Working from home has settled into normal life for a lot of people now. For some it’s every day and for others it’s two or three days a week, but either way the kitchen table arrangement that felt fine as a stopgap tends to wear thin after a while.

When you’re clearing your laptop away every evening so the dinner can go down, taking calls with the washing machine going in the background, and never quite feeling like you’ve finished for the day it can start to get a bit too much.

The obvious answer is a proper room to work in, and that’s usually when people start wondering about a bigger house. Before going down that road, it’s worth taking a hard look at the space you already have, because more often than not the space you need is already there but it’s just full.

The spare room is usually storage in disguise

Most homes have one. The box room / spare bedroom / the room at the back that started out with a purpose and slowly became the place where things go when nobody knows where else to put them. There’s a bed in there for visitors who come twice a year, the exercise bike from a January that didn’t quite stick, a few boxes from the last move that never got unpacked, and the Christmas decorations waiting for December.

None of it is junk, and that’s the problem. It’s all stuff you want to keep, the attic and the hot press are already full, so it ends up taking over a whole room that could be doing a lot more for you.

Work out what’s actually in there

Before anything moves, go through the room properly and sort things into rough groups. Some of it you use regularly and it needs to stay in the house. Some of it you want to keep but only need now and again. And some of it, if you’re honest, you’ve been holding onto out of habit and could happily let go.

The middle group is usually the biggest, and it’s the one that makes the difference. Seasonal decorations, spare bedding and furniture you’re not using at the moment don’t need to live in your house all year round. They just need to be somewhere safe that you can get to when you want them.

What to do about the spare bed

This is the one that holds a lot of people back, because the guest bed feels like the main reason the room exists. It’s worth being realistic about how often it gets used. If it’s a handful of nights a year, it may not be earning its place.

You could store the bed and replace it with a sofa bed, so the room works as an office most of the time and can still put someone up when needed. Or you could keep the bed in storage and bring it back for a longer visit. If you do store a mattress, keep it flat and covered rather than standing it on its side, as it’ll hold its shape much better that way.

Make room for the work itself

Once the room is clear, think about the work side of things too. If you’re self-employed or running a small business from home, there’s a good chance you’ve got files, samples, stock or equipment that you don’t need to hand every day. Keeping those in a storage unit means your office stays set up for the work you’re doing now, rather than turning into another overflow room within six months.

With 24-hour access to your unit, you can call in early in the morning or after work without having to plan your day around opening hours.

Compare it with the cost of moving

Moving house to get an extra room is a big decision. Between stamp duty, legal fees, removals and the general upheaval, it’s an expensive way to solve what is often a space problem rather than a house problem, and that’s before you’ve found somewhere suitable.

A storage unit costs a fraction of that and can be sorted within days. It won’t suit everyone, and if your family is genuinely outgrowing the house then moving may well be the right call. But if what you really need is one room back, storage is worth looking at first.

A room that works for you

There’s a big difference between working from a corner of the kitchen and having a door you can close at the end of the day. For a lot of people, getting that space doesn’t need a new house. It needs somewhere to put the things that have slowly taken over the room they already have.

If you’d like help working out what size unit would suit, or you’d just like to come and have a look around, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help, or take a look at our units and book your storage online.