Self Storage Unit Sizes Explained: 5ft to 40ft in Bury & Manchester
If you have never rented a storage unit before, the size names on their own tell you almost nothing. Meadow Self Storage offers four ground floor, drive up unit sizes across our Bury and Failsworth, Manchester branches: 5ft, 10ft, 20ft and 40ft. As a rough guide, a 5ft unit suits a single room declutter or student’s belongings, a 10ft suits a one or two bed flat, a 20ft suits a three or four bed house, and a 40ft covers a large house move or a business’s full stock room.
What Self Storage Unit Sizes Are Available at Meadow Self Storage?
Meadow Self Storage runs four container style unit sizes at both our Bury and Failsworth, Manchester branches: 5ft, 10ft, 20ft and 40ft. Every one of them is ground floor, so there are no stairs, corridors or lifts between your van and your belongings, and every one has drive up access, meaning you pull your car, van or trailer directly alongside the door.
This is a different model to the multi storey warehouse units run by some national storage chains, where units are typically accessed via internal corridors, trolleys and sometimes a goods lift. Ours works more like a row of lock ups: you drive up, roll the door open, and load straight in. For anyone moving furniture, white goods or business pallets, that difference matters more than most size guides admit, and we return to it later in this article.
Meadow’s four unit sizes span roughly 38 sq ft on the 5ft up to around 307 sq ft on the 40ft, so there is usually a size gap small enough to avoid paying for space you do not need. If you already have a rough idea of what you are storing, jump to the size matrix below. If you want the full working out, keep reading, because the size names alone will not tell you whether your three seater sofa is going to fit.
Self Storage Unit Sizes and Dimensions: 5ft, 10ft, 20ft and 40ft Compared
Unit names in this industry describe length, not total floor area, which is exactly why people guess wrong. Here is what each Meadow Self Storage unit actually measures, based on our own published dimensions, alongside a familiar comparison so the number means something.
| Unit size | Approximate dimensions (L x W x H) | Floor area | Comparable to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5ft | 5ft x 7ft 8in x 7ft 9in | Roughly 38 sq ft | A large domestic garden shed or a walk in wardrobe |
| 10ft | 10ft x 7ft 8in x 7ft 9in | Roughly 75 to 77 sq ft | Around three quarters of a single garage |
| 20ft | 20ft x 7ft 8in x 7ft 9in | Roughly 150 to 153 sq ft | Around three quarters of a double garage |
| 40ft | 40ft x 7ft 8in x 8ft 6in | Roughly 300 to 307 sq ft | Three single garages side by side |
Two things are worth noticing. The width stays constant at 7ft 8in across every size, so what changes is the length you rent, not the shape. And the 40ft gets a taller ceiling, 8ft 6in against 7ft 9in on the smaller three, adding stacking height for wardrobes, sofas on end or business shelving.
Working in cubic feet rather than floor area tells a fuller story. A 10ft gives roughly 590 cubic feet. A 20ft gives roughly 1,185 cubic feet, almost exactly double. A 40ft, thanks to the taller ceiling, gives roughly 2,610 cubic feet, more than four times the 10ft. That extra height is one reason the 40ft comfortably takes a small vehicle alongside furniture, covered further down. A 10ft unit holds the contents of a one to two bedroom flat, typically 60 to 70 medium boxes plus a bed, sofa and washing machine, based on our published unit dimensions, and every Meadow unit is ground floor with drive up access, so you can reverse a van or trailer to the door rather than carrying items through corridors or into a lift.
How Many Boxes Fit in a 10ft Storage Unit?
Assume you leave a narrow aisle down the middle so you can actually reach items at the back, which any sensible packer should, and you stack boxes to around shoulder height rather than to the roof. On that basis, a 10ft unit at Meadow Self Storage realistically holds 60 to 70 medium moving boxes on their own, or roughly 40 to 50 boxes alongside a double bed, a two seater sofa, a chest of drawers and a washing machine.
The working: at roughly 590 cubic feet total, allowing for the aisle, irregular shapes and the fact furniture does not stack like boxes, you have somewhere around 330 to 350 usable cubic feet. A standard medium moving box is close to 1.5 cubic feet, so filled purely with boxes you land in the 60 to 70 range. Swap some of that volume for furniture and the box count drops, but the unit still clears a full one bedroom flat, and most two bedroom flats too.
This is the size we most often see chosen by tenants moving out of a one bed flat in Bury or Failsworth for a short gap between properties, and by small traders who need a lockable space for stock without paying for a warehouse.
How Many Boxes Fit in a 20ft Storage Unit?
