Storage Tips

Every January, the same scene plays out in New Hampshire homes from Nashua to Laconia: the tree comes down, the lights get wound into a ball, and a dozen mismatched boxes get shoved into the attic or under the basement stairs. Then next November someone spends an afternoon untangling lights and finding out which ornaments did not survive the year. Packing holiday decorations well takes about an hour longer than packing them badly, and it pays you back every season after that. Here is how to do it so your decorations come out of storage in the same shape they went in.

Sort and Purge Before You Pack

The easiest decorations to store are the ones you no longer keep. Before anything goes into a box, spread it all out and make three piles: keep, donate, and toss. Test every strand of lights while it is out, and throw away strands with broken sockets, frayed wires, or dead sections. Damaged light sets are a fire risk, and they will not fix themselves in storage.

• Donate decorations you have not put up in two seasons. Local thrift stores and churches are happy to take them in November and December.
• Toss cracked ornaments, crushed bows, and anything with mildew or water stains.
• Use up or throw out leftover candles, which warp and melt in a hot attic or a summer container.
• Group what is left by holiday and by room, so each box has one clear purpose.

Protect Ornaments and Breakables

Glass ornaments, ceramic villages, and heirloom pieces need the most care. Work through them in this order:

1. Use divided containers. Ornament boxes with cardboard or plastic dividers keep pieces from knocking into each other. Egg cartons and plastic cups glued into a shallow tote work well for small ornaments.
2. Wrap each piece on its own. Use acid-free tissue or plain packing paper. Skip newspaper, since the ink rubs off onto painted finishes.
3. Keep original boxes for village pieces. Ceramic houses and figurines fit best in the foam packaging they came in. If that is long gone, wrap them in bubble wrap and pack them snugly in a small box.
4. Pack heavy on the bottom, light on top. Put sturdy items like tree stands and metal signs in their own boxes, and never stack them on top of ornaments.

Our guide to packing fragile items for storage covers more wrapping techniques for glass and ceramics.

Keep Lights, Wreaths, and Garland Tangle-Free

Lights are the most frustrating decoration to unpack because they are the easiest to pack badly. Wrap each strand around a piece of stiff cardboard, a plastic hanger, or an empty coffee can, and tape the plug end down so it does not unravel. Store each strand in a zip bag labeled with its length and where it goes, such as “Front porch railing, 25 ft.” Wreaths keep their shape in a round wreath box or hung from a hook inside a closet. Garland can be coiled loosely into a tote, since tight coils crush the branches. Artificial trees last longer in a tree storage bag than in the original cardboard box, which tends to split after a few seasons.

Label So Next Year Is Easy

Clear plastic totes with lids are the best choice for most decorations, because you can see what is inside and they keep out moisture and mice better than cardboard. Color-coded lids help too: red for Christmas, orange for Halloween and fall, and another color for everything else. Label each tote on two sides with the holiday, the room, and a short list of contents. Number the boxes and keep a simple list on your phone so you know which bin holds the stockings without opening six of them. Our post on labeling boxes for portable storage has a system that works well here.

Where to Store Decorations in New Hampshire

Attics in New Hampshire swing from below freezing in January to well over 100 degrees in July, which warps candles, melts glue on ornaments, and cracks plastic. Damp basements bring mildew. A dry, steady spot is better. If your home is short on space, especially during a move, a renovation, or a houseful of holiday guests, a portable container is a simple option. An 8ft MI-BOX holds a full set of holiday decorations along with patio furniture and other seasonal gear, while a 16ft or 20ft container makes sense if decorations are part of a larger move. Keep totes off the floor on pallets, load the boxes you will want first near the doors, and read our tips on winterizing a storage container if it will sit through the cold months. Our moving and storage containers are delivered to your driveway and picked up whenever you are ready.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Concord, Nashua, Milford, Laconia, and Keene. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too, get a quote.

Early November is when a lot of New Hampshire closets hit their limit. The shorts and beach towels are done for the year, the wool sweaters and flannel sheets are coming out, and if you are in the middle of a move or a renovation in Concord or Manchester, half your wardrobe may need a temporary home. Fabric is easy to pack and easy to ruin. A little care up front means you open your bins in spring to clean, fresh-smelling clothes instead of yellowed shirts, musty sheets, or a sweater with holes in it.

Start With Clean, Completely Dry Fabric

Almost every storage problem with clothing traces back to what went into the bin. Body oils, deodorant, food spots, and perfume that you cannot see in November turn into yellow stains and odors by April, and they attract moths and other pests. Damp fabric is worse: it grows mildew fast in a closed space.

• Wash or dry-clean everything before it goes into storage, even items you only wore once.
• Skip fabric softener and starch on stored items. Both leave residue that can attract pests and stiffen fibers over time.
• Let laundry air out for a day after the dryer. Thick towels, quilts, and comforters often hold moisture in the middle even when the outside feels dry.
• Empty every pocket and close zippers and buttons so garments hold their shape and nothing snags.

