Many of us have a spare room, a garage or a basement full of junk, which just sit there doing nothing. These are all places which could earn you money instead of collecting an extraordinary amount of cobwebs. By renting out your spare room or space, not only do you turn it into a money spinner, but it will give you the push to tidy it up, make it a cleaner, safer and nicer looking to those who are looking to rent it.

Ah, there’s a problem. In today’s busy world, when do you have the time to fix the door locks, sort out those broken tiles or the wiring in your ’soon-to-be’ rented storage area? That’s where a handyman or better still handymen can help. The Handy Squad are a group of DIY experts in carpentry, electrics, heating and gas, plumbing, tiling and almost any odd job around the house which you just never seem to get round to doing.

The www.HandySquad.com guys can zip round to your house and sort out that plumbing leak in the basement, make the dark and dingy attic a place where you can rent out storage space and generally sort out those niggling problems you’ve been putting off for months. Basically, if there is a job needs doing, they can do it. By using scooters and environmentally friendlier LPG vans they don’t have to pass on the congestion charge to you as other handyman services in London do.

A potential storage facility, such as a shed or a garage can be overlooked by a broken door lock, a cracked tile or faulty electrics which can make you think it is worthless. By investing in the Handy Squad, you can generate more income from renting out the storage area and charging a higher premium to your tenants because your room or garage is safe and secure.

A blocked or sludgy radiator can be easily fixed by bleeding the system and flushing it out with fresh water. This simple procedure will ensure your home is being heated correctly and maintaining the temperature you have set it at. Not only will this keep the bills down, but the room you hope to rent out suddenly becomes a heated storage space which would be more appealing for tenants.

You might even want to go the whole hog and spend some serious money to get a super high-end design firm to create the storage room making it ultra secure and much more appealing. This would allow the tenant to feel even more comfortable by having a fully protected storage rental space. In turn, this would considerably increase ability to charge more rent.

So, when you are in need of handymen in London think of the Handy Squad and get your storage space up to scratch for rental. If you want to make money fast and you have a spare space which is currently lying dormant, get it to work for you rather than against you. The more secure, safer and nicer looking your storage space is, the more you can charge for rental which will help cancel out some of those monthly bills you hate.

With the excitement of moving into a new home, it’s often disheartening when the reality of unpacking sets in. Thankfully, with a little bit of thought on the front end of your move, you can not only reduce the stress involved with a big move, but you may also find a new revenue stream to help offset your new mortgage or rent.

One of the first things to remember when you are packing is to keep your overall goal in mind. If you begin reminiscing over every photograph, you may end up with nothing in boxes when moving day comes. But the goal of smart packing isn’t just to put things in boxes, either. Before you pack anything, ask yourself these questions:

Is this something I need? Too many times, when people move they end up frustrated with the same things in their new place that they didn’t want when they were in their prior home. If you find yourself questioning whether or not to keep something, set it aside in a “giveaway” box. Make this the last box that you close up, and the last box that you unpack. If you don’t access the box throughout your entire time unpacking, chances are that you don’t need what is in it. Consider selling or giving away these things, and utilize the extra space in your new home as a tenant for StorPod.

Do I like how this was organized in my current home?

If it bugged you in your first home, it will bug you in your new one. Instead of just throwing things into a box, take an extra couple minutes to redistribute them into boxes that make more sense, or use some organizational tools such as trays, baskets, or folders, to fix the problem now. When it comes time to unpack the box, you’ll be able to spend less time setting up your new home.

How hard will it be to find this once it’s in the box?

If you cringe when you are packing a box, you will most likely not like unpacking the box either. Don’t waste your time and space by digging through your things in order to find what you’re looking for. Instead, organize the items as you put them in the box. While in the packing stage this can be done just using plastic bags, the unpacking stage will give you an opportunity to use your space in a smarter way. If you take advantage of drawers, hooks, bookshelves, creative containers, and storage areas, you’ll find that you have more space available in your new home.

While I was in my neighbour’s garage collecting some winter clothing I had stored there, I was thinking about a recent discussion with my friend Amanda Reekie.  Amanda is co-founder of Stratton & Reekie, a London-based PR, marketing and communications consultancy, specialising in the creative industries.

