stuff it is like the wrapping you find around new electrical items in their box aparently it does not sweat so it is better i am not sure where you would get a role from try your local removalists

We learnt the hard way(still arguing with them) some removalists subcontract out the uplift so make sure you get officail reciepts for all monies paid i am not talking a huge amount but it is a pain in the ass when you have to find reciepts that are 2 years old

[spargo]

We are just contemplating the options on this as well. Comparing a container on a family members block vs self storage. Good to hear a number of people have had success with shipping containers.

Anyone used anywhere in particular in Brisbane to supply one?

We've got half our house contents in one at the moment, while we undergo a major renovation and house lift project. Try Royal Wolf in Brisbane - excellent container, fully sealed, very competiive when compared to Self-storage options, plus its dropped where you want within reason so no need to travel to access your stuff. Ours is on the footpath on a side street. Note that you'll need Council permission in Brisbane to put it on the footpath.

Wait until you get the container before buying a lock. Not all locks suit the tamper-proof latch.

[MY0080]

Have had to go for a storage unit.
apparently our council object to having a sea container in the front garden.

So, storage unit it is.

Began packing up today. Have until end of month 'o first sh the house renovations.

Only been more than a year in the making. Slowly, ever so slowly. Wife is none to impresses. We've been camp cooking at home since beginning of December and my kitchen still isn't finished.
She's thinks I'll get it finished just into time to move out.

Wife's been made redundant,  I've struggled to get a full time job, of any decent calibre, so we're packing up and moving on.

Next stop..................?

We're going to make a decision at end of the month


Any further tips/hints/ advice and

Thats a shame mate. They can be a quick and also cheaper solution to that extended garage etc

[jeeps]

You need to say to the council "no it's not a shipping container, it's a shed"

[myminirocks]

Wait until you get the container before buying a lock. Not all locks suit the tamper-proof latch.

Good tip spargo

[Roo]

I need some specific advice for storing items long term.
We're looking into using a shipping container as a long term storage option too. my only worry is my leather lounge....its not a cheap lounge so leaving it with relo's is a difficult proposition as damage would be devastating, likewise storing it away only to find it ruined by mould or pests would be equally hard to swallow. Selling is not an option as I love it and want to keep it and would struggle to get 1/4 of the original package value anyway.

How do I protect it in storage?

[03hilux]

I need some specific advice for storing items long term.
We're looking into using a shipping container as a long term storage option too. my only worry is my leather lounge....its not a cheap lounge so leaving it with relo's is a difficult proposition as damage would be devastating, likewise storing it away only to find it ruined by mould or pests would be equally hard to swallow. Selling is not an option as I love it and want to keep it and would struggle to get 1/4 of the original package value anyway.

How do I protect it in storage?

ROO, in you case, I suggest contacting the manufacturer and seek storage advice from them. See if they will put it in writing so nothing is lost in translation.

[hainess]

We are just contemplating the options on this as well. Comparing a container on a family members block vs self storage. Good to hear a number of people have had success with shipping containers.

Anyone used anywhere in particular in Brisbane to supply one?

A mate bought a container from Telstra. He was working for them at the time and  they have sell offs every now and then.
There are a few that sell around Brisbane. Google is your friend.

The 1 the mate bought cost more to transport it to his place past Amberley than what he paid for the container.
When he opened the doors to start packing stuff in, it wasn't empty.
Inside was a complete mobile phone tower. All bits of gal steel, precut, prepunched, ready to be put together like a mechano set.
Including all the electronics.
Telstra didn't want to know about it.
Those bits of angle and brackets come in handy. And the 2x80 watt solar panels I snavelled  work great.
Except the blue and orange color scheme is a bit of a giveaway.

Rod
.

[whitey1]

When we bought ours a couple of years ago we paid $3400. Pays to get a good one. Stored it on my parents farm. Stuck a whirly bird on the roof with insect mesh under it and a vent in the door again with insect mesh.Stored all our furniture including couch, tables and chairs, TV, pictures and all my shed tools. Put some ant bait and cockroach bait in there and never had an issue in the 2 years at all.
Everything was wrapped in plastic or stored in plastic tubs. A tip for plastic tubs is make sure they're tuff ones because the lids can shatter on the cheapies when you stack them.
Just sold the container last week and got $3000 for it(probably could have got what we paid for it) so you don't lose money on them. Much better than the storage shed option if you've got somewhere to put it.

[cruisindub]

Jeeps. My missus would love a container home. There's some great designs on a quick Google search. The make a great addition.
pricing new containers, seems around d $3500 is a good figure for new.
one advertised locally for $300, done one trip into country.

Seems they hold value white well. Not much difference in price between new and old and definitely much cheaper, ...... if you've got somewhere to store it.

Sadly, storage u it is now our only option, quite expensive at $2000 and up for 12m2. Annually.

[myminirocks]

When we bought ours a couple of years ago we paid $3400. Pays to get a good one. Stored it on my parents farm. Stuck a whirly bird on the roof with insect mesh under it and a vent in the door again with insect mesh.Stored all our furniture including couch, tables and chairs, TV, pictures and all my shed tools. Put some ant bait and cockroach bait in there and never had an issue in the 2 years at all.
Everything was wrapped in plastic or stored in plastic tubs. A tip for plastic tubs is make sure they're tuff ones because the lids can shatter on the cheapies when you stack them.
Just sold the container last week and got $3000 for it(probably could have got what we paid for it) so you don't lose money on them. Much better than the storage shed option if you've got somewhere to put it.

thx whitey1, that sound promising.

Hainess that's great, give me a hoi if another Telstra one comes up, preferably stacked full of iPhones and iPad though please!

[DaveR]

When we moved from a large block to the surburbs on account of having twins (yes better half put her foot down, no more bush block), I had to pack up my shed into a container.
I have it in a yard where I rent space and have limited access to it.
It is out in the hot sun but I find that because it is well sealed, noting is rotting or rusting due to what the moisture conent is when doors close is what is kept inside and therefore there is only so much moisture to do any harm, I hope your following my point here. Even my old swags which have been in there for 4 years now are still OK.

Now to sort of hijack this post.....
Does anyone know where I can store my container where I can get access to it. Must be south Brissy to NSW Boarder type area.
The rent I am paying now is getting out of hand.
Cheers
Dave

[D4D]

Just make sure it doesn't have any snails....
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/giant-snail-destroyed-after-being-found-in-brisbane-container-yard/story-fncynjr2-1226595053371