Furniture storage costs: how much it costs to keep furniture in storage

The short answer

In Italy furniture storage costs on average €8-25 per cubic meter a month, according to quote platforms. The final bill comes from four items: how much space the furniture takes, how many months it stays, who takes it to the warehouse and how often you need it back. Transport is almost always paid separately.

The average comes from Cronoshare, a page updated in January 2026, which widens the range from €5 to over €40 per cubic meter. With a range that wide, the average alone won't tell you whether the quote in your hand is expensive.

I sell storage in Milan, so on this topic I'm the innkeeper you're asking whether the wine is any good. Below you'll find the items one by one, including those where a traditional unit beats us.

The four items that make the bill

Table first, explanations after. Each row is a question to ask anyone offering you storage, us included.

How much space does your furniture really take?

It's the heaviest item, and the hardest to estimate. The cubic meter is the favorite unit of whoever rents out space and the least intuitive for whoever has to fill it: nobody knows how many cubic meters their living room is, me included, and I do this for a living.

There are three models. Moving companies with a warehouse often count cubic meters. Traditional self storage rents fixed-size units, and you pay for the one just above what you need. We count the square meters of floor you take up, from 1 to 30 m².

The enemy of every estimate is the four-door wardrobe. Assembled it looks like a monolith; taken apart it becomes a stack of panels a third of the size. Dismantling before measuring is the cheapest way to save space, and it costs only a screwdriver and an afternoon of swearing.

To avoid guessing there's the size guide, with what fits in each size. With us it pays to choose well at the start: during storage the size doesn't grow or shrink.

The more months, the less you pay each month?

It depends on where the discount sits. Many warehouses lower the rate if you sign for six or twelve months, and in exchange ask for a minimum term and notice to leave. On paper you save, until you need the furniture sooner than planned.

With us the monthly rate stays fixed per size and renews month by month, until you ask for redelivery. If you commit for more months, the discount goes on the pickup and not on the rate. We built it this way because the pickup is the big expense at the start, and that's where a discount is felt.

One tip that holds everywhere: estimate the duration generously. Home renovations run late with the same reliability with which furniture in storage stops being missed.

Transport is the item nobody puts in the window

The price per cubic meter describes the warehouse. To get there, though, the furniture has to travel, and the four-door wardrobe doesn't take the tram.

With a traditional unit the trip is yours: you rent a van, call two friends, load, drive to the warehouse and unload. At the end you do it all in reverse. With a moving company transport is there, and it shows up in the quote as a separate line.

With us pickup and transport are paid once at the start, and you see the price in the quote before booking. The pickup covers the time of the stop at your place; if the load takes longer you see it as an estimate before booking and pay it on the actual time, at €29 an hour per person VAT included.

Redelivery is a separate trip: you book it when you need it and pay for it then, at full price, without the duration discount. It can go to a different address from the pickup, in Milan or the provinces around it. If you also need storage between one home and the next, there's the page on storage during a move.

How often will you need to open your storage?

If the answer is "often", the math changes. Every visit to the unit is a trip, and every trip costs fuel, parking and a Saturday.

With storage at home you don't drop by for a single item: you ask for a redelivery. If you need only part of the furniture you tell us in writing, we bring that back, and the rest stays in the warehouse. It suits people who leave things put, and not people who want the folding chair every other week.

Nobody has ever needed the four-door wardrobe on a Wednesday afternoon. If your storage also holds work equipment, though, a unit with the key in your pocket will cost you less in time.

Insurance, dismantling and packing: the extras to budget for

The Insurance covers your furniture for the period it stays in storage. The base limit is included in the monthly rate; if you need a higher one, you raise it for a monthly amount. During carriage the carrier's statutory liability applies.

We dismantle and reassemble furniture on a quote. Packing done by us is an extra, and you pay for the time; if you pack yourself, you order boxes and tape while you book the storage, and we bring them before the pickup. How to close a box properly is in how to pack your boxes.

Ask every other storage provider you consider the same questions: cover whose limit you don't know is an umbrella of unknown size.

How the price of our furniture storage works

No jokes here, just the mechanism. The figures are on the pricing page and in the online quote, because they change with the size and the pickup day.

1. Pick the size in square meters, from 1 to 30 m²: the monthly rate is fixed per size and covers storage in the warehouse.

2. Pick the pickup day. Pickup and transport are paid once, and if you commit for more months the discount applies here.

3. When you book you pay the pickup and the first month; after that the rate is charged every month to your saved card.

4. On the pickup day we need you, or someone you've delegated, to be there.

5. When you want the furniture back you book the redelivery, partial if you like, and pay for it then.

When storage with pickup isn't worth it

With a whole apartment to store, a car or van at hand and storage beyond a year, a traditional unit can cost less. You do the transport effort once and spread it across many months.

The same goes if you go in every week. The full line-by-line comparison is in the post Smoves or traditional self storage.

Our service pays off when the furniture is small or medium in volume, there's no car and the dates are set by someone else: the builders or the deed signing. For anyone in that spot in Milan there's the page on furniture storage in Milan.