Storage Options

Posted on by

People find a need for storing their stuff for lots of reasons. From a temporary spot for shipping boxes to downsizing living space to making extra room for a growing family, there are various options one can choose from, four of which are covered here.

Classic Storage Units
Most people are aware of self-storage units, and these make a great choice for keeping stuff out of the way. It’s a common choice when consumers are in between homes and need a place to centralize their belongings.

On the positive side, self-storage units typically provide users with around-the-clock access. They also frequently have security monitoring as well as coded gates that allow only customers to get in via a personal code that’s been assigned. On the downside, customers have to get their items to and from storage using their own vehicles.

The cost of renting a self-storage unit is dependent upon factors including location, features, and size. Larger units that are suitable for storing the contents of an entire home may cost, on average, $150 to $230 each month.

Pods
Another option for storage is what’s known as a “pod”. These offer the convenience of bringing the storage directly to the packing location which makes it easy to fill. Once full, the pod is relocated to a new place. The pod company will haul the pod via truck on behalf of customers. The downside to pods is that they’re not as large as a stationary unit.

Quotes for pod rental can be obtained online. On average, a pod with space for three or four rooms’ worth of stuff runs around $175 per month. In addition, there’s a transporting fee for both delivery and relocation, and that runs approximately $65 for each.

Concierge Storage
Concierge storage is simply a complete service in which the company takes care of both packing and storing. They’ll also bring customers items they may discover are needed after they’ve been stored. This means that customers don’t have to be concerned with transporting items.

This service is very convenient as the concierge company performs a complete inventory of the contents. The finished list that’s given to the customer has numbered labels with a description of what each number represents.

On the downside, items that are needed can only be gotten during company hours. The cost of concierge storage depends on the location’s general cost of living.

Peer-to-Peer
This simple storage method is just what it sounds like. People in need of storage can search for someone who’s offering to rent out home space, such as an attic or cellar, for storage.

There are benefits to the peer-to-peer approach because it’s more personalized as far as amount of space and cost. There’s more flexibility than there would be with a firmly-structured company. On the downside, the peer-to-peer storage trend is still new and only available in a limited number of places, so it may not be convenient.

The cost of peer-to-peer storage is determined by a number of factors including location and negotiations agreed upon by the host and the renter. However, the overall cost for this type of storage is about half the cost of commercial storage.

Top Tips For Moving Your Business Efficiently And Systematically

Posted on by

Relocating your business is not an easy process and needs a lot of careful planning. Moving is a complicated process, and above it, when you are in the course of moving your business, it becomes even more challenging. Relocating your office, showroom, boutique, shop, store, and branch from one address to other is a daunting task, but an organized moving plan can make things happen with ease. Any mishap in the moving process causes loss of time and money for the business owner, so the top priorities for the business owners are to ensure safe, quick and systematic relocation of physical property and equipment from one address to the other. Before delving into the common factors that should be considered carefully before moving, let us see why businesses move in the first place –

Top Reasons Why Businesses Move?

  • The rising rates of rents in some of the locations, an example in Houston, TX, are causing some of the shop and business owners to move their business to other sites. It saves money and overall overhead costs.
  • Many businesses are moving to locations with favorable taxes rates compared to where they are currently located. It helps in increasing overall profits and ensures that the companies can make considerable savings at the end of the day.
  • Many companies as they grow and turnover a bit are on the lookout for a better location to be close to their target audience. For stores selling children related product, it makes sense to be near malls or schools or parks. Similarly, the businesses selling food would want to be in crowded commercial or residential area to attract more people to eat at their restaurant or food center.

  • Significant changes in the neighborhood can impact the business and its turnover. Most of the neighborhood evolve with time, and if there are changes that affect the business negatively or slows it down, it makes sense to relocate to an active and growing area.
  • If the business has suffered due to natural calamities or due to robbery or theft, many of the business owners may decide to relocate than to rebuild at the same place, especially if the chances of such damages happening in future persists.
  • Many businesses just move to a better area to get access to better employees and stay close to their target audience.
  • Relocation is often done in a systematic manner as a mean for business expansion as well.

