Work out what your office space actually costs
Start with a number most businesses have never calculated: what one square foot of your premises costs you per year, all in, including rent, service charge, business rates, utilities and insurance.
Then look around and estimate how much of that floor space is occupied by things nobody has touched this year. Archive boxes, spare furniture, exhibition stands, seasonal stock, the printer that was replaced two years ago.
In London the arithmetic is usually decisive. Office space is priced for people working in it, not for cardboard. Storing the same volume off site typically costs a fraction of the same space in an office, and it frees the expensive space for what actually generates money.
That is the entire argument for business storage, and it holds for a two person studio as much as a fifty person floor.
What businesses actually store
Archive files and records. The largest category, and often the least optional. UK businesses have legal retention periods to meet, which our guide to an office clear out covers in detail. Records you must keep but rarely consult are the clearest case for off site storage there is.
Stock and seasonal inventory. Retailers and e commerce businesses holding overflow, seasonal ranges or slow moving lines without committing to a larger unit.
Exhibition and event equipment. Stands, banners, display units and demo kit used a handful of times a year and stored the rest of it.
Furniture and equipment during a refurbishment or reconfiguration. Empty the floor, let the work happen, bring things back in stages. Far quicker for the contractors and far less damaging to the furniture.
Surplus from a move. Almost every office move leaves furniture that does not fit the new layout. Storing it beats disposing of it in the week you are least able to decide.
IT and equipment between projects. With the caveat that anything holding data needs handling properly, and anything being disposed of needs certified data destruction and WEEE compliant recycling.
Records, confidentiality and access
Storing business records is not the same as storing a sofa, and it is worth being deliberate.
Index before you store. A box marked "accounts, various" is a box someone will spend an afternoon opening. Number the boxes, keep a list of contents, and note any destruction date so you are not paying to store paperwork a decade after it stopped mattering.
Think about personal data. If boxes contain HR files, customer records or anything else covered by data protection rules, the same obligations apply in a warehouse as in your office. Keep the index, know what is where, and know when it should be destroyed.
Plan for retrieval. Containers are stacked in a warehouse, so access needs a few working days of notice rather than a walk down a corridor. If a particular box might be wanted at short notice, load it last so it sits at the front, or keep that one on site.
Destroy properly. Anything containing personal or financial data needs confidential destruction rather than a recycling bin.
How container storage works for a business
The mechanics are the same as for a household, which suits a business that has no time to run a logistics exercise.
Containers are delivered to your premises, loaded by our crew, sealed and taken to a monitored facility. When you want something back, the container is returned to whichever address you nominate. Nobody spends a morning driving boxes to an industrial estate.
Each container is allocated to one customer and sealed, and the warehouse is alarmed and access controlled. The full detail on sizes, access and cost is in our guide to how container storage works.
For a business the practical advantages are the flexibility rather than the space itself. Add containers as you need them, reduce when you do not, and no long lease attached to any of it.
Storage or bigger premises?
Worth asking properly rather than defaulting to one or the other.
Take more space if the constraint is people. Desks, meeting rooms and the ability to hire are not solved by a warehouse.
Use storage if the constraint is things. Archive, stock, equipment and furniture do not need to be within walking distance of a desk, and paying office rates to keep them there is expensive.
Plenty of businesses discover that a floor which felt too small is actually the right size once the boxes are gone. That is a cheaper answer than a bigger lease, and it takes a week rather than a year.
If the honest answer is that the location itself is wrong, our guide to whether your business should move premises covers leases, dilapidations and staff consultation, and planning an office move covers the execution.
Before you store anything
The same discipline that applies to household storage applies here, and matters more because the cost recurs on a business account.
Sort into four categories rather than two: keep on site, store off site, digitise, and destroy securely. Most items fall into the middle two. Then set a review date, because a container taken for a project has a way of running for years by default. Our guide to deciding what is worth storing covers the test.
Frequently asked questions
Is business storage cheaper than office space? Usually, and substantially so in London. Compare your all in cost per square foot of office space against storing the same volume off site. Records and equipment you rarely consult are the clearest saving.
Can I store business records off site? Yes, and many businesses must keep records for years. Index the boxes, record any destruction dates, and treat anything containing personal data with the same care you would on site.
How quickly can I get a box back from storage? Allow a few working days. Containers are stacked in a warehouse, so retrieval and return deliveries are scheduled rather than immediate. Keep anything urgent on site.
Can I add or reduce containers as my needs change? Yes. You book the number you need and adjust as circumstances change, without a lease attached.
What happens to old IT equipment? Arrange certified data destruction, then dispose of the hardware through a WEEE compliant recycler. A factory reset is not sufficient for equipment that has held company or client data.
Should I take a bigger office or use storage? If the constraint is people, take more space. If it is things, storage is far cheaper. Many businesses find the space they have is adequate once the archive and surplus furniture have gone.
Talk to us
RMV Storage & Removals works with London businesses on container storage collected from your premises, office and house removals including out of hours moves, packing materials and professional cleaning, across every area we cover including Wembley and Wembley storage.
Tell us roughly what you need to store and how often you will need it back, and we will tell you how many containers it takes. Get in touch.
Written by Riki Migliori, Director at RMV Storage & Removals. Originally published December 2017. Fully reviewed and updated summer 2026.