Almost every office has a room nobody ever planned for. It started as an office, then it held a few archive boxes, later the chairs left over from the last refurbishment, and today it’s expensive rented space packed with things used twice a year. Business storage exists precisely to reclaim that space without throwing out what you still need.
The challenge isn’t getting the material out of the office. It’s getting it out without losing track of where it is, what condition it’s in and how long it takes to retrieve when someone needs it. That’s what this guide is about.
Table of contents
- What business storage is and how it differs from a self-storage unit
- What usually leaves the office first
- Business archives: how much to keep and how to keep it findable
- Stock storage: when the warehouse is also logistics
- Keeping control of stored items: inventory, access and retrievals
- How to calculate the space you need
- A solution tailored to your business
What business storage is and how it differs from a self-storage unit
Business storage is an external custody service for company assets, such as archives, furniture, stock or equipment, covering collection, transport, storage in a conditioned space and delivery whenever the company requests it.
The difference from renting a self-storage unit lies in the management. With a self-storage unit, your company holds the key and does all the work too: transporting, organising, logging and searching again. With a managed business storage unit run by professionals, part of that storage logistics is handled by the provider, and your team only needs to know what to request.
Which one suits you? It depends on how often you need to access the material and on who is going to move it. If a member of your staff has to go fetch boxes every week, the space you save is paid for in working hours.
There’s also a temporary use that many companies overlook. During an office refurbishment or a relocation with dates that don’t line up, storing the furniture for a few weeks saves you from working amid the works or paying two rents at once. In that case, storage isn’t a permanent solution but a bridge between two stages.
What usually leaves the office first
The most common candidate is paper archives. Old contracts, invoices from closed financial years or finished case files take up metres of shelving and are almost never consulted. Getting them out of the office frees up usable space right away.
Next comes office furniture. After a headcount reduction, a shift to hybrid working or a refurbishment, there are usually spare desks, chairs and cabinets in good condition. Selling them off cheaply only to buy them again two years later rarely pays off, and storing them means you can reuse them if the company grows again.
Then there’s seasonal or occasional-use material: trade show stands, promotional materials, event decorations or equipment used only during specific campaigns. It’s the kind of thing with no fixed place in the office, which is exactly why it ends up taking someone else’s spot.
There’s also material that shouldn’t go to an external warehouse. Perishable goods, flammable or hazardous substances and high-value items without specific cover are usually excluded from standard storage terms. If you have doubts about something specific, raise it before you pack it.
Business archives: how much to keep and how to keep it findable
The question we’re asked most about business archives is how long they need to be kept. The general reference is Article 30 of the Spanish Commercial Code (Código de Comercio), which requires keeping the company’s books, correspondence, documentation and supporting records for six years from the last entry, unless a specific rule says otherwise.
That commercial obligation comes alongside others. For tax purposes, the general limitation period is four years, and certain employment or risk-prevention documents have their own rules. Your accountant or tax advisor is best placed to tell you which period applies to each type of document.
With the deadlines clear, the practical move is to organise the archive by year and by type before sending it to storage. Uniform boxes, labelled with the contents and the year they can be destroyed, plus a list linking them together. That way, when the time comes, you’ll know exactly which boxes can be disposed of without opening the rest.
Some companies take the opportunity to digitise part of the archive before sending it off site. Scanning everything doesn’t always pay off, but the documents consulted fairly often do. The original paper is kept for legal reasons and the digital copy handles day-to-day needs without pulling a single box.
Don’t forget that much of that archive contains personal data on clients, employees or suppliers. Wherever it’s stored must offer security conditions suited to that information, and final destruction must be carried out securely.
Stock storage: when the warehouse is also logistics
Stock storage raises a different need. Here you’re not storing material to forget about it for years, but products that come and go at a certain pace. What matters is no longer just the price per cubic metre, but how quickly you can get hold of what’s stored.
For a shop with seasonal sales peaks, for example, external space lets you receive goods before the high season without clogging up the back room. The condition is that access and retrievals are clearly defined from the outset, with timeframes and hours that fit your operations.
Before deciding, it’s worth asking a simple question: how many times a month will you need to pull something out? If the answer is “a lot”, you need a solution built for turnover, not a long-term deposit.
Keeping control of stored items: inventory, access and retrievals
Gaining space without losing control depends almost entirely on the inventory. Every box, piece of furniture or pallet should have a unique reference and a description detailed enough to identify it without opening it. It looks like red tape, but it’s what lets you request “box 34 of 2022 invoices” instead of “some accounting boxes”.
A shared spreadsheet is enough for most SMEs. What matters is that it captures the reference, the contents, the date it went in and, for archives, the date from which it can be destroyed. Adding a photo of the furniture before storing it helps a lot when checking its condition on the way back.
Also appoint a responsible person within the company. They’re the one who requests deposits and retrievals, updates the inventory and knows what’s off site. When five different people request things without coordinating, external storage turns into a small chaos at a distance.
Ask the provider how partial retrievals work: how much notice is needed, whether items are delivered to the office or collected there, and how each movement is documented. Those terms, more than the price, are what determine whether the solution works day to day.
Finally, check the cover. What insurance applies to the stored material, what value is declared and how it’s protected against damp, dust or pests. At Mudanzas Trallero we believe these questions should always be asked before signing, not when something goes wrong.
How to calculate the space you need
Storage is usually measured in cubic metres rather than square metres, because what counts is the volume items take up when safely stacked. Estimating in advance stops you overpaying or coming up short.
For the archive, count the boxes and multiply by their volume: standard archive boxes are small but pile up very quickly. For furniture, the most reliable approach is a visit where a professional sees what you want to store. A flat-packed meeting table takes up far less than an assembled one, and details like that change the calculation quite a bit.
Think about the near future too. If your archive volume grows every year or you’re planning a refurbishment, it’s better to allow a small margin from the start than to keep expanding the space every few months.
A solution tailored to your business
Business storage works when it’s set up as an orderly extension of the office: well-sorted material, an up-to-date inventory, a responsible person and clear terms for accessing what’s stored. With that, the space you reclaim shows from day one and control is never lost.
At Mudanzas Trallero we help companies decide what to move out of the office, organise it for safekeeping and transport it with the same care we apply to any move. If your office has that room nobody ever wanted, it’s a good time to talk about it.
