Storage Unit Size
Guide San Diego
By Discount Movers · Published August 2026 · 5 min read
The Basics
Sizes,
Honestly
Storage units are sold by floor area and used by volume, which is why people so often book one size too small. A ten by ten is a hundred square feet, but at eight feet of usable height it is closer to eight hundred cubic feet, and how much of that you can actually use depends entirely on whether you need to reach things. A unit packed solid to the ceiling holds nearly double what a unit with a walkway holds. Decide which one you need before you book, because that decision matters more than the dimensions.
Access halves your capacity
A unit you need to walk into holds roughly half what a solidly packed one holds. If you will be retrieving things, size up rather than planning to unpack the unit every visit.
Height is free capacity most people waste
Units are typically eight feet tall. Stacking properly, heavy low and light high, is what turns a small unit into an adequate one.
Furniture disassembly changes the size you need
Bed frames, table legs and shelving flat packed take a fraction of the space. This alone often drops you a size.
Ground floor and drive up cost more and are worth it
If you are moving in and out repeatedly, a drive up unit saves real time. If it is long term and untouched, upstairs is fine and cheaper.
Climate control matters for specific things, not everything
Electronics, timber furniture, artwork, documents and anything leather. San Diego is mild, but a metal unit in an inland valley in August is not.
Sizes
What Actually
Fits
5 by 5, about 25 sq ft
A large closet. Boxes, seasonal items, a bicycle, a small chest of drawers. Not a bedroom of furniture, despite what the size chart implies.
5 by 10, about 50 sq ft
A studio apartment’s worth if packed tightly, or a one bedroom’s overflow. Mattress on edge, boxes stacked, small furniture.
10 by 10, about 100 sq ft
A one bedroom apartment comfortably, or a two bedroom packed tight with no walkway. The most commonly booked size and the most commonly outgrown.
10 by 15, about 150 sq ft
A two bedroom home including appliances, or a three bedroom with disciplined packing. Room to reach most things.
10 by 20, about 200 sq ft
A three bedroom house, or a two bedroom with a garage worth of equipment. Roughly the footprint of a single car garage.
10 by 30, about 300 sq ft
A four bedroom house or a small business inventory. Uncommon in San Diego facilities and worth booking early where it exists.
Packing A Unit
How To Get More
Into Less
Disassemble everything that comes apart
Bed frames, table legs, shelving. Keep fixings in a labeled bag taped to the item itself, not in a communal box you will never identify.
Heavy and flat at the bottom
Appliances and boxes of books at floor level, lighter boxes above. Nothing heavy on top of anything upholstered.
Mattresses and sofas on edge
Vertical against a wall, on a protective cover. It frees a surprising amount of floor for the same volume.
Fill the inside of everything
Drawers, wardrobes, washing machines and fridges are all storage volume you are paying for. Use them, though leave appliances propped open and dry.
Leave a labeled aisle if you need access
Only if you genuinely will. Otherwise pack solid and gain the capacity, and be honest with yourself about which you are.
Local Notes
Storage In
San Diego
A few San Diego specifics are worth knowing. Coastal facilities in Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and along the coast run humid, so timber furniture, artwork and anything leather are better in climate control there than they would be inland. Inland valleys through El Cajon, Santee and Escondido get genuinely hot in summer, and a metal unit in August is hard on electronics, candles and anything with adhesive. Facilities near the coast and downtown price higher and fill faster, particularly in the summer moving season, so book earlier than you think you need to. Facilities inland are cheaper and more available but add drive time every time you visit. Our storage page covers what we offer directly, including storage between leases when your dates do not line up.
Read The Rental Agreement First
California regulates self-storage rentals under the Self-Service Storage Facility Act, Business and Professions Code sections 21700 onward. Under that law the rental contract has to be in writing, and it has to state that your property is subject to a lien and may be sold if rent or other charges stay unpaid for 14 consecutive days. That clause is not boilerplate. It is the clock the facility runs on, and it starts on the day a payment is missed, not on the day you notice.
