How to Use a Storage Unit as a Landscaping Business

The professional movers at All My Sons Moving & Storage offer tips on how to use a storage unit as a landscaping business.

As a landscaping and lawn care business, you might acquire numerous tools and resources to help keep your neighborhood’s lawns pristine and HOA-approved. Your customers depend on you to take care of their trees, bushes, flowers, and grass, which means you have a legion of mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers. If you don’t have your own office space, you might run your landscaping business out of a shed or a garage. There may come a time when you and your family want that space back for home use again, and if that happens then renting a storage unit could be the cost-effective solution to help keep your business running.

Here's how to use a storage unit as a landscaping business.

As a landscaping business, you have different needs than businesses storing holiday décor or documents. Your storage unit should be close to your customer’s homes so that you can take your equipment over to your many jobs, and your storage unit should be large enough to accommodate your lawn care inventory. Before you pick a facility and a unit, consider your needs in a storage unit.

Here are some of the options to think about when you’re looking into storage for your landscaping company equipment. 

• 24-Hour Access: You have jobs to do on the daily, and sometimes around the clock. Storage facilities that have limited access hours might not work for you, and you should look into getting 24 hour access for your unit so you can pick up or drop off equipment exactly when you need to.

• Drive-Up Units:  Drive up units are located on the ground floor with plenty of space in front to park your landscaping trailer. Ease of access makes drive-up units especially attractive to landscaping businesses, because you and your employees can get in and out of your unit without the hassle of stairs or doorways. While drive-up units gain points in accessibility, they are often not temperature-controlled and will be subject to any extreme shifts in the outside weather conditions. If you are storing lawn equipment, then temperature shifts might not affect your items.

• Climate Controlled Units: Items sensitive to temperature changes or shifts in humidity should be stored in units that are climate-controlled. These units add extra protection for your items from the elements.

• Full-Service Storage: If you have seasonal items that you only need to access a couple times a year, a full-service storage facility might be the answer you’re looking for. Full-service storage packs your belongings for you and then retrieves then again when you request them. This might not be ideal for item you need often but items like equipment for snow removal could safely go into storage for months without you needing them.

When you have reviewed all the options available, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about what storage solution to choose for your landscaping business. A great storage facility can help you determine how much space you need to accommodate all your items and what kind of amenities you will need.

When you pack your storage unit for the first time and after every job you complete, you should take extra steps to ensure your items can come out of storage in the same condition. 

Follow these guidelines as you prepare your items for storage.

• Purge Items You Should Not Store: Your storage facility will likely provide you with a list of items that they prohibit you from storing. These items can be dangerous to store or too much of a liability for the storage facility to take on. You should check the list or your contract to make sure none of your items are prohibited. 

• Clean and Dry Items: Every time you put items back in storage, you should make sure they are clean and dry. Be sure to wash dirt and vegetation off your lawn care tools before you put them back into storage. Storing mud-covered tools with bits of grass stuck to them might attract pests.

• Drain Gas or Fluids: Gasoline and oil are among the item typically prohibited at storage facilities. Some of your lawn equipment might need gas or another fuel to function. Be sure to drain excess gas or fluid from your lawn equipment when you go to put it into storage.

With a little extra care and thought, you can keep your lawn tools happily trimming and mowing for years to come. Protect your investment and treat those lawn tools with care even as they’re going into the storage unit.

Once you have chosen a unit that meets your needs and adequately prepared your items for storage, you should also look into organizing your unit well. Making sure you have ready access to your most-used tools and resources will streamline your loading and unloading processes and enable you to get to your jobs quicker.

Save yourself from lost or damaged lawn tools, and take these steps to organize your unit.

• Map the Unit by Ease of Access: Keep your most used items fully accessible. The items going into the back or to inaccessible location should be items you do not use as often. 

• Use Shelves:  Maximize space in your unit and make all your smaller tools easy to access by putting shelves inside your unit. 

• Leave Aisles for Navigation: Leave space in your unit for you and your employees to be able to grab what they need and get back out of the unit again.

An organized unit means well-maintained tools and happy employees which leads to lawn jobs well done and happy customers. 

Reclaim your garage with the cost-effective alternative to leasing a warehouse space and run your landscaping business out of a storage unit. Enjoy making those lawns look lush and green for years to come.

When you need assistance relocating or storing your landscaping company inventory, call All My Sons Moving & Storage. Our company has been helping businesses and families make their move for over 30 years, and we’d be delighted to help you find a storage solution that will work for your business.