The short answer
Everything starts from volume in cubic metres. A storage pod holds 5 m3. Nobody fills a container to the brim, though. Awkward shapes, protective wrapping and the gaps you need to get at things all eat space, so we plan on 85% of the pod, which is 4.25 m3 of belongings.
What that means in furniture: one pod takes a king bed and mattress, a three-seater sofa, a chest of drawers and five medium boxes. Added up from the packed volumes in the table further down, that is 4.20 m3, which is as close to full as a pod gets.
A two-bedroom apartment is about 25 m3, which is 6 pods. That is an average and it errs high. Read the note under the table before you rely on it.
Size by property
| Property | Volume | Pods | Floor area equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just a few items | 4 m³ | 1 | 18 sq ft |
| Studio | 8 m³ | 2 | 36 sq ft |
| 1 bedroom | 15 m³ | 4 | 67 sq ft |
| 2 bedrooms | 25 m³ | 6 | 112 sq ft |
| 3 bedrooms | 35 m³ | 9 | 157 sq ft |
| 4 bed villa | 50 m³ | 12 | 224 sq ft |
| 5 bed villa | 65 m³ | 16 | 292 sq ft |
| 6-7 bed villa | 85 m³ | 20 | 381 sq ft |
| Small office | 12 m³ | 3 | 54 sq ft |
| Medium office | 30 m³ | 8 | 135 sq ft |
These averages err high, on purpose. Build a two-bedroom home item by item out of the catalogue below and it comes to about 18 m3, not 25. The averages carry a margin for the things people forget: the contents of the hall cupboard, the balcony, the spare-room floor. For a studio or a one-bedroom they are close to the mark. From two bedrooms up they run roughly a third above a carefully listed home, which is usually one pod more than you need.
If an extra pod matters to you, and it should, use the room-by-room picker in the calculator instead. It adds up what you actually own and it is the figure we would rather quote on.
How the floor-area column is worked out. Pods are measured by volume; self-storage units are sold by floor area. Converting between them needs an assumed stacking height, and this table uses 2.4 m - a full unit height, floor to ceiling. If you realistically stack to 1.8 m, the same belongings need about a third more floor area than the column shows.
Anyone quoting a price per square foot has made the same assumption without saying so. Ask what height they assumed before you compare two numbers.
Working it out room by room
Property averages are a starting point, not an answer - a sparsely furnished three-bedroom can need less space than a crowded one-bedroom. These are the packed volumes behind the calculator, so you can sanity-check the estimate yourself:
| Item | Packed volume | Per pod |
|---|---|---|
| Corner / L-shape sofa | 2.2 m³ | 1 |
| King bed + mattress | 1.8 m³ | 2 |
| Wardrobe, 3-door | 1.8 m³ | 2 |
| Sofa, 3-seater | 1.4 m³ | 3 |
| Wardrobe, 2-door | 1.2 m³ | 3 |
| Dining table, 6-seat | 1.0 m³ | 4 |
| Fridge, double door | 0.9 m³ | 4 |
| Chest of drawers | 0.6 m³ | 7 |
| Washing machine | 0.4 m³ | 10 |
| Medium box | 0.1 m³ | 53 |
The "per pod" column assumes the pod holds nothing else, so it is an upper bound on each item, not a packing plan.
Common mistakes when estimating
- Measuring the room instead of the contents. A 40 m2 room does not hold 40 m2 of furniture. Only what you are actually storing counts.
- Forgetting that boxes stack and furniture does not. Sofas, mattresses and appliances cannot be stacked safely, which is most of why the 85% planning figure exists.
- Leaving out the garage, balcony and storeroom. These are routinely missed and routinely add a pod.
- Comparing a square-foot price to a volume price. They are different units. Convert one to the other before deciding anything.
Measure your own belongings
Pick your items room by room and see the volume and the pod count, before any contact details.
Open the calculator