The storage size calculator turns a home and its contents into a range of cubic feet and shows where that range falls on a scale of common unit sizes. It is meant for planning storage between pickup and delivery on a long move, or a unit you rent yourself.
Every volume it uses is an YardPermit planning assumption published on this page, not a measured inventory or a storage company’s figure. Treat the result as a starting range to check against your own belongings.
How to use it
- 01
Pick the home type
Each home type starts from a baseline in cubic feet: studio 350–550, 1 bedroom 550–900, 2 bedroom 900–1,400, 3 bedroom 1,400–2,100, 4 bedroom 2,100–3,000, 5+ bedroom 3,000–4,200.
- 02
Add what the baseline misses
Each extra finished room adds 120–220 cubic feet, each large furniture piece 40–90, each medium box 3–6 and each major appliance 30–70.
- 03
Include the garage and outdoor items
Garage contents add 150–400 cubic feet and outdoor or patio items 80–250, each counted once when ticked.
- 04
Choose the packing efficiency
Tight packing multiplies the total by 0.85–0.95, typical packing by 1, and loose packing by 1.1–1.25.
How the math works
A worked example
A 1 bedroom with 20 medium boxes starts at 550–900 cubic feet and adds 20 × 3–6, which gives 610–1,020 cubic feet at typical packing, 519–969 packed tight and 671–1,275 packed loose.
The unit scale
Unit sizes are floor area multiplied by 5 feet of usable stacking height: 5×5 is 125, 5×10 is 250, 10×10 is 500, 10×15 is 750, 10×20 is 1,000, 10×25 is 1,250, 10×30 is 1,500 cubic feet. The typical example falls between a 10×15 and a 10×25.
Why it is a range
The low end assumes compact belongings at the bottom of every range and the high end bulky ones at the top. The total is rounded once, after the packing multiplier.
Where the result goes wrong
- Sizing by bedrooms alone when a home is unusually full or sparse; the adders exist to correct the baseline.
- Leaving out pianos, safes, vehicles, lofts and high ceilings, which fall outside every adder.
- Renting the smallest unit in the range. The low end assumes everything is compact and packs well.
- Assuming every facility measures units the same way. Heights and layouts vary, which is why the scale is for comparison only.
Keep going
- Check whether storage is listed on your estimate
- Compare estimates that price storage differently
- How the calculations are documented
Primary sources
What this page was checked against
No outside source is claimed for these volumes. They are YardPermit planning assumptions, listed in full in the steps above so every figure can be checked.