Choose the Right Containers for Each Fabric

Not every piece of fabric wants the same packaging. Matching the container to the item keeps things fresh without crushing or trapping moisture. Work through it in this order:

1. Everyday clothes and linens go in lidded plastic totes. Sealed totes keep out dust, moisture, and rodents better than cardboard. Line them with a clean cotton sheet or acid-free tissue so fabric is not pressed directly against plastic.
2. Suits, dresses, and coats go in wardrobe boxes. A tall wardrobe box with a hanging bar keeps structured pieces from creasing. Use breathable cotton garment bags, not the thin plastic bags from the dry cleaner, which trap humidity.
3. Wool and cashmere get extra protection. Fold sweaters rather than hanging them so they do not stretch, and tuck in cedar blocks or lavender sachets as a deterrent. Keep cedar from touching fabric directly, since its oils can stain.
4. Bulky bedding gets compressed carefully. Vacuum-seal bags save a lot of room for synthetic comforters, pillows, and spare blankets. Skip them for down, wool, and leather, which need some air to keep their loft and shape.

Rolling t-shirts, jeans, and casual knits fits more into each tote and leaves fewer hard creases. Fold heavier items like sweaters and table linens loosely, and put the heaviest pieces on the bottom so lighter fabric is not crushed. Wrap heirloom quilts, christening gowns, or wedding dresses in acid-free tissue and give them their own box. Then label every bin on two sides with what is inside and whose it is, such as “Kids winter, sizes 8-10” or “Guest room sheets, queen.” Our guide to labeling boxes for portable storage has a simple system that works well with clothing.

Loading Fabric Into a Portable Container

Once your bins are packed, how you load them matters. Keep totes of clothing off the floor on a pallet or a couple of 2x4s, and stack them away from the walls so air can move around them. Put the items you will want first, like holiday outfits, snow gear, or the spare flannel sheets for guests, near the doors. Toss a few moisture absorbers in among the bins, and never store fabric next to anything that can leak, such as paint, cleaners, or propane. Our posts on winterizing a storage container and keeping pests out cover the rest of a cold-weather setup. Most households storing a season of clothes and linens alongside some furniture find an 8ft MI-BOX plenty, while a 16ft or 20ft container makes sense when clothing is part of a full move or a whole-house renovation.

Common Mistakes With Stored Clothing

• Packing anything slightly damp. One damp towel can raise the humidity in a sealed tote enough to spread mildew to everything around it.
• Using garbage bags or dry-cleaner plastic. They trap moisture, tear easily, and get mistaken for trash during a move.
• Overstuffing bins. Jamming fabric in crushes fibers, sets deep wrinkles, and makes lids pop loose. Leave a little room at the top.
• Forgetting to check in. If clothing will be stored for several months, open a bin or two partway through to make sure everything still smells fresh and dry.

Unpacking Fresh in the Spring

When it is time to swap seasons again, open bins somewhere dry, shake out each piece, and give clothes and linens a day to air out before they go back into drawers. Anything with a stale smell usually just needs a wash. If you packed clean, dry fabric in the right containers and kept it off the floor, that is about all the work there is. Whether you are clearing a closet for the holidays or packing a whole house, our moving and storage containers let you do it from your own driveway, and MI-BOX can pick the container up whenever you are ready.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Concord, Nashua, Milford, Laconia, and Keene. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too, get a quote.

The first real cold snap in New Hampshire does something predictable: every field mouse within a few hundred feet of your house starts looking for a warm, dry place to spend the winter. A storage container sitting in a Concord driveway or out behind a barn in Tilton looks like a five-star hotel to them. If your container is packed with soft furniture, cardboard, and holiday decorations, you have handed them bedding, a food source, and a nesting site all at once. The good news is that pest problems in portable storage are almost entirely preventable, and most of the work happens before you ever load a single box.

Why NH Containers Attract Pests in Fall and Winter

Mice, red squirrels, and the occasional chipmunk are not trying to be destructive. They are cold, and your container is warmer than the woods and drier than the ground. A steel MI-BOX container is actually one of the harder targets out there because the walls and roof are solid, but pests are patient and they will test every seam at floor level. Understanding what pulls them in tells you exactly where to focus.

• Warmth and shelter from wind, rain, and snow, especially once overnight temperatures drop below freezing.
• Food residue — even a few crumbs in a kitchen box or a scented candle can register as a meal.
• Nesting material like upholstery stuffing, paper, cardboard, and natural fibers.
• Quiet, undisturbed space. A container you never open all winter is far more inviting than one you check monthly.

Seal the Entry Points Before You Load

It is far easier to pest-proof an empty container than one packed to the ceiling. Walk the container before your belongings go in and close off the handful of spots that matter.

• Check the door gaskets and make sure they sit flush when the doors are latched. Daylight at the bottom corners means a gap a mouse can use.
• Keep the container level. A box set on uneven ground in a gravel driveway can twist slightly and open a seam — our drivers place it level for exactly this reason.
• Set the container on a paved or compacted surface when you can. Tall grass and leaf piles right against the doors give pests cover to work undetected.
• Clear away brush, firewood stacks, and bird feeders near the container, since those are the staging areas pests travel from.

Pack So Pests Can’t Settle In

How you pack matters as much as how you seal. The goal is to remove the three things pests want — food, nesting material, and hiding spots — from the equation.

