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This guide provides advice on choosing the best outdoor storage furniture for your garden or business. From small storage boxes to full-sized sheds, this guide will help you not only choose the right garden storage for you, but know how to keep it in tip-top condition.
Ready to choose? Browse our complete garden storage collection.
Types of Garden Storage Solutions
Which type of storage you need depends on what you are trying to store. Here are the best options.
Outdoor storage boxes
It doesn’t get easier than just popping your items in a box and closing the lid. That said, garden storage boxes still come with quite the range of options. While many of them are simple chests, the larger options have front-opening doors as well, making them into outdoor storage cabinets. If you’re looking to store tools, toys or random items which simply don’t go in the house, a trusty waterproof box is your best friend. They probably aren’t the best choice for storing a wheelbarrow, lawnmower or barbecue, but they are extremely useful for a great deal of other items.
Bike storage
When you’re looking for bike storage, you want security, weather protection, and sufficient size. For many cyclists, a full-size shed is the choice here, but the good news is that there are smaller options, too. Our dedicated bike sheds, for example, provide just the right amount of space to store one or more adult bicycles without taking up a huge amount of the garden, with room left over to store accessories as well.
Not sure about a bike shed? Check out our article on bike storage ideas.
Bin storage
Your wheelie bins from the council aren’t the most attractive feature of your garden, so it’s no surprise that many gardeners prefer to store them away. Our bin storage containers aren’t only more attractive, but they help to keep rats away and keep litter out of sight if the bins start to overflow. Additionally, some models can tether the top lid to the bins so that it opens in one easy movement.
Outdoor storage materials
Wooden outdoor storage
Wooden garden storage generally means you’re looking at wooden storage sheds. This can be a full-sized building that you can walk into and use it as a workspace as well as keeping all your stuff safe, but it can also be the smaller dedicated storage units such as the tall cabinets or the bike sheds.
Which one is right for you? Consider how much you’re looking to store. If you have a barbecue, lawnmower and other large equipment, you probably want a shed or a storage garage. Do consider as well that wooden storage requires additional maintenance, as wood is more vulnerable to moisture.
Browse our wooden garden storage units for the full range of options.
Plastic garden storage
Plastic storage units don’t have to be flimsy. The options we provide are made with heavy-duty vinyl polycarbonate which is not easily bent by hand. This plastic isn’t just waterproof, but can withstand the harshest British weather conditions and will reliably protect everything you store inside. The plastic outdoor storage range includes both storage boxes and plastic sheds which you can walk inside.
Metal garden storage
Similarly to plastic, metal storage units are available as both storage boxes and as full sheds. They are also weatherproof and extremely secure. However, they aren’t as insulated as the other materials, with both heat and cold easily passing into the interior.
We have a deeper comparison of these in our guide to best garden storage materials.
How to Choose the Right Garden Storage
Choosing outdoor storage is usually about weighing up the size against the cost to make a value decision, although you should also consider the full feature set of the item you are looking at.
How much should garden storage cost?
For small items such as tools, furniture cushions, and children’s outdoor toys, a chest-style storage box will suit you fine. You can lie a hedge trimmer down in one of these, and you might even be able to fit your car washing kit in there. A box of this nature starts from around £90 depending on the timing of offers – any cheaper, and you might find they are flimsy and insecure. The higher cost storage boxes typically come with neat extra features such as hydraulic pistons that hold the lid open for you.
When it comes to slightly larger storage, the taller containers (before going to full-fledged sheds) start from around £300.
If budget is limited, you should check our cheap garden storage collection.
Weatherproofing and durability
All our garden storage containers will stand up to the weather. However, there is a need to keep them maintained to help with this. Storage boxes, for example, should not be overfilled. Forcing the lid shut could cause damage over time.
As mentioned above, wooden storage requires some maintenance, and this is a requirement of the 10-year guarantee. Maintenance will usually consist of painting the wood with a preservative treatment every year, and checking that the roof material continues to hold without damage. This requirement can be reduced by selecting a pressure treatment upgrade at the point of purchase, which extends the guarantee and means no further treatment will be required for up to 7 years.
Security features of garden storage
Most garden storage containers will have the ability to add a padlock to a loop that is built on. It is worth checking whether the bar of your padlock will be sufficiently covered to prevent would-be thieves from getting to this with bolt cutters.
Plastic and metal sheds generally come with either a padlock loop or a built-in locking system with a key. Check the specific design of your chosen shed to be sure.
When it comes to wooden sheds, locks aren’t included by default and must be installed. But the great thing about these is that you can choose your chosen type of locking mechanism. A padlock and hasp is the most common choice. However, it is worth deterring bolt cutters by adding a padlock cover over this.
Of course, a determined thief equipped with power tools can break into most sheds if they really wanted to, but there are some metal sheds on the market which offer high-level resistance to such methods. Otherwise, it is best to avoid storing anything excessively expensive or truly irreplaceable in outdoor storage.
Attractive Garden Storage
It’s hardly worth tidying your garden if the storage solution doesn’t look good in your outdoor space. Fortunately, most outdoor storage products come in neutral colours which will fit with all types of garden, and will discreetly fit at the edges. When it comes to wooden storage, you can paint them in any colour you choose. Metal sheds sometimes come in shades of green, to help them fit neatly into gardens full of plantlife.
Buy garden storage
When you’ve decided on the right type, size, material and appearance of your ideal outdoor storage, it’s time to take the next step. Browse the full selection on Garden Buildings Direct to begin upgrading your garden experience.
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