A 20ft unit gives roughly double the floor area of the 10ft, at around 1,185 cubic feet total. Applying the same usable volume assumption gives around 650 to 700 usable cubic feet, enough for 120 to 140 medium boxes alone, or a more typical mix of 70 to 90 boxes plus the bulk of a three to four bedroom house: a three seater sofa and armchair, a king or double bed, a dining table with chairs, a fridge freezer, a washing machine and several wardrobes. A 20ft unit is roughly double the floor area of a 10ft and suits a three to four bedroom house, commonly 120 to 140 boxes plus large furniture and appliances.
Where this size earns its keep in Bury and Manchester specifically is house moves with a gap between completion dates, and landlords clearing a tenanted three or four bedroom property who need everything out quickly without renting a second van trip’s worth of space. We go through a real example of that scenario below.
What Fits in a 40ft Storage Unit?
The 40ft unit is where the taller 8ft 6in ceiling starts to matter. At roughly 2,610 cubic feet, using the same usable volume assumption, you get around 1,400 to 1,500 usable cubic feet, comfortably enough for the entire contents of a five bedroom house, including garden furniture and larger appliances, or a genuinely large stock room for a growing business: pallets, shelving, a full run of stock boxes for an online seller, or tools and materials for a trades business running more than one job at once.
The extra height also means the 40ft is the size most likely to take a car or small van alongside other items, since you are not limited to a single layer of furniture before you run out of headroom. If your main reason for wanting a 40ft is purely vehicle storage with very little else, read the vehicle section further down first, because a smaller unit is sometimes the better call.
Self Storage Unit Size Matrix: Which Size Suits Your Move in Bury or Manchester
Rather than guessing from a size name, match your actual situation to the table below. Each row also tells you who that size is the wrong choice for, which most size guides leave out.
| Your situation | Recommended size | Why | Who it’s wrong for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio flat or single room declutter | 5ft | Covers a single bed, a handful of boxes and seasonal items without paying for floor space you won’t use | Anyone with a sofa or wardrobe to store, it will not fit alongside boxes |
| One or two bedroom flat move | 10ft | Takes a double bed, small sofa, washing machine and 40 to 50 boxes | A family moving from a house with a garden shed’s worth of extra items |
| Three or four bedroom house move | 20ft | Takes a three seater sofa, king bed, dining set, fridge freezer and 70 to 90 boxes | A studio or one bed tenant, who will be paying for triple the space they need |
| Five bedroom house or full property clearance | 40ft | Taller ceiling and full length take an entire large household including garden items | A single trader with a few boxes of paperwork, hugely oversized for the need |
| Student summer storage, Manchester | 5ft, occasionally 10ft if sharing with a flatmate | Covers a single room’s worth of belongings for a fixed few months | A group of four or five students splitting one unit; a 20ft works out cheaper per head |
| Landlord clearing a tenanted house, Bury | 20ft | Matches a typical three bed house clearance in one visit | A landlord clearing a one bed flat, where a 10ft is ample |
| Tradesperson’s tools and stock, Failsworth | 10ft or 20ft depending on stock volume | Ground floor drive up access means loading the van each morning takes minutes, not a warehouse trek | A trade with only hand tools and a small toolbox, better served by a 5ft |
| Small business overstocked for Christmas | 20ft or 40ft depending on pallet count | Handles seasonal stock spikes without committing to a permanent unit size year round | A business with only a few extra boxes of stock, where a 10ft is cheaper |
| Motorbike storage | 5ft (single bike) or 10ft (bike plus gear) | A 5ft unit fits one motorbike with room either side to wheel it in and out | Anyone also storing a car in the same unit, which needs a 20ft or 40ft |
| Small car storage alongside minimal other items | 20ft | Width and length allow a car to be driven in and the door closed behind it | A large 4×4 or estate car with a full boot of extra boxes, which needs a 40ft |
Four Storage Scenarios in Bury, Failsworth and Greater Manchester
Size guides written for a national audience rarely deal with the specific timelines, tenancy rules and business patterns that come up locally. These four are the situations we see repeatedly at our Bury and Failsworth branches.
A Landlord Clearing a Tenanted House in Bury
A landlord in Bury has a tenant leaving a three bedroom house with two weeks’ notice before the next tenancy starts. Furniture left behind by the outgoing tenant, plus anything the landlord wants to keep rather than dispose of, needs to be out fast so the property can be cleaned, checked and let again on schedule. A 20ft unit clears a house of that size in a single visit with a transit van, and because our units are ground floor with drive up access, there is no lift booking or corridor trolley run eating into a tight turnaround.
A Tradesperson Storing Tools and Stock in Failsworth
A self employed electrician or builder working across Failsworth and the wider Oldham and Manchester area often ends up with more tools, offcuts and materials than a van alone can carry, especially once several jobs run at once. A 10ft unit usually covers a one person trade’s tool stock, rising to a 20ft if materials for multiple jobs are being staged together. Ground floor drive up access is the deciding factor here, not just the size, since a trade loading up most weekday mornings cannot afford to queue for a lift or wheel a sack truck down a corridor before 8am.