1. Clean everything first. Wipe down kitchen items, empty the toaster crumb tray, and never store open or perishable food. A sealed container is not a pantry.
2. Trade cardboard for plastic bins. Hard-sided totes with tight lids keep pests out and resist moisture better than boxes, which mice chew into nests.
3. Seal soft goods in bags. Vacuum bags or heavy contractor bags around cushions, bedding, and clothing remove the cozy nesting material they are hunting for.
4. Leave an inspection aisle. A narrow walkway down the middle of a 16-foot container lets you step in, look around, and spot any activity early instead of unpacking everything in spring to find out.

Common Mistakes That Invite Pests In

Most infestations trace back to a few avoidable habits. Steer around these and you have won most of the battle.

• Storing food “just this once.” A single box of pantry staples or a case of dog food is enough to draw mice from across the yard.
• Using scented deterrents as the whole plan. Peppermint oil and dryer sheets smell nice to you, but on their own they do not replace sealing gaps and removing food.
• Packing wall-to-wall. A container crammed floor to ceiling gives pests endless hiding spots and leaves you no way to inspect it.
• Setting it and forgetting it. A container left untouched from October to April is the ideal undisturbed nest. Regular visits break that up.

Check On It Through the Season

Pest-proofing is not a one-time job, but keeping up with it takes only a few minutes. Open the container on a dry day every few weeks, step inside with a flashlight, and look for droppings, chewed corners, or shredded paper near the floor. Catching one mouse in October is a quick fix; discovering a nest in April after the whole winter is a mess you do not want. A quick monthly walk-through, a couple of well-placed snap traps near the doors, and the packing habits above will keep a MI-BOX container clean and dry straight through to spring — whether it is parked for a renovation, a move, or just seasonal overflow.

Keeping pests out pairs well with the rest of your cold-weather prep. See how to winterize a storage container in NH, our guide to prepping a container for long-term storage, and the list of what not to store in a portable container.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Laconia, Tilton, and Derry. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

Here is a scene that plays out every spring in Concord and Laconia: a homeowner opens the MI-BOX that has been sitting in the driveway since the fall renovation, stares at a wall of identical brown boxes, and has no idea which one holds the good winter coats or the box of tax records. Everything is in there somewhere. Finding it is another story. A short inventory, made before anything goes into storage, turns that guessing game into a 30-second lookup, and it is the one storage habit most people skip.

Why a Home Inventory Is Worth 30 Minutes

An inventory is simply a record of what you put into storage and where it sits in the container. It does three jobs at once, and each one saves you a headache later.

• You can find things without unpacking. A quick list tells you the holiday decorations are in the three bins by the door, so you grab them and close up in minutes instead of emptying half the container.
• It is your proof for insurance. If anything is ever damaged or goes missing, a dated list with photos is what a homeowner or renter policy wants to see. Reconstructing it from memory after the fact almost never works.
• It keeps you honest about what you own. People routinely store things they meant to donate or toss. Listing everything first is the easiest moment to catch that and shrink the load.
• It makes a future move faster. If the stored items are headed to a new home, the inventory doubles as your unload-and-place plan on day one.

What to Capture for Each Item or Box

You do not need a spreadsheet with fifty columns. For most households, five simple details per box are plenty to make the inventory genuinely useful.

• A box number. Write it on the box and in your list so the two always match.
• The room it came from. "Kitchen," "primary bedroom," "garage" — this is how you will want to search later.
• A short contents summary. Three or four words beats a novel: "winter coats, scarves, gloves."
• Rough value for anything worth noting. You only need estimates on the items that matter for insurance, not every spatula.
• A photo. One picture of the open box before you seal it is worth a paragraph of description.

The Fastest Way to Build One

The whole point is a system you will actually finish. Here is the approach that takes the least effort and holds up months later.

1. Number and photograph as you pack. Before you tape a box shut, write its number on two sides, snap a photo of what is inside, and jot the room and contents in a notes app or a single sheet of paper.
2. Keep one running list. A phone notes app, a free spreadsheet, or a dedicated home-inventory app all work. The best tool is the one you will keep open while you pack, not the fanciest one.
3. Group by room, not by trip. Sorting your list by room makes it searchable. You will almost always go looking for "the garage stuff," never for "the third load."
4. Mark the high-value and fragile boxes. A star or a highlight on the list, plus a note on the box itself, tells you and anyone helping to load those last and handle them carefully.

Match Your Inventory to the Way You Load

An inventory and a smart loading plan work together. If your box numbers march from the back of the container to the door in the same order as your list, retrieving anything becomes a matter of reading the number off the list and walking to it. Our guide on organizing a 16ft storage container shows how to keep aisles and access points clear, and a clear box-labeling system is the physical half of the inventory you are building on paper. The list tells you where something is; the labels confirm it when you are standing in front of the container.

Common Inventory Mistakes to Avoid

• Waiting until the container is full. Trying to inventory after everything is loaded means unpacking to see what you have. Capture it as the box goes in, not after.
• Vague contents. "Misc" and "stuff" help no one. Even four honest words make a box findable.
• No photos of valuables. For electronics, tools, and anything you would file a claim on, a photo plus a model number is worth far more than a line of text. Our long-term storage prep guide covers how to protect those items once they are documented.
• Storing the only copy inside the container. A list that lives on a sticky note in the locked MI-BOX is a list you cannot reach. Keep it on your phone and backed up.

