Wooden storage vaults, not self-storage corridors
A mover's warehouse is not laid out as small month-to-month lockers but as wooden vaults roughly 7 by 7 feet, five feet deep — close to 245 cubic feet each. Your furniture goes in once, braced and strapped by the crew at loading, and the closed vault moves by forklift: nothing gets touched while it sits in place.
The difference with self-storage shows on pickup day: where a locker is yours to empty at your own pace, a vault opens by appointment, one piece at a time, packing list in hand. There are no corridors between vaults — access is limited to service aisles, under cameras and alarm, which removes the back-and-forth of locker neighbours.
A single handling: what goes into the vault comes out under the same number
Each vault receives a numbered share of the inventory: the packing list signed at departure details what vault 3 holds — mattresses, a dresser, twelve crates — and the seal closing it carries the same number. A partial withdrawal is noted on the same list: two crates out in March, the rest expected in June, the history stays in writing.
First day and last day are planned the same way: loading onto the truck at your address, transfer into the vault the same day when the warehouse sits on the route. No piece of furniture waits overnight on a dock — what goes in during the morning is strapped by evening, and the truck leaves empty.
What does not go into the warehouse
Propane bottles, fuel cans, aerosols and paints are not stored: warehouse insurance rules exclude them, and a leaking container high in a stack threatens the whole pile of neighbouring vaults. Perishable food stays out for the same reason, along with plants — a warehouse receives no daylight — and medication that requires the cold chain.
Sensitive papers — contracts, medical files, notarized deeds — travel better in a bank safe or stay with you: a stored box of documents is reachable only by appointment, which does not suit what you consult. Firearms and ammunition fall under separate regulated storage, with its own custody requirements.
Renovation, home staging, estate: stays that last months
A kitchen redone takes six to ten weeks: cabinets, appliances and the table go into a vault on the first day of the job and come back when the counters are installed. A house on the market sheds a third of its furniture — cluttered rooms photograph poorly, and buyers gauge a room's volume by its empty space.
An estate drags on: settling one takes six months and more when the building's sale waits on the notary. Furniture stored through that period stays on the original packing list, every family withdrawal is noted in the file, and final delivery splits between addresses as the bequests are distributed.