Here, check out the few moving tips as well –

  • Make sure that your employees and customers are aware of business relocation well in advance. It would ensure that the clientele has the new address and the employees can pack their things and take care of their logistics issues beforehand.
  • The property and equipment that needs to move should be taken into the account before the moving company is hired. It would keep things organized and ensure you do not miss out anything in the process.
  • Do know that just because you are moving, it is not essential to transport just about everything. Some old and worn out property and equipment can be discarded and must be replaced with new ones.
  • Make sure that the moving company you choose is reliable, well-reviewed and is thoroughly professional.
  • Once you have moved to the new address, updating your website, social media accounts, visiting cards, and other areas with the new address is crucial to keep the customers and target audience well-informed about your new address.

These are the few tips and factors that you should consider when moving your business to the new address. It is a challenging process, but with the help of a professional moving company, things would stay organized and systematic.

The Top Three Things to be Most Thankful for This Thanksgiving

Posted on by

There are a great many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Most people are very thankful for their family and friends. This seems to be the normal thing to do. Seeing as how we are a packing company, we are putting a whole new spin on the idea of being grateful.

The top three inventions We Have to be thankful for

1) Vacuum packing is the first one. This packaging is used mostly with chicken and other kinds of poultry. This type of packaging will remove the oxygen, thereby extending the life of the item. This works out well for all types of frozen foods.

Before the item is sent out, a nozzle is inserted inside the package. This nozzle removes the air and the item is good to go. Butterball is a big believer in this type of packaging. A rep from the company says that their frozen turkeys and other meats can last for more than two years due to vacuum packaging.

You can also extend the life of Thanksgiving leftovers. Take the leftovers and put them in their freezer. Your food will last for a long time. This is one big reason to be thankful. Hungry for some turkey a few weeks after the big feats? Take the package out. Thaw and heat it up. You are good to go.

2) Canning is the second biggest way to go. Millions of homeowners have gotten involved with canning. Most of us take the items from the can and throw the can away. This is very wasteful. Studies have shown that canned food can last over 100 years or more.

Say you decide to can some green beans. Come back to it 100 years later, it is still free from bacteria and other toxins. Canning is one of the more underrated ways of preserving foods for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Take fruits and vegetables for example. Most of them go out of date by November. These canned items can last well beyond this time frame. Many of them work well in stews, casseroles, and pies.

3) Flash freezing is something that many do not know about. Though it is unknown by many, it still makes the list for the top 3 things to be most thankful for. There are some who are not keen on the idea of fresh fruits and vegetables. They prefer the frozen items. The only thing that gets in the way are the ice crystals. Ice crystals can change the taste and texture of your food, even after Thanksgiving is long gone.

It started back in the 1920’s. It is a freezing process that freezes the item faster, but at a lower temperature than traditional freezing. The better way to do this is to use liquid nitrogen.

This process helps to reduce the number of ice crystals that form. This way the taste of your food will not change before, during and after your Thanksgiving meal. Have you ever noticed how some foods form these crystals after they have been sitting in the freezer for a while? This process changes all this. Your food will still have the same appeal and the extended shelf life.

When To Use Pallet Top Sheeting

Posted on by

If you are a business who consistently ships large orders on pallets, you are very well aware of how often and easily shipments can get damaged. That is why you take all of the necessary precautions in order to keep your palettes safe. Yes, within your palettes you probably have individually packaged cardboard boxes or some other type of packaging supplies. Yet, you know that sometimes a cardboard box isn’t enough to completely keep your shipment safe from dust, moisture, or UV rays. This is why pellet top sheeting was invented.

Pallets top sheeting is a polyethylene plastic material that normal comes in pre-perforated sheets. These sheets are flat and can be easily torn and placed on top of your pallet shipments and products.  Thickness and the sheets will vary, but one of the most common thicknesses is about 1.5 mil thick. As far as cost goes, these sheets tend to fairly inexpensive, with each sheet costing only $0.50 on average. The benefits to using these sheets are numerous, and can often times save you loads of money in the end.

