What size storage unit do I need?
The honest answer depends on how much you actually have, not just your bedroom count. The table below gives a size for each home size, checked against what the major storage providers themselves recommend. For an answer based on what you actually own, the interactive tool on this page packs your stuff and shows you the fit.
| Home size | Estimated volume | Recommended unit | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 297 cu ft | 5×10 | a walk-in closet: bed standing on its edge, dresser, boxes to the ceiling |
| 1 Bedroom | 499 cu ft | 5×15 | a large walk-in closet, packed close: bed frame, small sofa, kitchen boxes, barely a path down the middle |
| 2 Bedroom | 668 cu ft | 10×10 | a small bedroom, floor to ceiling: two bedrooms of furniture, about 80 boxes |
| 3 Bedroom | 836 cu ft | 10×15 | about a one-car garage: three bedrooms, a living room, roughly 100 boxes, room to still walk through |
| 4 Bedroom | 1033 cu ft | 10×20 | four bedrooms, a dining set, about 125 boxes, floor space left over |
| 5 Bedroom | 1201 cu ft | 10×20 | the same 10×20, closer to full: five bedrooms, around 150 boxes stacked near the ceiling line |
Pack your own stuff
The interactive packer needs JavaScript. The table above answers by home size without it.
How this works
The cubic-foot number for each home size comes from two things added together: furniture volume built from moving-industry cube sheets, the same reference tables movers use to quote a job, and a box count that scales with bedrooms, clutter level, and how long you've lived there.
The recommended unit is the smallest size where that volume fits with some room to spare, checked against what the major storage providers themselves publish as size guidance. Where two providers disagreed by a full size, we used the wider range rather than picking a side.
None of this tells you whether your actual couch fits next to your actual dresser, which is the part that matters once you're standing in the unit with a truck idling outside. That's what the interactive tool on this page is for: pick what you own, watch it get packed into the unit, and get a size call built from your inventory instead of the average one.
The tool often lands one size above the table, and that gap is the honest part. Cubic feet assume your things pour in like liquid. A mattress is 6 feet of rigid geometry, a dresser can't be poured around a bed frame, and the air trapped between real objects is space you still pay rent on. When the two disagree, the table tells you the floor and the tool tells you what to rent.
Frequently asked questions
What size storage unit do I need for a 1-bedroom apartment?
Plan on a 5×15 for an average 1-bedroom apartment. That's roughly 500 cubic feet of stuff, bedroom furniture, a small living room, and kitchen boxes, going into a unit with 600 cubic feet of gross capacity, which is a tight fit. If you're on the fuller side or you have overflow from a garage or storage closet, a 10×10 gives you real breathing room instead.
Is a 5×5 big enough for a studio?
Usually not. A 5×5 gives you 200 cubic feet of raw space, about the size of a walk-in closet, and an average studio's furniture and boxes add up to around 300 cubic feet before you've packed anything efficiently. That's why most major storage providers list a 5×10 as their studio recommendation. A 5×5 works if you're storing a slice of a studio, like seasonal items or a few boxes, not the whole apartment.
Can a queen bed fit in a 5×10 unit?
Yes, but not lying flat. A queen mattress and frame run about 64 inches wide, and a 5×10 unit is only 60 inches wide in that direction. Stand it on its edge, long side up against a wall, and it fits easily under the 8-foot ceiling while the frame takes a sliver of floor space. This is standard practice, not a workaround: movers and storage staff do it by default.
What fits in a 10×10 storage unit?
A 10×10 holds the contents of a small 2-bedroom home at average clutter: two bedrooms of furniture, a modest living room, and around 80 boxes, packed close to the ceiling line. That's near the practical limit of the size. If your 2-bedroom has extra clutter or you've lived there more than a couple of years, a 10×15 gives you more margin.
How tall are storage units?
8 feet at the standard size, floor to ceiling. That height is where most of a unit's real capacity lives, not the floor space. A unit that looks small on paper holds a lot more once you're stacking boxes and flat-topped furniture up to that line instead of just covering the floor.
Do I need a bigger unit if I've lived in my home a long time?
Yes. More time in a home usually means more accumulated stuff, and the model accounts for it directly: a household that's lived somewhere 2 to 5 years needs about 12% more box volume than one that just moved in, and a household there 10 or more years needs about 40% more. For a 2-bedroom home, that's often enough to push you from a 10×10 into a 10×15 once you're past the 2-year mark.