Three lists: yes-store, conditional, and absolutely-not. Plus the items insurance won't cover even if they look fine on the shelf.
Storage units aren't a free-for-all. There are items that storage facilities won't accept under any circumstances, items they'll accept but won't insure, and items that are technically allowed but will be ruined by the storage environment. After forty years operating our own Lower Dicker storage facility we have a clear list of all three categories.
This guide walks through them. The rules aren't quirky — they exist for fire safety, contamination prevention and insurance reasons — but they catch out customers who haven't asked the right questions before signing the storage contract. Knowing them in advance saves time and money.
The bulk of household possessions are fine in self-storage. Furniture (sofas, beds, chairs, tables, wardrobes), boxes of books and clothing, kitchen contents (cookware, china, cutlery — emptied of food), bedroom contents (bedding, linens, soft furnishings), garage and shed contents (tools, garden furniture, bikes if drained of fuel), and most electronics (TVs, computers, hi-fi).
Antiques, art, mirrors and fragile items are allowed but need particular handling — wrap them properly using our fragile-packing techniques, and label the carton clearly so it isn't stacked under heavy items. For high-value individual pieces, consider declaring them separately on the storage contract for insurance purposes.
Documents, paperwork and family records are allowed but should be in sealed, weatherproof boxes — preferably the plastic archive crates rather than cardboard. Books should be packed in small cartons (no larger than 25cm cubed) to prevent the carton bottoms giving way under stack weight. Both documents and books benefit from climate-stable storage rather than uninsulated units.
Several categories of item are allowed but with conditions. Appliances (washing machines, fridges, freezers, dishwashers) must be fully drained, dried and cleaned before storage — water residue causes mould and damages the appliance. Garden equipment with petrol engines (mowers, strimmers, chainsaws) must have all fuel drained and the tank vented before storage; some facilities require a written certificate.
Bikes are fine but tyres must be inflated to riding pressure (low pressure encourages tube damage during storage). Musical instruments — pianos, guitars, brass — are allowed but need climate-stable conditions; humidity swings are particularly bad for stringed instruments. We handle pianos specifically through the piano moving service and store them upright on padded plinths.
Wines and spirits in unopened bottles are typically allowed for personal use but need lying flat and away from temperature extremes. Storage facilities don't usually allow commercial-quantity alcohol storage without a separate licence. Photography and film — slides, negatives, undeveloped prints — should ideally be in climate-stable units; basement and roof-mounted units are too unstable.
The list of absolute exclusions is short and serious. Anything alive — pets, plants, any biological material. Storage facilities are not appropriate environments for living organisms and most insurance policies specifically exclude them. Anything flammable or explosive — petrol (in containers), bottled gas, propane tanks, fireworks, ammunition, gunpowder, lighter fluid. These are fire-risk and many facilities have explicit no-flammable rules.
Anything corrosive or hazardous — strong acids, large quantities of cleaning chemicals, paint thinners, pool chemicals. Small domestic quantities of household cleaners are usually fine; commercial-quantity hazardous substances are not. Anything illegal — drugs, stolen goods, unlicensed firearms. This is obvious but worth saying.
Perishable food — fresh or frozen meat, dairy, eggs, anything that spoils. Tinned food and dried food in sealed packaging is usually fine. Cash and high-value valuables — most storage facilities won't insure these and most won't allow them at all. The terms and insurance details page lists the specific exclusions.
Beyond the formal exclusions, there are items that are technically allowed but will be damaged by the storage environment. Leather furniture in uninsulated units will dry, crack and develop mould over months. Solid-wood furniture with traditional finishes can warp or split due to humidity changes. Paper-based items (books, photo albums, archive boxes) absorb moisture and develop mildew in non-climate-stable conditions.
Electronics with lithium-ion batteries (laptops, power tools, e-bikes) are technically fine but the batteries degrade in unconditioned storage and may not work after long periods. For long-term storage, remove the batteries and store them separately, ideally somewhere temperature-stable.
Vinyl records warp in heat; candles melt and stain everything beneath them; aerosol cans can fail under temperature extremes (although small numbers of cans for personal use are usually fine). If you're storing for more than three months, the climate-stable difference is genuine — our Lower Dicker depot is insulated, ventilated and monitored.