Keep the List Where You Will Actually Find It

The finished inventory only earns its keep if you can pull it up the moment you need something. Save it to your phone, email yourself a copy, and if you share the container with family, send the list to them too. Months from now, when you need the winter boots or the box of records, you will open your phone, find the box number, and walk straight to it — which is the whole reason you spent 30 minutes on it up front. A little organization before the MI-BOX doors close pays you back every single time you open them.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Laconia, and Derry. Don't see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

Late September in New Hampshire is garage season. The mower is winding down, the snowblower is about to move to the front of the bay, and half of Concord and Manchester is staring at a wall of bins, bikes, and paint cans wondering where it all came from. A garage is the hardest room in the house to pack because nothing in it matches: heavy tools, awkward lawn gear, fragile holiday decorations, and things that legally should not go in a storage container at all. Here is how to sort, prep, and load a garage into a MI-BOX the right way.

Start by Sorting Into Four Piles

Before a single box gets packed, pull everything to the driveway and split it into four groups. This one step saves you from packing junk you will only throw out in the spring, and it keeps banned items out of the container.

• Keep and store: tools, sports gear, seasonal decor, and equipment you will not need for a few months.
• Keep and use: the snowblower, shovels, ice melt, and anything you need through a NH winter. These stay out.
• Toss or donate: broken tools, dried-out paint, and the treadmill nobody has touched since 2019.
• Never store: gasoline, propane, lawn chemicals, and other flammables. See our NH guide to what not to store before you load.

Prep Tools and Hardware

Hand tools and power tools survive storage fine as long as they go in dry and organized. Wipe metal surfaces down, then guard against rust and lost pieces.

1. Wipe and oil metal. A light coat of machine oil on saw blades, wrenches, and garden tools keeps flash rust off during a damp NH shoulder season.
2. Bag the small stuff. Screws, bits, and hardware go in labeled zip bags inside a single sturdy tote, not loose in a drawer that will spill.
3. Box power tools with their chargers. Keep each drill, driver, and its batteries together so you are not hunting in March.
4. Pull batteries out. Remove alkaline and lithium batteries from tools and flashlights so a slow leak does not ruin them.

Heavy toolboxes and hardware go in small boxes. A box of sockets feels light until it is the size of a milk crate, and then nobody can lift it.

Lawn and Snow Equipment: The Fall Swap

This is the part that trips people up. Mowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers can go into storage for the winter, but only after the fuel is dealt with. Gasoline cannot ride in the container, and stale fuel gums up a carburetor by spring.

• Run the mower or trimmer dry, or drain the tank into an approved can that stays at home.
• Disconnect the spark plug and wipe the deck clean of caked grass.
• Stand rakes, shovels, and long-handled tools upright in a barrel or strap them flat along a container wall so they do not slide.
• Keep the snowblower, roof rake, and ice melt out of the container entirely. You will want those the first week of December.

Bikes, Sports Gear, and Seasonal Decor

The odd shapes are what make a garage feel impossible. A little prep makes them stack instead of sprawl.

• Bikes: lower the seats, loosen or turn the handlebars, and hang them from a wall rail inside the container if you have one, or line them up wheel-to-frame against a side wall.
• Sports gear: deflate balls, nest helmets and pads in a bin, and bundle hockey sticks or ski poles together with a strap.
• Holiday decor: pack ornaments and lights in their own clearly marked boxes. These are fragile and you will want them findable in December, so keep them near the door.
• Ladders and long items: lay them flat against a wall or across the top of a stable row, never leaning where they can tip.

Load the Container So You Can Still Get In

A garage packed at random becomes a wall you cannot get past. Load with weight and access in mind. Heaviest items go on the floor and against the walls, lighter and fragile boxes go on top, and anything you might need before spring stays right by the doors. A 16ft container comfortably swallows a typical two-car garage; a smaller 8ft box handles a single-bay cleanout. If you are not sure which fits, our post on organizing a 16ft container walks through the layout, and loading for easy access covers the aisle trick.

Garage-Packing Mistakes to Avoid

• Packing fueled equipment as-is. Gas and propane are the number-one reason a load gets flagged. Empty tanks first.
• Oversized tool boxes. Split heavy hardware across several small boxes so they stay liftable.
• Skipping the winter set-aside. Bury the snowblower and you will regret it during the first storm off Route 93.
• No moisture control. A few desiccant packs or a cheap moisture absorber keeps tools and decor dry through a damp NH winter.

Reclaim the Bay Before the Snow Flies

A garage cleanout is really a two-season problem: get the summer gear packed and out of the way, and leave the winter gear where you can grab it. Do the sorting first, prep the fuel-powered equipment before it goes in, and load the container so the front stays open. Handle those three things and your MI-BOX turns the messiest room in the house into the easiest one. Also worth a read before the cold sets in: how to winterize a storage container in NH.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Laconia, Tilton, and Franklin. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

A sectional that survived three moves can still come out of storage with a cracked leg or a mildew smell if it went in wrong. Furniture is the bulkiest, heaviest, and most awkward thing most New Hampshire homeowners store, and it is also the easiest to damage when a container sits through a Concord winter or a humid Lakes Region August. Whether you are staging a house in Bedford or clearing a room for a renovation in Laconia, a few hours of careful prep is what decides whether your pieces come back looking the same as when they left.

