If you have a relative, such as a parent, with a spacious home who has kindly suggested that you store some of your own home's surplus belongings in their property, you should consider turning down this generous offer and using a storage unit instead. Read on to learn why.

Any damage your relative does to your belongings could create a rift between you

If you leave some of your possessions in a relative's home, there is a chance that your relative could accidentally damage some of these possessions. If for example, they don't notice the small ceiling leak in the room in which they've chosen to store your items and don't fix it, any cardboard boxes of paperwork, garments, blankets or other vulnerable items of yours in this space could get ruined by mould. Likewise, if they forget to lock the garage in which they're storing your belongings, some of the more valuable items could get stolen.

An incident like this could result in your relative's well-intentioned offer causing you to either have a fallout or to experience some tension within your relationship, particularly if any of the items that were damaged or stolen were irreplaceable. If you value your relationship with this person and would like to eliminate the chance of this happening, then it might be best to see if there are any storage units available in a nearby storage facility and put your items into one of these units.

Not only are things such as water leaks or thefts extremely rare in storage units (as storage facilities are well-secured and undergo regular maintenance) but these units also always accessible, meaning that if you need to pick up a stored object quickly, you wouldn't need to give any notice or worry about disrupting anyone's day, in the way that you would if you stored these things at your relative's home.

There is no guarantee that your items will remain unseen or untouched by other people

If any of the surplus belongings that don't fit in your home are of a private nature (for instance, if they include old diaries, financial paperwork, etc.), you should keep in mind that if you leave them at a relative's house, there is no guarantee that these private items will not bee seen or handled by other people. This could happen, even if your relative is trustworthy.

For example, if your relative hosts a party or needs to let tradespeople into their home, one of these other people could, unbeknownst to your relative, come across your private items. If this is something that would greatly upset you, you should consider stowing these private things in a storage unit. Storage units have secure locks and the facilities in which they're located are monitored all the time by security teams, alarm systems and security cameras, meaning that the chances of anyone being able to access your private belongings in a unit like this will be virtually nil.