The balcony and the store cupboard
Almost nobody counts these, and in a Dubai flat they hold a surprising amount — luggage, a drying rack, tools, sports kit. Add 10 to 15 per cent.
Storage Size Calculator — How Much Space Do You Need?
Because we bill on the floor space your goods occupy rather than on a fixed unit, working out that number in advance is genuinely useful — it is the whole of your monthly cost. This is how to estimate it before anybody quotes you anything, within self storage in Dubai.
The short method: start from your home size, then adjust for the four things people always get wrong. A studio is around 30 sq ft, a one-bedroom 60–90, a two-bedroom 120–150, a three-bedroom villa 240–270.
You pay only for the space your items use, so a good estimate is the best guide to your monthly cost — get a free, itemised quote to confirm it. Transport is separate and depends on your address and access.
Start here: space by home size
These are real averages from collections in Dubai rather than a manufacturer's chart. The range within each row is mostly about how much is boxed versus loose.
| What you are storing | Space |
|---|---|
| 10–15 cartons only | 15–20 sq ft |
| A single room emptied | 25–40 sq ft |
| Studio contents | ~30 sq ft |
| 1 bedroom flat | 60–90 sq ft |
| 2 bedroom flat | 120–150 sq ft |
| 3 bedroom villa | 240–270 sq ft |
| 4+ bedroom villa | 300+ sq ft (measured on survey) |
These figures cover the storage space only. The full price breakdown covers what else is in a quote, and the unit size guide shows what physically fits in each band.
The four things people always underestimate
Adjust your first estimate upward if any of these apply. Most people need at least two of them.
The garage
In a villa this is the single biggest miss. Bikes, tools, garden furniture, paint, spare tyres. It can be a quarter of the total on its own.
Loose versus boxed
Sealed cartons stack; loose belongings do not. The same possessions can differ by 30 per cent in floor space depending on whether they were boxed first.
The awkward large items
A corner sofa, a treadmill, a wardrobe that does not dismantle, a mattress that must lie flat. Two of these can add more than a room's worth of cartons.
The five-minute method
More accurate than any online slider, and it takes about as long.
- 1
Pick your starting figure — From the table above, by home size — not by how full the flat feels.
- 2
Walk the property with your phone — Photograph every room, plus the balcony, the store cupboard and the garage. Photograph, do not list.
- 3
Add for the four misses — Balcony and cupboard, garage, loose items, awkward large pieces. Add 10 to 15 per cent for each that applies.
- 4
Subtract what is not going — This is the only step that reduces the number, and it is the most valuable one. Decide by room, not by item.
- 5
Send us the photos — A rough figure plus photographs gets you a real quote the same day, and photographs beat any list you can write. What happens next.
Why we do not put a slider on this page
Because sliders are consistently wrong in this market, and wrong in the direction that suits the operator. They ask for bedroom counts and item tick-boxes and then output a confident number that ignores whether anything was boxed, what the balcony holds, and whether the sofa is a three-seater or an L-shape.
The result is a customer who was told 90 square feet, is billed for 130, and reasonably feels misled — even though the crew did nothing wrong. We would rather give you a range you can trust and then measure the actual figure at collection.
The number on your invoice is always the measured floor space your goods occupy once racked, and you are told it after collection. If your estimate was high, the bill is lower than you planned for. That is the correct direction for a surprise to run.
If you would rather understand the whole thing as renting an amount of space, storage space for rent frames it that way.
Common questions
The bands are drawn from actual Dubai collections and are reliable to within about 20 per cent for a typical household. The final figure is the measured floor space your goods occupy once racked, which you are told after collection.
Nothing breaks. You are billed on what your goods actually occupy, not on your estimate, so an over-estimate simply means a lower invoice than you planned for. There is no penalty either way and no size to commit to in advance.
Yes, and it is the single biggest lever you control. Sealed cartons stack squarely and loose belongings do not; the same possessions can occupy 30 per cent more floor space unboxed.
By the floor area your goods occupy once racked at the facility, including the footprint of how they are stacked. It is measured after collection and it is the figure on the invoice.
Neither — give us your honest figure and photographs. We are not holding a unit for you, so there is nothing to reserve and no benefit in padding the number in either direction.
More in Self Storage Dubai
Everything below is part of the same service — pick the page that matches what you are storing.
Unit sizesSquare footage by home size, with what fits in each.Storage pricesWhat a studio, 1BHK, 2BHK and villa actually cost per month.Storage space for rentSpace by the square foot, without renting a warehouse you half fill.Self storage vs warehouse rentalWhen you have outgrown storage and genuinely need a warehouse.
Send photos, get a real number
Photographs of each room beat any calculator. Most quotes come back the same day.
+971 50 577 3388 · support@safestorage.ae · free, itemised quotes