Start With a Plan and the Right Supplies

Furniture packing goes sideways when people improvise halfway through. Gather everything before you carry a single piece out, and clear a staging area so you can wrap on a clean surface instead of a gritty garage floor. A driveway container helps here: you can wrap a piece and walk it straight into the MI-BOX rather than shuttling loads to a rented truck on a clock. Here is the short supply list that covers almost every piece in a house:

• Moving blankets or furniture pads — the single most important item for wood and upholstery.
• Stretch wrap (the plastic cling roll) to hold pads in place, plus a roll of painter’s tape that will not leave residue.
• Bubble wrap and flattened boxes for glass tops, mirrors, and shelf panels.
• A labeled zip-top bag for the screws, bolts, and Allen keys from anything you take apart.
• A cordless drill, a marker, and a few clean sheets or old bedspreads for a final dust layer.

Disassemble What You Can

Every piece you break down is a piece that packs flatter, survives the move better, and frees up cubic feet. Work in this order so nothing gets lost or forced:

1. Remove legs and hardware first. Table legs, bed rails, and cabinet knobs come off in minutes and prevent the snapped-leg problem entirely.
2. Bag and tape the fasteners to the piece. Drop every screw into a labeled bag and tape it to the underside of the tabletop or headboard it belongs to — not to a communal bin you will regret later.
3. Take apart bed frames and modular sectionals. Photograph the assembly first so reassembly in your new place is a five-minute job, not an afternoon.
4. Empty and secure drawers. Light drawers can stay in and act as storage; heavy ones should come out so the dresser is not carried by a joint that was never meant to bear weight.

Wrap and Protect Each Piece by Material

Different materials fail in different ways, so match the protection to what you are storing. A quick rundown of the pieces MI-BOX customers ask about most:

• Sofas and upholstered chairs. Vacuum them first, then cover fully in moving blankets. Stand a sofa on its end only if the frame allows it — it takes far less floor space and keeps cushions from compressing.
• Mattresses. Slide into a proper mattress bag and store flat if possible. A mattress stored on its side for months can sag and lose support at the edges.
• Solid wood tables and dressers. Pad every corner, then blanket-wrap the whole piece. Corners and feet take the hits during loading.
• Glass, mirrors, and marble tops. Bubble wrap, sandwich between flattened cardboard, mark them fragile, and always store them standing on edge, never flat where weight can land on them.

Loading Furniture Into the Container

How you load matters as much as how you wrap. A container that shifts on the drive to your storage lot can undo careful packing in one pothole, and New Hampshire’s frost-heaved back roads are not gentle. Think of the container like a puzzle where nothing should be able to slide, tip, or press down on a delicate surface. Avoid the mistakes that cost people the most:

• Load heavy and flat first. Dressers, sofas, and headboards go against the walls and floor; this builds a stable base and keeps weight low.
• Fill the gaps. Boxes, cushions, and soft goods packed into empty spaces stop everything from sliding during transport.
• Never rest weight on a fabric or glass surface. Stack only onto flat, hard, protected tops — and keep anything fragile at the very top.
• Leave a walking path if you will need access. If this is medium- or long-term storage, load so you can reach the pieces you may want back first.

An 8-foot MI-BOX holds a room or two of furniture, a 16-foot handles a typical two- or three-bedroom home, and a 20-foot fits a large household with room to spare. If you are unsure, our container size guide walks through it. For pieces that will sit for months, our long-term storage prep tips cover moisture control, and the same care applies to dishware in our fragile-items packing guide.

A Little Prep Now, No Surprises Later

The homeowners who open their container months later and find everything intact are not lucky — they wrapped by material, took apart what they could, and loaded heavy pieces low and tight. Furniture is expensive to replace and impossible to fake, so the hour you spend padding corners in your driveway pays for itself the day you move back in. It also makes the far end easier: pieces that went in labeled, wrapped, and photographed come back out in order instead of as a puzzle you have to solve on move-in day. When you are ready for the container itself, MI-BOX delivers across the state and leaves it with you for as long as the job takes.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Merrimack, Laconia, and Derry. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

The single question we hear more than any other is a simple one: what size container do I actually need? Order too small and you are stuck making a second trip or renting a second unit. Order too big and you are paying for air and wrestling with a load that shifts around on the drive. The good news is that MI-BOX of New Hampshire keeps it simple with three sizes: 8-foot, 16-foot, and 20-foot. Here is how to match the right one to your project without guesswork.

Start With What You Are Storing, Not the Square Footage

People often try to reverse-engineer a container size from their home’s square footage, but that number is misleading because it includes hallways, bathrooms, and closets you are not emptying. A far better method is to count the rooms’ worth of furniture and boxes you actually plan to load, then add a little margin for the awkward items, like bikes, a lawnmower, or a mattress, that never stack neatly. Walk the house and tally it in rooms. That single habit gets most NH homeowners to the right size on the first try.

