PlacesKöln
Renting a storage unit between two flats in Cologne
All year
German tenancies rarely hand over neatly, and the gap between them is where storage earns its money. How to size a unit honestly, what the difference is between a site inside the ring and one out towards the motorway, which contract terms matter, and the weeks of the year to avoid.
The reason self-storage exists in this city is a scheduling mismatch that almost nobody plans for. Tenancies here tend to end at the end of a month; the new one frequently begins on the first or the fifteenth; the handover inspection on the old flat wants it empty and the handover on the new one has not happened yet. The result is a gap measured in days or weeks, with a flat’s worth of furniture in it.
A storage unit is the least interesting rental in this entire market and one of the most useful. The whole skill is in sizing it honestly and reading four clauses.
Sizing, in cubic metres
| What you have | Volume | Typical unit | Reality check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxes and a few small items | 1–3 m³ | Locker or small unit | Fits in an estate car over two trips |
| A single furnished room | 3–5 m³ | Small unit | One van load with care |
| One-bedroom flat | 5–8 m³ | Medium unit | Two van loads, or one with a large van |
| Two-bedroom flat | 10–15 m³ | Large unit | Add the cellar; everyone forgets the cellar |
| Family flat with a workshop | 15–25 m³ | Double unit or two units | Consider two smaller units on the same floor |
Two corrections to apply to whatever number you arrive at. Add the cellar and the loft, because in the older blocks here those hold more than the flat does. Then subtract nothing for the things you intend to throw away, because you will not.
Also measure the door of the unit and the widest item you own. A unit with enough volume and a narrow door is not a unit that holds your wardrobe, and the disassembly you had not planned for happens on the pavement in the rain.
Inside the ring or out by the motorway
Sites cluster in two bands. There are units in and around the inner districts, frequently in converted commercial buildings with lifts and limited loading space, and there are larger purpose-built sites further out towards Kalk, Ossendorf, Bayenthal and the ring roads, with drive-up bays and more stock.
The trade-off is straightforward and worth taking seriously. An inner site costs more per cubic metre and saves you time on every visit; an outer site is cheaper and adds a vehicle journey each way. For a two-week bridge between tenancies, the inner site usually wins because you will be in and out of it repeatedly. For six months of stored furniture, the outer one wins by a distance.
The variable people underestimate is loading. A drive-up unit where the van stops at the door is a completely different job from a third-floor unit reached by a goods lift and a hundred metres of corridor. Ask specifically how far the bay is from the unit, and whether trolleys are provided or you are carrying.
The four clauses that matter
Minimum term and notice. A month is a common minimum and a couple of weeks a common notice period, but the interaction with the billing date is what decides whether you pay for an empty month. Ask how notice is counted.
Insurance. Contents cover is frequently compulsory. The operator will sell you a policy; your household insurer may already cover goods in storage, sometimes only for a limited period and sometimes only at named locations. Check before you buy twice, and check the sum insured against what you are actually storing.
Access hours. Twenty-four hour access sounds like a luxury until you are loading after work in January. Some sites restrict access to office hours, some charge for extended access, and a few restrict vehicle access separately from pedestrian access.
What may not be stored. Standard exclusions cover anything flammable, gas bottles, perishables and anything living. This catches people who assumed the dispense equipment gas bottle could live in the unit between events. It cannot.
Damp, and where the unit sits
This is a river city with a long grey winter, and unheated storage tracks the outside humidity closely. Over three months that is enough to affect solid wood, veneer, upholstery, paper, photographs and anything with a felt or leather surface.
Practical measures cost nothing. Get the unit off the ground floor if you can, or at least away from the roller door. Put everything on pallets or battens rather than directly on the slab. Leave a hand’s width between stacks and the walls. Wrap upholstery in breathable covers rather than plastic sheet, which traps moisture against the fabric. And do not store anything genuinely valuable in an unheated unit over a winter if you have a better option.
Weeks to avoid
Two clusters, for different reasons.
The end of a month, and especially the last working days of March and September, is when everybody in the city moves. Vans, lifts, crews and the good time slots at storage sites all go at once, and prices follow. Moving mid-month is cheaper and calmer, and if your tenancy dates allow even a few days of overlap, use them.
It is also the period when short-term accommodation to bridge the gap is hardest to find, for exactly the same reason — the flat market has its own peaks, set out in short-term flats during carnival week.
The carnival week is the other one, and it is absolute rather than merely expensive. Streets in whole districts are closed on the parade days, kerbside space cannot be reserved where the closures apply, and a vehicle that cannot get within fifty metres of the door turns a four-hour move into a full day. If your handover falls in that week, do the loading before it starts.
Packing for a unit rather than for a flat
One habit is worth adopting, and it is the difference between a unit you can use and a unit you have to empty to find anything. Leave an aisle down the middle. It costs perhaps fifteen per cent of the volume and it means that the box you need in week three is reachable without unloading the whole thing onto the corridor floor.
Label the sides of boxes rather than the tops, because in a stacked unit you only ever see the sides. Keep a single-page inventory on your phone. And put the things you are most likely to need — documents, tools, the kettle — nearest the door, because you will need at least one of them before the new flat is ready.
What to check before you book
- Measure the volume you actually have, in cubic metres, before you take anyone’s size recommendation.
- Check the access hours, and whether out-of-hours access costs extra or is unavailable at that site.
- Ask the minimum term and the notice period. Both are commonly shorter than people assume and worth confirming.
- Find out whether contents insurance is compulsory, whether the operator sells it, and whether your household policy already covers goods in storage.
- Ask whether the unit is heated, and where it sits in the building. Ground-floor units at the back are the damp ones.
- Confirm loading arrangements: how far the bay is from the unit, whether trolleys are provided, and whether a lift is involved.
- Avoid the end of the month and the carnival week for both the move in and the move out.
Questions people actually ask
- What size storage unit do I need for a flat move?
Count in cubic metres rather than in rooms. A single room of furniture and boxes is commonly three to five cubic metres, a one-bedroom flat five to eight, and a two-bedroom flat ten to fifteen once you include the things in the cellar that you forgot about. Measure your largest items separately, because a wardrobe that will not go through the unit door makes the volume figure irrelevant.
- Is it cheaper to store outside the city?
Per cubic metre, usually yes, and the saving is real over several months. What you pay instead is a longer van trip at both ends and a less convenient site to visit. For a short bridge between two tenancies, a site you can reach easily is often worth the premium; for six months of furniture you are not going to touch, the ring-road site wins clearly.
- Are storage units heated?
Some are and many are not, and it matters more than people expect for a winter store. Unheated units in this climate go through damp cycles that affect wooden furniture, instruments, paper and photographs. Ask directly, ask where in the building the unit is, and if the answer is an unheated ground-floor unit, keep everything off the floor and leave air gaps.
- How short can a storage contract be?
Frequently a month as the minimum term, with a notice period of a couple of weeks, though both vary and are worth confirming in writing. Introductory offers on the first month are common and can make a short bridge unusually cheap. What you should check is how the notice interacts with the billing period, so you are not paying for a month you spend empty.