I had just told her about StorPod.com and her initial reply was “renting space out to inert objects instead of troublesome lodgers seems like a good idea”.  As always, Amanda gave me a nugget that triggered a number of other thoughts, this time about relative security implications of letting strangers into your home.

At StorPod we hear many concerns of potential risk around storing someone else’s stuff.  Of course this exists – just like it’s there if you allow someone to park in your garage, or if you lend your favourite power tool to a neighbour.

There’s always risk in dealing with other people.  You never really know what’s in a stranger’s suitcase; indeed, what’s the risk to friendship if you  accidentally spill something on your best buddy’s filing boxes stored in your attic? The question is really about the degree of risk as compared to the amount of benefit received.

There is a range of risks and a range of benefits, of course.  Perhaps you don’t want to risk a friendship, but you don’t mind that a stranger has stored a bottle of soda pop that randomly bursts and spills cola all over your attic.  Equally what could be meant by “benefit”?  Extra money, or simply convenience and space? For the sake of this article, we define “risk” in terms of the exposure of your home / family and “benefit” as financial gain.

Assuming you have extra space you want to do something with (ideally something that brings in money) we have identified a number of possible scenarios:

1/ You use the space for personal reasons.  It’s safe in that you know precisely what you’re with the space and the objects that you have stored there, but you can’t very well charge yourself for it and so that space does not earn you any money.  In fact, if you need to fix it up, it becomes an expense to you.

2/ You store your friend’s items for no fee.  The level of risk slightly increases as while your friend may not wish to intentionally cause you damage, something might break, or you might spill something on his possessions.  Again, no money is earned so there is really no (monetary) benefit to you.

3/ You could charge your friend to store his stuff.  This brings the whole question of money into friendships which isn’t very easy, but it does move this aspect of the relationship to more business-like terms and whilst you’re helping someone out, they’re giving you some financial recognition for it.  This is quite a safe option, but you probably won’t get anywhere near the true market value of your space.

4/ You could rent out a slice of your space – say your couch to a visitor.  This is actually quite a good idea, helps you meet new people – potentially from another part of the world – and gives you a bit extra money.  But, now we’re dealing with issues around people – lodgers, effectively – being in your home.  They have access to your possessions, they may snore, insist you be at their beck and call and drink your milk directly from the bottle.

5/ Rent to a fellow StorPodder. Ideally, you’ve met someone on the StorPod web site.  They need some help with extra space for their items, your home might be conveniently close.  They bring their items around and you politely ask to view the contents; you reject anything that’s not properly wrapped or is too heavy for the carpet in your spare room.  Satisfied with what you’ve seen, you help them seal everything up again (so they know that their possessions are secure) and they pay you the negotiated storage cost.

How will you use your space?

6/ We think that a similar risk / reward (as storage) is renting out your parking space.  You might have some extra challenges around granting access to the parking spot through a key card or similar manner.  Also you really don’t want a beat-up clunker as an eyesore in your driveway, leaking oil over the garage floor, or a door bashing into the neighbour’s parked car.  However, if all those are dealt with, you could have a very good relationship with your “tenant”.

7/ Rent out your spare bedroom to a professional or permanent lodger.  Here you’re dealing with more space, the need to pay electrical, water and other bills for another human being so you could probably earn more than you might if you rented out your space for storage of inert objects.  However, as with the couch surfer, no number of interviews can help determine what a potential lodger will really be like.  Will s/he start making googly eyes at your spouse?  Will the Monday to Friday professional be working really late hours and come back late after “liquid” business meetings?  Will the 7-day-a-week lodger run off one day with your laptop?

Clearly there are quite a number of ways to earn revenue from your unused space.  Your own tolerance level for risk and dynamics of your life need to govern whether having inert objects or humans under your roof is acceptable to you.

However,  within a reasonable risk / benefit range we support the notion of hiring out your space for storage purposes over simply giving it away, or having lodgers in your space.

One of the most common questions we receive from people new to the storage business is “how do I price my space”? 