As a quick starting point, think of it in rooms: one to two rooms points to the 8-foot, three to four rooms points to the 16-foot, and five or more rooms points to the 20-foot. Those are guidelines, not hard limits, because how you pack matters as much as how much you own. A garage full of loose gear eats space faster than the same volume packed into uniform boxes, so when your load is bulky or oddly shaped, round up rather than down.

The 8-Foot MI-BOX: Small Jobs and Tight Driveways

The 8-foot container is the workhorse for focused projects. It comfortably holds roughly a room or two of furniture and boxes, which makes it the right call for a studio or one-bedroom apartment, a dorm or seasonal cleanout, or the classic staging move where you pull excess out of the house before it goes on the market. It is also the easiest to place, so when a driveway is short or steep, the 8-foot is often the only unit that fits without blocking the garage or the sidewalk. Think of it as the surgical option: one clear job, in and out.

The 16-Foot MI-BOX: The Most Popular Choice

If you are not sure where to land, the 16-foot container is usually the answer, and it is the size most NH households end up choosing. It swallows roughly three to four rooms’ worth of belongings, which covers the typical two- or three-bedroom home, a mid-size move, or a whole-room renovation where the furniture needs to disappear for a few weeks. It hits the sweet spot on value: big enough that most families finish in a single container, small enough to sit on an average suburban driveway without drama. When people describe a normal household move, this is almost always the box they mean.

The 20-Foot MI-BOX: Whole-Home Moves and Big Projects

The 20-foot container is built for the big lifts. It handles roughly a four-bedroom home or larger, a full-house move, a major renovation, or a garage and basement cleanout that has been building for a decade. It is also the one contractors and small businesses reach for when they need real capacity for equipment, seasonal inventory, or jobsite materials. The trade-off is footprint: it needs a genuine stretch of flat, accessible driveway. If you have the room and the volume, though, consolidating into one 20-foot unit beats juggling two smaller ones.

When to Size Up, and When to Rent Two

A few rules of thumb save people from the most common sizing mistakes:

• When you are on the fence between two sizes, size up. The cost difference is modest next to the headache of running out of room mid-load.
• Loading over several weeks? Lean smaller and stage it. If you are packing slowly while your home is listed, an 8-foot you fill and swap can be tidier than a half-empty 20-foot sitting for a month.
• Storing long-term? Leave a walkway. Do not pack a container wall to wall if you will need to reach items later. Size up one step so you can keep an aisle.
• Big move plus a tight driveway? Two drops beat one squeeze. Two 8-foot or 16-foot units delivered in sequence can move a whole house even when a 20-foot cannot physically fit.

And remember there is no 12-foot option to agonize over. With three clear sizes, the decision comes down to how many rooms you are moving and how much driveway you have to work with. When in doubt, describe the job to us and we will point you to the size that fits.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Merrimack, Laconia, and Derry. Comparing your options? See how MI-BOX compares to PODS, or explore our moving and storage containers. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

A portable container that shrugged off a mild fall can turn into a damp, frozen headache once a Lakes Region winter sets in. If you are storing furniture in Laconia while you renovate, or parking a season’s worth of gear behind the house in Concord, the difference between opening the doors to dry, undamaged belongings in April and finding mildew, warped wood, or a mouse nest usually comes down to a couple of hours of prep in the fall. Here is how to get a storage container ready for a real New Hampshire winter.

Why NH Winters Are Tough on Stored Items

The problem is rarely the cold itself. Most household goods handle freezing temperatures fine. What causes damage is the swing between warm afternoons and hard overnight freezes, the moisture that swing pulls out of the air, and the wildlife looking for a warm place to wait out January. A sealed, weather-resistant MI-BOX keeps rain and snow out, but the items inside still need a little help.

• Freeze-thaw cycles let condensation form on cold metal and plastic, then drip onto whatever is below.
• Trapped humidity from damp boxes or a not-quite-dry mattress has nowhere to go and settles into fabric and paper.
• Liquids that can freeze — paint, cleaning supplies, canned goods, batteries — expand, crack, and leak.
• Mice and squirrels hunt for insulation and food, and a cardboard box of winter clothes looks like a perfect nest.

Prep Your Container Before the First Freeze

Aim to have everything winter-ready before the first hard frost, which in most of Central and Southern New Hampshire lands sometime in October. Work through these steps in order:

1. Clean and dry everything first. Wipe down appliances, empty and dry coolers and water reservoirs, and make sure nothing goes in damp. A single wet towel can raise the humidity for an entire load.
2. Add moisture control. Place desiccant packs, DampRid, or even a few bags of charcoal around the interior, especially near upholstered furniture and boxes of books or photos.
3. Elevate and space things out. Keep boxes off the floor on pallets or 2x4s, and leave a finger’s width of air between items so moisture cannot get trapped against a cold surface.
4. Protect the vulnerable stuff. Cover mattresses and sofas with breathable cloth covers — not plastic, which traps condensation — and wrap wood furniture legs and table edges in moving blankets.

