How You Should Clean Out a Storage Container

Published: August 15, 2022

If the thought of cleaning out a storage container fills you with dread, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Cleaning and emptying a storage container you inherited, won at auction, or haven’t visited in years is not always exciting. We’ll show you an effective method for cleaning out a storage container, consider donating or selling items, and get rid of whatever is leftover.

Take an Inventory of Storage Container Contents

The first thing you should do after taking possession of a storage container is to scan it and make an inventory of what’s inside. This step is the same whether you purchased a storage space at auction, inherited one, or stored it for months. If you won the container at auction,

Enlist Help From Friends and Plan a Day to Declutter

To reduce the prospect of getting overwhelmed, it’s important to prepare for what lies ahead. Choose a moment to conduct the actual clearance and return with moving goods, trash bags, labels, and sorting totes prepared.

Sort Stuff Into Categories Like Keep, Sell, Toss

The Four-Box Declutter Method is a powerful approach to going through and tossing out things on a large scale. The idea of this technique is to utilize four empty boxes, including a keep, toss, donate/sell, and storage box.

Stay on Task and Get the Job Done

One of the more grave storage container clean-out errors is not finishing in the allotted time period. If you can’t seem to progress after completing the steps above, consider hiring a professional organizer. Someone who declutters homes for a living will help you stay on schedule and keep you from getting sidetracked yourself; even taskmasters need assistance sometimes.

During the process of cleaning out estates, professional organizers can be extremely helpful. Often, it is difficult for people to let go of sentimental belongings. However, since professionals have no attachment to the items, they are more likely to help you make level-headed decisions about what you should do with each individual item. These decisions may include: keeping it, getting rid of it through donation or selling, or simply throwing it away.

The UNITS Moving and Portable Storage of Northeast Ohio team knows who is the best in your area at cleaning out storage containers. Your local UNITS storage facility will have information about storage container clean-out services on hand.