By using pallet top sheeting, you can further guarantee the safety of a shipment against different environmental aspects such as dust, moisture, and UV rays. However, a shipment is not the only time and place these sheets are appropriate. For instance, if you need to store items long term, these sheets can help protect your valuables against the same elements as you would in shipping. These sheets can be especially beneficial when it comes to keeping products unsoiled, like clothing, that otherwise might need to be washed and cleaned before being able to actually sell said product. Or, let’s say you need to store electronics long-term, pallet top sheeting can literally be the difference in whether or not your electronic devices survive. This is because electronics are susceptible to dust, and can damaged over time if too much dust collects.

Another instance in which pallet top sheeting can be helpful is in a wet and humid environment. Like with dust. Condensation, humidity, and moisture can be extremely damaging to a vast number of products. And if you are shipping products all around the country, or world, you’re going to need something that will help protect your products through the changing climates. It’s important to note that if the environment your product will encounter is one of high humidity and low moisture, top sheeting is the perfect option. However, in a high moisture environments pallet covers or pallet shrink bags will tend to be a better option.

Finally, pallet top seeding is also very beneficial when it comes to protecting your products against UV rays. In fact, by combining opaque sheeting with opaque stretch film you can block out about 99% of all harmful UV rays. This will help keep your products and being damaged or prevent them from fading. It’s interesting how many people don’t realize how damaging UV rays can be. Therefore, it’s important to make sure your products/investment is protected.

Pallet top sheeting is a packaging option that is definitely worth the investment. It’s easy to manage, inexpensive, and will protect your cardboard boxes and pallets from damage during shipment or storage. Believe us when we say, you won’t regret it.

How To Organize Your Moving Boxes

Posted on by

The time has arrived. It’s time to pack up your entire house into a million different shipping boxes, and make the move to your new home. But, now you have to figure out how you’re going to stay organized during this process. After all, the worst thing that could probably happen is that you lose some of your items along the way do to disorganization. And as you can probably guess, trying to keep a bunch of different shipping boxes that look exactly alike organized can be a mission in itself. So, in this article we will give you some tips and tricks on how to better organize your moving boxes so that you can better keep track of your items, and make sure they all arrive safely into your new home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOQjBHfufKM

The first thing that we recommend is to pack your items by room. Not only is this one of the most efficient ways, but it also allows you to group your items that belong together in the same boxes. This will make it 100 times easier on the other end when you start to unpack, because, you already have items that belong in the same room, together.

The next, you need to make sure that you label every box. For instance, if you’ve just finished packing up the kitchen, make sure you label all your boxes of kitchen. The same would go for your bedroom, pantry, or garage. If you have more than one box, which you probably will, for each room. Then you can label them as kitchen #1, bedroom #3, bathroom #2, etc. You can also color coordinate if you think that the visual help you even further be able to keep track of your boxes.

We also recommend that you set up in inventory list that will help keep track of all your different items in your different boxes. For instance, let’s say that you have just finished packing up kitchen box #3. Have a master list and write down everything that belongs in that particular box. This will be able to help you when you get to your new home to better know what’s inside each box. Thus allowing you to know which box is priority to unpack, and which ones can take extra time.

Also, make sure that you set aside any items that are vital for when you first move into your new home. Put these particular items into their own shipping boxes, and label them as “Vital” or “Need ASAP”. This will be able to allow you to easily identify which boxes that you will need the first night or day you move in. Also, we recommend packing these boxes last, that way they are the first to come out of the truck.

If you have any valuable items, or breakable items, make sure that they are carefully wrapped with the proper shipping supplies, and are placed in an appropriate shipping box. Be diligent to notes at that box is fragile and be sure to designate which end needs to stay up. Also, make sure that if your items are valuable, you don’t label what they are. This unfortunately will just scream, “steal me”, and make them more susceptible to be stolen.

Moving is definitely not fun. But, it doesn’t have to be stressful. You just need to make sure that you have a plan in place and that you’re carefully marking your moving boxes so you know exactly what they are and where they need to go when you get to your new location. If you do this, you will eliminate a majority of your stress, and allow you to better enjoy this new adventure that you are about to embark upon. Happy moving!