Guides

The Storage Packing
Checklist

A storage packing checklist for Dubai. Room by room, what to do before collection day, and the climate-specific steps that decide whether things come back usable.

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In brief

The short version

Almost everything that goes wrong in storage was decided in the two days before collection, not during the months afterwards. This checklist is the two days, and it is one of our storage and moving guides.

The one-line version: box everything loose, dry everything wet, and take every battery out. Those three prevent most of it.

How it works

One week before

Step 1Decide by room, not by itemItem-by-item decisions are what make a clearance take three days. Pick a room and empty it.
Step 2Get boxes, uniform onesMixed sizes rack badly and cost measurably more floor space than matching cartons.
Step 3Defrost the fridgeIt needs a full day open to dry afterwards. This is the most common source of a smell on return.
Step 4Book the liftOr tell us to. Most Dubai towers need 48 hours and some restrict the hours.

What is covered

Room by room

Living room

Screens travel and store upright, never flat. Bag cables per device and photograph the back of anything complicated before unplugging.

Bedrooms

Mattress in a proper cover, stored flat. Wash all clothing before boxing — body oils oxidise into yellow marks over months.

Kitchen

No food of any kind, including sealed tins. Plates on edge like records rather than stacked. Empty and dry every appliance.

Bathroom and balcony

No aerosols, no liquids that can leak. The balcony and store cupboard hold more than anyone counts — check both.

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Checklist

The Dubai-specific list

The steps that are not on a checklist written for a temperate climate.

Take every battery out — remotes, keyboards, torches, toys, clocks. Leaked alkaline ruins more stored items here than heat does.
Return the gas cylinder to the supplier. Villa kitchens and barbecues almost always have one and it cannot travel.
No candles, aerosols or cosmetics. They melt, and they melt into everything packed with them.
Dry everything completely — tents, appliances, dive gear, anything that has been near water.
Check the garage and the balcony last. Everything that cannot be stored lives in one of those two places — see the prohibited list.

Checklist

The day before, and the day itself

Pack a suitcase of live essentials: passport, Emirates ID, medication, chargers, tenancy paperwork, a change of clothes.
Photograph anything valuable before it is wrapped, and keep the photos with your inventory copy.
Decide which cartons you might want back early and say so to the crew — they get racked accessibly, and it costs nothing.
Be present for the first twenty minutes and the last ten. The start is pointing at what goes; the end is signing the list.
Keep your signed inventory copy somewhere that is not a box.

For what happens after the van leaves, how the storage service works covers the rest.

Good to know

Common questions.

What is the single most useful thing to do before collection?

Box every loose small item. It shortens the collection by roughly a third and reduces the floor space your goods occupy by around 30 per cent — which you pay for every month, not just once.

How should I label boxes?

By the room they are going TO and by what is inside, not by where they came from. Label the side as well as the top, because racked boxes are seen from the side.

Should I use vacuum bags for clothes?

Not for natural fibres in this climate. Vacuum bags trap moisture against fabric and prevent it breathing, which over a Dubai summer causes exactly the problem they appear to solve.

What is the most commonly forgotten item?

The gas cylinder, followed by the contents of the balcony and the store cupboard. All three are discovered on collection day rather than before it.

Do I need to empty the washing machine?

Yes — drain the drum, the filter and the hoses, then leave it a day to dry. Residual water in a sealed appliance over months in this climate is the main cause of the smell people describe on return.

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