What to Store — and What to Keep Out — Over Winter

An unheated container is fine for the vast majority of what people store: furniture, tools, seasonal decor, kitchenware, clothing in sealed bins, and outdoor equipment. The trouble comes from anything that freezing temperatures can ruin. Leave out liquids that expand when frozen, electronics with LCD screens that crack in the cold, musical instruments, wine, and anything perishable. If you have to store electronics, let them come back to room temperature slowly before powering them on in the spring. Sealed plastic totes beat cardboard every time in a NH winter — they resist moisture and give rodents nothing to chew.

It also pays to think about what you might actually need before spring. A lot of folks pack away the snow shovels, roof rake, and holiday decorations in October, then realize in December they are sealed at the back of the container behind the patio furniture. Load the winter-use items last so they are the first things you reach, and keep a simple inventory taped inside the door so you are not unloading half the box in the cold to find one tote.

Keep Access Clear All Winter

Where the container sits matters as much as what goes inside it. Think about February before you decide on placement. Set the container on a firm, level surface — a paved driveway or packed gravel pad drains and plows better than a soft lawn that heaves with frost. Leave room for your snowblower or plow to work around it, and keep the doors facing away from the prevailing wind so you are not digging out a drift every time you need something. Contractors and trades storing equipment between winter jobs often keep a 16-foot MI-BOX on site all season for exactly this reason: a dry, lockable space that stays put and stays accessible. After the first storm or two, take a quick look at how the snow drifts around the container and adjust your path if you need to — a little planning beats wrestling a frozen door latch in a January wind.

Common Winterizing Mistakes

• Wrapping furniture in plastic. It seals in moisture and creates the exact mildew you were trying to avoid. Use breathable covers.
• Packing items in while still damp. Wet gear, a not-fully-dry cooler, or a rain-soaked tarp will raise humidity for the whole container.
• Storing liquids and aerosols. Paint, propane, cleaning chemicals, and canned food can freeze, burst, and leak across everything nearby.
• Blocking the doors with snow. Place the container where a plow will not bury the entrance, and clear a path after each storm so the seals stay clean.

A Little Prep Now Saves You in Spring

Winterizing a container is not complicated, but it is the kind of thing that is easy to skip until it is too late. An afternoon of drying, spacing, and moisture control in October is what lets you open the doors on a mild April morning and find everything exactly as you left it. Whether you are between homes in Meredith or clearing a garage in Manchester, a properly prepped MI-BOX will carry your belongings through the worst of a New Hampshire winter without a problem.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire. Most-requested cities: Laconia, Meredith, Gilford, Tilton, Concord, Manchester, and Wolfeboro. Storing gear for work over the winter? See our commercial storage and real estate storage options, or get a free quote for your town.

Whether you are clearing out a garage in Bedford or emptying a basement before a move in Nashua, the difference between a storage container that works for you and one that fights you comes down to how it gets loaded. A well-packed MI-BOX lets you walk in, grab the ladder or the tote of winter clothes you actually need, and walk back out — without unstacking half your belongings on the driveway first. The good news is that loading for easy access is not about strength or luck. It is a handful of decisions you make before the first box goes in.

Start With a Plan Before the Container Arrives

The best time to organize a container is before it is sitting in your driveway. Once it lands and the boxes start moving, momentum takes over and everything ends up wherever it fits. Spend twenty minutes up front sorting what you own into a few simple groups, and the loading almost plans itself.

• Separate the things you will need soon (seasonal gear, tools, paperwork) from the things you will not touch for months.
• Set aside anything fragile or valuable so it does not get buried under heavier items.
• Break down furniture you can — table legs, bed frames, shelving — so it stacks flat against the walls.
• Round up sturdy, uniform boxes. Matching sizes stack square and hold weight; mismatched grocery boxes collapse and waste space.

Load the Heaviest Items First

Weight distribution is what keeps your container stable and your belongings intact. Heavy items belong on the floor and toward the center, with lighter and more fragile things layered on top as you build upward. Think of it like packing a moving truck that never moves — a solid base holds everything else in place.

1. Appliances and furniture first. Washers, dryers, dressers, and couches go in early, flat against the side walls to anchor the load.
2. Heavy boxes on the bottom. Books, tools, and dishes form the lower layer; stack them tightly so nothing shifts.
3. Medium items next. Kitchenware, small totes, and boxed decor fill the middle tier.
4. Light and fragile on top. Lamps, bedding, and clearly marked fragile boxes ride highest, where nothing can crush them.

Leave Yourself an Aisle

This is the single habit that separates a container you can use from a container you dread opening. Instead of packing wall to wall, load both sides and keep a narrow center aisle running from the door to the back. You lose a little floor space and gain the ability to reach anything without a full excavation. If you are storing long term, that aisle is also how you do a quick check on your belongings each season without hauling everything out.

Label Toward the Door and Group by Room

Even a perfectly stacked container is useless if you cannot tell what is in each box. A little labeling discipline pays off every single time you open the door.