Every storage facility has its own version of the prohibited-items list, usually printed on the contract you sign. Read it before signing. The rules are mostly identical across the industry but the specific edge cases (alcohol quantities, ammunition for licensed shooters, commercial stock) vary.
If you're not sure whether something is allowed, ask in writing before move-in day. Facility staff are happy to clarify; a phone call beforehand avoids the situation where the lorry arrives and an item gets refused at the door. We've had customers turn up with bottled propane for a camping setup and have to take it home again.
For removal-firm-managed storage (our depot, for example), the rules are integrated into our written quote — we flag any borderline items at the survey and you know in advance what's coming with us and what isn't. No surprises on the day.
Free in-home or video survey, written fixed-price quote, BAR-protected deposit. Sussex’s family-run remover since 1982.
Every storage facility has a no-questions-asked policy on the prohibited items list. If the lorry arrives with a bottled gas cylinder, fireworks, ammunition for a non-licensed shotgun, or a sealed container of petrol, those items will be refused at the door. Sometimes the customer is asked to take them home; sometimes the facility offers to dispose of them at the customer’s cost.
The best approach is to do a final walk-through the morning before move day. The garden shed is the highest-risk area — petrol mowers, bottled gas for the barbecue, fertilisers and weed-killer all need handling separately. The garage is the second highest — aerosol cans, leftover paint, opened paint thinners. Most of these can be disposed of safely at the local recycling centre in the days before the move.
For ambiguous items — large quantities of cleaning chemicals, commercial paint, alcohol stocks — phone the facility before move day and confirm in writing. The terms and insurance details page lists the specific exclusions for our depot. For a broader view on how storage formats compare, the storage-format guide covers the decisions before you sign.
We've been a family-run Sussex remover since 1982 — the same name on the lorry as the name on the paperwork. Mark personally surveys the high-value and overseas moves; our crews are directly employed (not casual day labour) and trained at our own staff training centre, one of only a handful of UK removers with that facility on site.
Standard inclusions on every full removal: pad-wrap protection for every freestanding piece of furniture, removal-grade cartons, a written and itemised fixed-price quote with no surprises on the day, and the British Association of Removers' Advance Payment Guarantee protecting every deposit. The result, over forty years and tens of thousands of moves, is a 4.9/5 review average across 120+ independent Google reviews.
Booking the survey takes ten minutes. Whether it's a one-bedroom flat across Eastbourne or a country house to overseas, the process is the same: in-home or video survey, written quote within 48 hours, deposit-protected booking, and a calm move day.
Yes, but only if it's fully drained, dried and cleaned first. Water residue causes mould inside the drum and damages the bearings over storage time.
No — all fuel must be drained and the tank vented before garden machinery (mowers, strimmers, chainsaws) goes into storage. Bottled gas and propane are always excluded.
Personal quantities of unopened bottles, yes — lying flat, away from temperature extremes, climate-stable preferred. Commercial-quantity alcohol storage usually needs a separate licence.
Most electronics are fine. Items with lithium-ion batteries should have the batteries removed and stored separately, ideally somewhere temperature-stable. Vinyl records, candles and photographic materials need climate-stable conditions.
Read the contract terms before signing — every facility has a prohibited-items list. If anything is borderline, ask in writing before move-in day.
Yes — pianos need climate-stable conditions to avoid soundboard warping and string tension issues. We move and store pianos regularly. The piano stands upright on a padded plinth, wrapped in heavy quilted blankets.
Most self-storage facilities allow small-business stock storage with no issues. Larger commercial volumes (pallets, industrial materials) usually need a business-storage contract or commercial warehouse rather than personal self-storage. Talk to us if you're storing business stock.
Some facilities offer vehicle storage as a separate service. Standard self-storage units don't typically allow live vehicle storage. We don't offer vehicle storage at the moment, but we can refer you to local facilities that do.
Storage facility contracts usually allow a 30-day grace period before late-payment penalties kick in. Persistent non-payment can lead to the contents being auctioned to recover unpaid fees. Always set up direct debit to avoid this risk.