A Manchester Student Needing Summer Storage
A student finishing the academic year in Manchester and going home for the summer, or moving between one shared house and another with a gap in between, typically has a single room’s worth of belongings: a mattress, a desk chair, a few boxes of books and clothes, maybe a bike. A 5ft unit covers that comfortably for a fixed few months, and because it is genuinely the smallest size on offer rather than the smallest of a much larger range, students are not paying for a warehouse sized 10ft or 20ft they do not need. Where several flatmates want to store together, splitting the cost of a 10ft between two or three people is often cheaper per head than each renting a 5ft separately.
A Small Business Overstocked for Christmas in Bury or Manchester
An online seller or small independent retailer based in Bury or Manchester who orders in bulk ahead of the Christmas peak often runs out of stockroom space at home or in a small shop unit exactly when order volume is climbing. A 20ft unit handles a few dozen pallets or a serious run of boxed stock, while a 40ft suits a business running genuine warehouse style overflow for several weeks. Because these units are rented month to month rather than on a long lease, a business can scale up for the six to ten week peak season and drop back down once January stock levels settle.
Storing a Car or Motorbike in a Self Storage Unit in Manchester
Vehicle storage is one of the most common questions we get asked, and it comes with a legal step people miss. Our 5ft unit comfortably fits a single motorbike with space to wheel it in and out, and our 20ft and 40ft units are large enough to drive a small car in and close the door behind it, particularly the 40ft with its extra ceiling height.
The part people forget: once a vehicle is off the public road, including inside a private storage unit, you must declare it with a SORN, a Statutory Off Road Notification, through the DVLA. A SORN means you stop paying vehicle tax on it and, if there is remaining tax on the vehicle, you get a refund for full months left. It does not mean you can leave insurance lapse if the vehicle could still be started and moved, so check your policy terms before assuming storage alone covers you. This applies whether you are storing a classic car over winter, a motorbike you only ride in summer, or a vehicle you are keeping off the road during a house move.
Drive up access matters more for vehicle storage than for almost any other use case on this list, because reversing a car or wheeling a motorbike through a corridor or into a goods lift, the way you would at a multi storey indoor facility, simply is not practical.
Who the 40ft Storage Unit Isn’t For
Most storage guides only tell you who a size suits and leave the opposite question unanswered, so here it is plainly. Do not book a 40ft unit if any of the following describes you.
You are storing the contents of a one or two bedroom home: a 40ft is roughly four times the floor area a 10ft gives you, and you will pay every month for space that sits empty. You are a student or single person storing a room’s worth of belongings for a few months; a 5ft or 10ft does the job at a fraction of the cost. You have a small volume of business stock, perhaps a few dozen boxes rather than pallets; a 10ft or 20ft covers that with room to grow into. You want vehicle storage only, for a single car or motorbike with nothing else; a 5ft for a bike or a 20ft for a car is the right call, and the 40ft’s extra length buys you nothing you will use. The 40ft earns its size clearing or storing an entire large household, or running genuine warehouse scale stock, not for anything smaller.
Four Mistakes People Make Choosing Self Storage Unit Sizes
Sizing for today’s belongings, not the move you’re actually doing. Someone packing a house often underestimates because they are looking at furniture in situ, not accounting for how much floor space it takes once it is stacked, wrapped and boxed. Add 15 to 20 percent to your own estimate before booking.
Filling the unit wall to wall with no aisle. A unit packed completely solid looks efficient on move in day and becomes a nightmare the first time you need something from the back. Every one of the box counts and volume figures in this guide already assumes you leave a working aisle, and you should too.
Comparing weekly price without comparing cost per square foot. A 5ft unit at a lower weekly rate can work out more expensive per square foot than a 10ft, especially once you factor in that undersizing often means renting a second unit later. Do the sum on both before deciding, not just the headline weekly figure.
Forgetting the loading door width and height, not just the floor area. A unit can have plenty of floor space and still be the wrong choice if a wardrobe, sofa or fridge freezer will not physically pass through the door. Measure your largest single item before booking, not after the van is loaded.
Why Ground Floor Units and Drive Up Access Change Your Storage Unit Size Choice
Every unit size in this guide assumes ground floor drive up access, and that assumption changes how much size you actually need compared with a multi storey indoor facility. When you can reverse a van directly to the door, you can make several short trips without needing extra floor space to stage items mid move, whereas a corridor and lift based unit often pushes people toward a larger size purely to reduce the number of trips through a shared building.