The sequence after a missed payment is set by statute. Once charges remain unpaid for 14 consecutive days, the facility may terminate your right to use the space by sending notice to your last known address. If the balance is still unpaid 14 days after the termination date given in that preliminary lien notice, the lien attaches and the owner may take the actions the Act allows. A 2025 bill, AB 498, concerns sending those lien notices by email, so keep both your mailing and email addresses current with the office.
For a size guide this matters because a bigger unit is a bigger monthly commitment, and the lien process does not care why a payment was late. Choose the size you can carry through a slow month, put the payment on autopay, and give the facility an alternative contact address, since the notice step in the law keys off whatever address is on file. If you only need storage between two leases, a mover holding the goods avoids a separate rental agreement altogether, which the next section covers.
Mover Storage Or A Self-Storage Unit
Licensed California movers can hold a shipment as storage-in-transit under Item 160 of the BHGS Max 4 tariff, the rates and rules document every permitted household mover in the state works under. The distinction that matters is liability. While goods are in storage-in-transit, the mover stays responsible for them. If a shipment is instead placed in a warehouse outside those provisions, the mover's liability ceases and the warehouseman in possession takes it over. Ask which arrangement you are being offered before you sign, and get the answer in writing.
Discount Movers stores household goods at our Miramar facility, 8775 Miramar Pl, San Diego 92121, from $205 per month. The practical difference from a rented unit is that you are not picking a footprint from a chart and hoping the crew can make it fit. The crew that loads the truck at your old address unloads into storage, and the same company brings it back when the new address is ready, so the goods are not handed between two sets of people.
A self-storage unit still makes sense when you need to visit it. If you will be pulling boxes out every few weeks, running a business inventory, or storing for a year or more with no move at the end, a unit you hold the key to is the better fit. Storage between two moves, where everything goes in on one date and comes out on another, is the case where mover storage is simpler, because the loading labor is labor you were already paying for.
Sort Out Hazardous Items Before You Pack
Ask the facility, in writing, what it will not accept before the crew loads the garage. Whatever the answer, gasoline, propane cylinders, leftover paint, pool chemicals, pesticides and car batteries do not belong in a closed metal unit through a San Diego summer. Deal with them a week or two before the move, because the disposal options below run on appointments and fixed days, and a can of gasoline is a poor thing to have left over in the driveway on loading day.
City of San Diego residents can take these items to the Household Hazardous Waste Transfer Facility at the Miramar Landfill. Drop-off is free and by appointment only. Appointments run 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and are booked by calling 858-694-7000 or through the city's Get It Done site. Bring proof of City residency, either a picture ID or a recent bill showing your name and address, or you will be turned away with the same load you arrived with.
Outside city limits, the County of San Diego runs the program for unincorporated areas through two permanent collection facilities. Residents of the other incorporated cities contact their own city's household hazardous waste program.
Military Storage Options In San Diego
If you are moving on Navy or Marine Corps orders, check what the orders authorize before renting anything, because the government storage entitlement comes in two forms with different clocks. Naval Supply Systems Command describes Storage in Transit, SIT, as temporary storage for the move itself. Non-Temporary Storage, NTS, is long-term storage for items you do not want shipped to the new duty station. It is used at the origin location, and items may remain there for the duration of the tour when the orders authorize it.
For members retiring, NTS authority begins on the date the order is issued and ends one year from the active duty termination date, and the Transportation Office can extend that by up to 180 days depending on circumstances.
Where a private unit or mover storage comes in is the gap the entitlement does not cover: a partner's home office, a second household of furniture, or goods that need to stay in San Diego when the tour ends somewhere else. Size that portion separately using the chart above, and treat the government storage as a fixed quantity that will not stretch to fit what you keep. If the leftover is a few boxes and a bike, a 5 by 10 covers it. If it is the whole garage, price a 10 by 15 against a month of mover storage.
FAQ
Storage Unit Size Guide San Diego
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