.png "iBOXED")
Your sale completes on the Friday. The keys to the next place are three or four weeks away. So what does it cost to put a houseful of furniture somewhere safe for a month?
The honest answer for Thornaby: budget £118.80 for the unit, VAT included. That’s a 20ft container, the size of a single garage. You’ll see storage advertised from £90 a month, and that price is real, but it’s for a 10ft container that isn’t offered at every site. The other costs are insurance and getting everything there.
What does “from £90” include, and what doesn’t it?
It includes the unit and the VAT. It doesn’t include cover for your belongings or transport.
The £90 buys a month in a 10ft container, roughly a large shed. For a whole household between homes that is usually too small, and it isn’t a size every site has. The 20ft container at £118.80 is the one size offered at all three iBOXED sites, so it’s the safer number to plan around.
What you get for that is the same either way: your own container, 24-hour CCTV, and access at any hour with a personal PIN at the main gate.
What does one month between homes cost, line by line?
Here’s the month itemised, using the 20ft container. Where we can’t give you a firm figure, we’ve said who can.
| Item | Guide cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| 20ft container, one month | £118.80 inc VAT | £99 before VAT. The price is per month, not per week. |
| Padlock | Supplied | Each container comes with a high-security padlock and key, supplied by iBOXED, so there is no lock to buy. |
| Insurance for your belongings | Depends on your insurer | Ask your home contents insurer first. Some policies already cover goods in storage for a while. |
| Van or removal firm | Get a quote | You’d pay to move anyway. Storage adds a second trip, so ask your remover to price both legs. |
| Deposit and minimum term | Confirm at booking | Terms and offers vary by site. |
Guide prices, checked 2 October 2026. Sizes and availability change from week to week, and not every size is offered at every site. For what's available today, with live prices, see the Stockton (Preston Farm), Ingleby Barwick and Redcar pages.
So the only fixed line is the unit. That’s worth knowing, because the two that vary most, insurance and the van, are the two that people leave out of the sum.
A tip on the van. If a removal firm is doing the job, tell them at the quote stage that it’s going into storage first. Loading a container well is a skill, and a second visit priced up front costs less than one added in a panic.
Which unit size, and what does each cost?
Most people between homes need a 20ft container or one of the larger indoor units. The 135 sq ft indoor unit is described as taking the contents of a large two-bed or small three-bed house.
This is the full Redcar price list, which shows the spread of sizes iBOXED offers. Not every size is offered at every site.
| Unit | Roughly the size of | Per month (inc. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 ft Container | Small Garage / Large Shed | £90.00 |
| 20 ft Container | Size of a Single Garage | £118.80 |
| 90 sq ft Internal (First Floor) | One Bedroom Apartment | £130.00 |
| 90 sq ft Internal | Small Garage / Large Shed | £140.00 |
| 96 sq ft Internal | Two Bedroom Flat | £150.00 |
| 108 sq ft Internal | Single Garage | £160.00 |
| 135 sq ft Internal (First Floor) | Large single garage or 7 tonne lorry; contents of a large 2-bed or small 3-bed house | £160.00 |
| 135 sq ft Internal | Large single garage or 7 tonne lorry; contents of a large 2-bed or small 3-bed house | £160.00 |
iBOXED Redcar price list, checked 2026-10-02; see current availability on the Redcar units page.
Guide prices, checked 2 October 2026. Sizes and availability change from week to week, and not every size is offered at every site. For what's available today, with live prices, see the Stockton (Preston Farm), Ingleby Barwick and Redcar pages.
The gap between the 20ft container and the largest indoor unit is about £41 a month. If you’re torn between two sizes for a short stay, going up one is the cheaper mistake. Running out of room on moving day is the expensive one.
Not sure what you’ve got? The storage size guide matches units to rooms. For the wider picture on what drives prices up and down, the Teesside storage cost guide is the reference page.
How do Teesside prices compare with the rest of the country?
Well. Across the UK, storage operators took an average of £27.40 per square foot over 2025, before VAT. In the North the figure was £21.65, about a fifth lower.
Those are industry revenue figures, not a price list, so you can’t read your bill straight off them. What they do tell you is that you’re shopping in one of the cheaper parts of Britain for storage.
Is a storage unit cheaper than renting somewhere for the gap?
By a long way, if the question is only where the furniture goes.
The usual alternative is a short let big enough to take everything. In August 2026 the average one-bed home in Stockton borough rented for £536 a month, and that’s before you find a landlord willing to let for four weeks.
The container is less than a quarter of that rent. It doesn’t give you a bed, of course. But if you can stay with family, or in a smaller furnished place, storage takes the furniture off the problem list for under £30 a week.
And if the gap stretches? Chains slip. Three months in the container comes to £356.40, which is still less than one month of that one-bed rent.
Where to store if you’re moving from Thornaby
Thornaby sits between two of our sites. Preston Farm is the nearest, on Surtees Business Park off Bowesfield Lane, just across the Tees. Ingleby Barwick is a short drive the other way, on Low Lane at Maltby. All three iBOXED sites are pinned on the map below.
Tell us what you’re moving and when, and we’ll tell you straight which size it needs. Working through the rest of the move? The moving house checklist covers everything else.