It also changes who a given size suits. A 20ft unit with drive up access can take a small car, because you drive the car directly in. The same floor area on an upper floor, reached by a goods lift, generally cannot, because the vehicle never gets past the ground floor. If vehicle storage, pallets moved by hand trolley, or frequent trade access matter to you, ground floor drive up access often means you can choose one size smaller than you would need at a comparable indoor, multi storey site.
What Do Self Storage Unit Sizes Cost in Bury and Manchester?
Storage pricing across the UK varies by region and provider and moves with location and demand, so rather than rely on national averages, the most reliable way to price your exact unit size at either branch is to get a free quote for the 5ft, 10ft, 20ft or 40ft option that matches your situation, since pricing depends on current availability at Bury and at our Failsworth, Manchester site.
One practical tip worth more than any national average: price the size above and below the one you think you need before committing. The jump from a 10ft to a 20ft is rarely double the cost even though the floor area doubles, so the next size up sometimes buys a genuinely useful buffer for very little extra outlay.
Our Verdict: The Storage Unit Size We Recommend Most in Bury and Manchester
If you are choosing between sizes and genuinely unsure, our honest recommendation is to size up rather than down whenever the price difference is small, because running out of space mid move or mid trading period is far more disruptive than paying a little extra for headroom. For pure document or seasonal storage, the 5ft is the right call and going bigger only wastes money. For most house moves in Bury and Failsworth, the 10ft and 20ft cover the overwhelming majority of the moves and clearances we deal with at both branches. The 40ft is a genuinely specialist size, right for full household clearances and serious business stock, and wrong for almost everything smaller. If your situation sits between two rows in the matrix above, contact our team and describe what you are storing rather than the room count alone, since an accurate recommendation depends on the specific furniture and stock involved, not the number of bedrooms on paper.
For more on how Meadow Self Storage operates across both sites, including our approach to security and access, see our about us page, or head straight to our Failsworth, Manchester branch page or our Bury coverage page for the details specific to your local branch, including our personal storage options in Bury. If you are searching from further out, both branches cover Ramsbottom, Prestwich, Whitefield, Radcliffe, Heywood, Rochdale, Bolton, Tottington and Walshaw, each with its own local storage page.
Self Storage Unit Sizes FAQ: Bury and Manchester Questions Answered
1. What size storage unit do I need for a one bedroom flat?
A 10ft unit is the right starting point for most one bedroom flats, holding a double bed, a small sofa, a washing machine and around 40 to 50 boxes. If your flat is sparsely furnished, a 5ft may still be enough, particularly for a studio.
2. What is the smallest storage unit size available at Meadow Self Storage?
Our smallest unit is the 5ft, roughly 38 sq ft, suited to a single room’s worth of belongings, seasonal items, or a motorbike.
3. Can I store a car or motorbike in a storage unit?
Yes. A motorbike fits comfortably in a 5ft unit, and a small car fits in a 20ft or 40ft, both of which allow you to drive the vehicle directly in thanks to ground floor drive up access. You must declare a SORN with the DVLA once the vehicle is kept off the public road.
4. How much does a 20ft storage unit cost in Manchester or Bury?
Pricing depends on current availability at each branch, so the most accurate figure comes from requesting a free quote for your exact size and location rather than relying on a national average.
5. What fits in a 40ft storage unit?
A 40ft unit holds the entire contents of a five bedroom house, including garden furniture and larger appliances, or a substantial business stock room including pallets and shelving, thanks to its extra length and taller 8ft 6in ceiling.
6. Is it cheaper to get a bigger storage unit than I actually need?
Not usually in absolute terms, but the price difference between adjacent sizes is often smaller than the doubling in floor area would suggest, so a slightly larger unit can be worth the small extra cost if your needs are borderline between two sizes.
7. Do self storage units require insurance? Most facilities require some form of insurance cover for stored goods, since a standard home contents policy typically will not cover items once they leave your home. Check with your storage provider what cover is included or required before moving items in.
8. What is the difference between drive up storage and multi storey indoor storage?
Drive up storage, like every unit at Meadow Self Storage, is ground floor and accessed by pulling your vehicle directly to the door. Multi storey indoor storage is accessed via internal corridors and often a lift, which suits lighter, infrequent access but is less practical for vehicles, pallets or frequent trade use.
9. Can I store business stock for a seasonal peak like Christmas and give the unit back afterward?
Yes. Units are typically rented on a rolling monthly basis rather than a fixed long term lease, which suits businesses that need extra stock space for a defined peak trading period and want to scale back down once it passes.
10. How do I know if I should choose a 10ft or a 20ft unit?
If you are moving a one or two bedroom flat, a 10ft is usually sufficient. If you are clearing or moving a three or four bedroom house, or storing a mix of household and business items, a 20ft gives you the working room to avoid a mid move upgrade.