Alas, there is no one magical answer to this.  The value of your space will be affected by size, ease of access, security and more.  Also, since this is a person-to-person business, you may opt to price lower to help someone out who’s fallen on hard times, or higher if you’re in the fortunate position of having several potential tenants competing for your place.

As we’re dealing with property, consider location, location, location!  How easy can prospective tenants get to your place?  Is your facility well served by public transit?  Are taxis relatively inexpensive?  Do you have a place to park outside?  Remember, some tenants will store their possessions with you, happy not to see them for months on end.  Others may keep their suitcases with you and have to travel frequently.  Either way, they need to physically get their possessions to you someone.

Within your home – say – are you renting out an easily accessible room on the  ground floor?  Or is it an attic up a couple of flights of steep steps?  Will tenants be able to move their items up and down easily?

In the UK, properties are rented out on a per week or per month pricing basis.  A common rule of thumb for renting out a residential property is as follows: the cost per week should be 1/1000th of the value of the property.

So, if the property is valued at £300,000 then it should rent out at £300 per week.  This would be the same if it was a 5 bedroom house valued at £300k in the north of England, or a studio apartment in Central London with a book value of £300,000.  In both cases, the weekly rental could be similar.

Taking accurate measurements of your space will help you market it

Clearly, you won’t be renting out the entire property – maybe just a small space like a spare bedroom or attic.  Let’s say this space was 50 sq feet and your entire property was 1,000 sq ft.  The space you’re renting out if 5% of your property. 

If your home is worth £300,000 and you’re renting out 5% of it – or the part that’s worth £15,000 – you could apply the weekly pricing rule above and offer your property at £15,000 / 1,000 = £15 per week.

So, to recap:

1/ take the space you wish to rent out as an overall percentage of the property you live in
2/ apply that percentage to the current value of the property you live in
3/ divide that amount by 1,000 and this becomes your weekly rental rate

Of course, you’ll want to take into account other factors.  Being close to transport, having locks and other security on the space and generally having a clean and presentable unit might bump up the value. 

Ultimately, the value is whatever you negotiate with your prospective tenant, so do use the above as a guide rather than hard-and-fast rule.

… is another’s treasure – or at least so the saying goes.

There are many reasons why we go through periodic cleanouts.  Moving – be it to a larger place, or smaller – is the usual requirement to sort through our stuff, largely because moving companies charge by weight and volume.

Perhaps we’re in a new relationship and simply don’t need the inevitable two-of-everything that would come from merging the bachelor(ette) pads.  Or, perhaps a life coach has recommend that we simply throw out anything we haven’t used for the last 6 months, and thus go through some sort of “purification” or renewal ceremony.  Or indeed, maybe we’re trying to clean up that extra bedroom in order to list it on StorPod.com to keep someone else’s stuff!

Whetever the reason to reduce the amount of stuff around the home or office, there are some handy tips to keep in mind during the process.

First, go through everything meticulously and take your time.  Remember, when an item is gone, it’s gone for good.  What would happen if your birth certificate were accidently thrown out with last week’s newspapers, or Great-Granny’s priceless heirloom wedding ring were donated along with the torn rugby shirts from grad school?

Got the stuff you want to keep?  Good.  Where are you going to put it all?  Surely not just back in the same place – you’ve gone to all that sorting work, so you might as well do something with it all.  Try not to get distracted reminiscing over old photos or starting up that stamp collection you always wanted.  Instead, consider what you might want to do with your prized possessions and whether space, logistics or time play factors in your decisions.

Perhaps this is a good time to do some DIY or contracting of labour to repaint the back of your closet, fix damaged plaster or rebuild a bookcase?  Maybe you might want to get rid of your exiting shelving and replace it with something more practical, modular, newer or simply more funky?  Perhaps it’s just spending a few bucks and getting better hangers that don’t wreck your shirts, or a DVD rack.