• Face labels toward the aisle. Write on the side of the box that points at your center walkway, not the top, so you can read it standing up.
• Keep rooms together. Load kitchen with kitchen and garage with garage so unloading at the new place is one trip per room, not a scavenger hunt.
• Put a "need soon" zone by the door. Whatever you expect to grab first — tools, seasonal items, important paperwork — belongs in the front where you can reach it in seconds.
• Keep a quick inventory. A phone note listing what went where beats your memory three months from now.

Protect Against the Seasons

Loading for access and loading for New Hampshire weather go hand in hand. Wrap upholstered furniture and mattresses in breathable covers rather than sealing them in plastic, which traps moisture. Drain and dry anything that held water — coolers, garden equipment, small appliances — before it goes in. Toss a few moisture absorbers into the corners. These small steps mean that when you open the door in the spring, your belongings look the same as the day you packed them.

Match the Container to the Job

The right size makes organizing far easier, because you are not forced to cram or leave things exposed. MI-BOX of New Hampshire offers three sizes: the 8-foot container suits a single room or a tight driveway, the 16-foot handles the contents of a two or three bedroom home, and the 20-foot is built for larger households, garages, or job-site gear. Pick the size that lets you keep your aisle and still fit everything, and the whole system works the way it should. When you are ready, our team delivers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire and can talk through which container fits your project.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage and moving containers across Central, Southern, and Western New Hampshire, for both home storage and business needs. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Bedford, Merrimack, Laconia, and Derry. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.

The flat-screen TV, the gaming rig, the second monitor, the box of chargers you swear you will sort out someday — electronics are some of the most valuable and most fragile things you will load into storage. And in New Hampshire, they face a challenge that folks in milder states never think about: a container that bakes at 90 degrees in an August driveway in Manchester and drops below freezing by a January morning in Laconia. Handle that temperature swing wrong and you can quietly kill a device without ever dropping it.

Why NH Weather Is Hard on Stored Electronics

Cold itself rarely breaks electronics. The real damage comes from what happens when temperatures change — and in a New Hampshire container, they change a lot. When a cold device warms up quickly, moisture condenses on the circuit boards, the same way a cold glass sweats on a summer porch. That trapped condensation is what corrodes contacts, swells batteries, and cracks screen adhesives over a winter of storage.

• Condensation forms when a cold device is powered on or moved into a warm room too fast.
• Lithium batteries lose capacity and can swell when stored fully charged in the cold.
• LCD and OLED screens can develop lines or dead spots after hard freezes.
• Humidity in an unsealed box rusts ports, hinges, and internal shielding.

Before You Pack: A Prep Checklist

Ten minutes of prep per device saves you a dead gadget in the spring. Work through this list before anything goes in a box.

1. Back up your data. Copy photos, drives, and files to the cloud or an external drive that rides with you, not into storage. Assume any stored device could fail.
2. Remove batteries where you can. Take AA and AAA cells out of remotes and peripherals so they cannot leak, and store phones and laptops at roughly 50 percent charge rather than full.
3. Photograph the cable setup. Snap a picture of the back of your TV or PC before you unplug anything so reassembly is painless.
4. Bag the small stuff. Group each device with its own cables, remote, and power brick in a labeled zip bag so nothing goes missing.
5. Add desiccant. Toss a few silica-gel packs into each electronics box to pull moisture out of the air inside.

How to Pack Each Type of Device

Original boxes are ideal because the molded foam was designed for that exact device. If you tossed them years ago, rebuild the protection with what you have.

• Flat-screen TVs and monitors: Stand them upright, never flat. Wrap the screen in a moving blanket, sandwich it between two pieces of cardboard, and load it vertically against a wall of the container.
• Laptops and tablets: Wrap in anti-static or bubble material, then box in a rigid container. Keep them off the floor of the unit.
• Desktops and gaming consoles: Box each in a snug carton with padding on all six sides. For desktops with a spinning hard drive, keep them upright.
• Cables and accessories: Coil loosely, secure with velcro ties, and store in a labeled bin rather than crushing them under heavy gear.

Packing Mistakes That Ruin Electronics

• Laying a TV flat. Flat-panel screens are built to bear weight vertically; stacking anything on a horizontal screen cracks the panel.
• Sealing devices while warm and humid. Pack on a dry day and let gear reach room temperature first, or you trap moisture inside the box.
• Storing batteries fully charged. A battery held at 100 percent through a cold winter loses far more capacity than one stored half full.
• Skipping the padding under the device. The floor of any container is where cold and any stray moisture collect — keep electronics up on a pallet or shelf.

Loading Electronics Into Your MI-BOX

Because a MI-BOX sits level on your own property, you control how the container gets packed — no shifting from a bouncing truck. Load your electronics last so they ride near the doors, up off the floor, and away from anything heavy that could shift. An 8ft container is plenty for a home-office setup during a remodel; a 16ft or 20ft gives you room to keep electronics on their own shelf, well clear of the furniture. Wherever you store in New Hampshire, the rule is the same: pack them dry, keep them upright, and warm them up slowly on the way back out.

Local NH Cities We Deliver To

We deliver portable storage containers across Central, Southern, and Western NH. Most-requested cities: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Laconia, Derry, and Salem. Don’t see your town? We probably deliver there too — get a quote.