Once you have separated the items you want to dispose of, take another look at them.  What should be thrown out?  Perhaps clothing that can no longer be used because of some horrible and very obvious stain.  Can it be shredded to make cleaning rags?  Maybe  there are some books that got mildewed from when you left them in the garden under the sprinkler one day and never dried them out.  Try to recycle as much as you can, separating the paper from the glass and plastics.  Anything hazardous (old paints and batteries) should be disposed of in proper units.

Note: if you are disposing of papers, make sure you shred them to remove any personal information (such as your name, address, bank details, date of birth, etc).  If you are getting rid of old computers, cell / mobile phones, laptops, memory sticks, USB keys – anything that can hold data – ensure you take the time to back up your important information and reformat (several times) the item you are giving away.  This helps protect your identity and removes any problems you might have with giving away unlicensed software.

Now, turning to the stuff that is usable.  Could there be some intrinsic value to them, or do you have the time to sell them?  You could take them to your neighbourhood garage / car boot sale and maybe get a few dollars back from them, or turn them over to charity to sell on.

If you’re not interested in selling those items (used baby clothes are often difficult to sell even though they may still be in great condition), turn to an organisation like Freecycle.  This is a free email service which uses conventions like WANTED, OFFERED, COLLECTED in email subject lines to help re-home items of good condition that often can’t be sold.

In many cases you might have an item that still has some intrinsic value to it – such as a set of old records in good condition, or a pair of skis you never use.  You should consider selling these on Ebay or some other auction site, doing so at the right time of year (sell the skis when people are gearing up for the winter snow season, for example!)

However, if you do want to sell such items, be prepared to put some time into marketing them – if you want the best price, of course!  You should consider describing the item in detail – size, weight, colour, and other specifications.  Maybe add a short personal anecdote about when you used it and how helpful it was.  Take some photos of it – most mobile phones these days come with good quality cameras and you can easy download photos to your computer.  If it’s easier to describe the item with a video, consider shooting a 30 or 60 second video with your mobile and uploading that to YouTube (you should link your eBay ad to the video link too).  Spending a little time with each of these options could make your item more attractive to buyers and help you provide clearer answers on shipping terms and prices.

If you’re selling an old mobile phone (in the UK, at least) consider using a price comparison site to help you get the best deal.  Remember, consider both working and non-working phones as there is a market for both.

Whew!  Hopefully these tips are giving you a bit of extra elbow room.  Do write us with your ideas of how you cleaned out your home or office, and useful web sites that helped you!

Additional Industry News:

• Cargotecture | 360Digest – According to the Wall Street Journal, there is enough space in rentable self-storage lockers in the U. for each man, woman and child to stand on a spot 2 ½ feet by 2 ½ feet, with room left over. While 40 percent of the total self-storage space is rented by businesses, one in every 11 American households now has a self-storage unit.
• consolidate debt and climb out from underneath your bills – It’s really sad when I get gas for $2.82 a gallon and think, “Gee, that’s cheap!” But when you consider that just a few months ago, I was paying $1 more a gallon, yeah, anything under $3 looks good to me. …
• Midlife Geeky Speaky – Chicago Self Storage Offers Smartbox Storage Syste. Recent Comments. La Stella Blu With the current state of the econo. lida thx man.
• Good self storage blog – Space should not be your only concern when looking for good Saskatoon storage units . Security should also be an important factor to look for when choosing a facility to store your belongings. Today, more and more storing facilities offer improved security measures, which means that you can put a number of different things away without worrying if they will be safe….

Our most recent partnership is with Goldjobs, a portal for £100,000 and above appointments placed by executive search firms.  “What does recruitment have to do with storage?” we hear you asking.  I’ll turn the question over to Rosalyn Rahme, CEO of Goldjobs, to explain.

“WORKING with the Goldjobs network is a privilege. Not only do I get to meet some of the brightest and most innovative minds from around the globe but I receive insights into businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Whilst 75% of the Goldjobs clients are large corporate companies, a quarter of our clients are specialist boutique companies. These include Ventures, subsidiaries, start-ups and partnerships. Most of these boutique businesses have the flexibility to act quickly when making business decisions.

Of course, this includes decisions around when they need more or less office or storage space!

Boutique firms don’t have the scale or the administrative infrastructure to hold them back from being creative with the way they employ staff, use office space etc. They are often looking for an alternative to a home office or an office nearby to store their surplus supplies, kit and records.

While there are plenty of routes for finding flexible staff and Associates there has not been a straightforward way to find more space or licence out temporary additional space. With long leases a legacy from the past, boutique firms are often renting or owner managing their own property. Most of them usually need more space or have additional space they don’t use. StorPod looks to address this very gap in the market and we are delighted to be working with them on an alliance.

While we could point to the obvious downsizing of many companies in 2009 it is not on this is not what we focus our attention to, but the flexibility required for 21^st century working.

I am sure many members of our network will reap benefits from this new venture.

~ Rosalyn Rahme, CEO Goldjobs”

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, posted an article on his personal blog this week linking the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt to our modern culture of hoarding and storing excess possessions.

Thanks to the economic prosperity of many countries, citizens collect possessions like never before.  Our “stuff” is sentimental, practical, mandated by law (i.e. archived tax files) and also necessary.

But what do we do with it all?  In older cities like London, we may live in a 200-year old building whose original architect never foresaw sub-dividing it into tiny flats…  or our need to store bulky suitcases to support 21st Century low-cost travel!

Born in the United States over 50 years ago, the self-storage (or “mini-storage”) industry gives us a solution: millions of square feet of secure, well-ventilated, clean, and fit-for-purpose space exist to help keep our extra possessions.

Is it sustainable?

The danger of course, is that as our society becomes wealthier, we put extra pressure on finite space by accumulating more goods.  Self-storage operators will grow to meet demand, but may need to do so further away from dense city centres.

But surely not every square foot in the city is being used?  In fact, Michael Holmes (a major UK TV property expert) recently indicated that collectively British homes could be realising over £38 billion worth of annual income by renting out spare rooms to living tenants.  Additionally there could be attractive tax advantages – and intangibly, a growth in sense of “community” – by doing so as well.

Why not access this cash by renting storage space?  Whether it’s in London, New York, Vancouver, Tokyo, Sydney there is always a spare room, vacant office, corner of an attic or garden shed that can be hired out to store a neighbour’s ski equipment, small business product samples, old photo albums and more.  The advantages are far reaching:

• helping build a sense of local community
• taking a “green option” by using existing protected space
• helping boost cash flow – often just enough that’s needed to keep things going during tough economic times
• realising taxable benefits for homeowners

Converting Space Made Easy with Lets-Do-DIY.com

Our friends at Lets-Do-DIY.com – who provide free do-it-yourself advice to enhance and improve your living environment – have some good suggestions to help you on your way to providing self-storage.

Thinking about the extra space you might have available to rent out, what needs to be done to make it ready for someone else to move in?  Consider your cheapest options first – if your garden shed is damp, perhaps it’s best suited to store a boat.  If your attic is quite dry, then it’s ideal for photos and non-seasonal clothing.

A spare room might require a simple paint job.  Where do you start first?  Ceiling or doors?  How much paint should you buy?  What other supplies do you need?  Should you paint in a zig-zag or parallel lines?  All of these topics (and more) are covered on the site.

It’s possible you may have a loft or attic that could be suitable space, but there’s a strange breeze through there and occasionally you see some wildlife.  Again, Lets-Do-DIY provides terrific articles and an active forum where you can discuss specific issues like how to remove plasterboard from the ceiling to ready the space for insulation.

No obvious space to use?  Your teenage son has come back home to reclaim his bedroom?  A new employee has just started and needs that back office?  Perhaps you might have a few square feet in a flat area that can be creatively turned into storage anyhow – why not build a new garden shed?

A wide array of other subjects like providing security for your home, discussion of legislation that you need to incorporate into your building plans a thorough review of the best products on the market or simply descriptions of the best tools to use are all included on the site.

Large or small, Lets-do-DIY.com offers some fantastic advice for free about the best way to handle your job.  You may find a new hobby, a shared interest with your spouse or other family member, or simply a way to help increase the enjoyment and value of your home or office.

So, do something green.  Do it for extra cash.  Do it for the space.

And Happy Podding!