Mobile Home Storage - How To Use An Invisibility Cloak To Make Your Home Bigger

Mobile home manufacturers are experts at getting the most out of a small space. From the use of storage beneath sofas to overhead lockers. However there is never enough space to keep all of your stuff in side of a mobile home even if you wanted to. Bikes, the garden furniture and gas bottles are the first to come to mind. Too big to be taken indoors and too valuable to be left outside unsecured in plain view.

It would be great if you could just throw an invisibility cloak over your outdoor equipment and then reach under to take it out the deck chair or barbecue when needed.

Invisibility cloaks only exist in Harry Potters world

Wouldn't it be great to throw an invisibility
cloak over this lot? Find out how as you read on

But well designed outdoor mobile home storage is probably the next best thing. Unplanned outside storage gives the place a cluttered look and actually makes it even more difficult to keep the outside space tidy. This article covers the main points that you need to consider when you are deciding what you need to keep the area around your mobile home tidy and organised.

There are three main points that you will want to look out for when choosing a mobile home storage unit;

• 1. Size
• 2. Security
• 3. Location

Size

There are two competing factors when choosing the size of your mobile home storage unit. There is often an upper limit to the size of the storage unit that you can use with your home. This upper limit will be set by the site where your caravan is located, you will be able to find this size in the document that you have as your rental agreement with the site owner. There is also a physical limit to the size of the unit that you can use if you intend to site the store beneath the front or rear window there will be a limit on the height of the unit that will fit in without obscuring the window.

The other balancing factor is the size of what you want to store. Smaller units are fine for a couple of deck chairs and the lawnmower but if you want to store bikes and barbecues as well then you will need to look at the bigger end of the market or find a location for more than one unit.

Security

This unit does a great job of blending in.
Beneath the front window out of the way.
It's made of steel and with a matching colour too!

There are two aspects to security one is having a discreet unit that blends in with the colour of the caravan, a bit like Harry Potters invisibility cloak. The other is actual security that involves factors like the strength of materials that the box is made from, the detailing of the box and most importantly how it is locked.

Common materials for mobile home storage boxes are plastic, steel and aluminium. Plastic is great as an inexpensive type of storage but does not pose much of a challenge to the casual thief. Aluminium is light, looks attractive and will not rust but still is relatively weak compared to steel. Steel is the strongest option and boxes are available in a range of thicknesses if you want your invisibility cloak to really work I would go for the thickest metal I could find.

An important factor in the security of the box is the locking mechanism. Some boxes have integral locks whereas other use padlocks. If you opt for an integral locking mechanism then make sure that it can be replaced or repaired if it gets damaged. If you go down the padlock route then having a metal shroud or padlock protector makes it extra difficult for a potential thief to break in.

Having a box that is more difficult to break in to than others on the site is a good strategy as by nature casual thieves are lazy and will follow the route of least resistance.

Location

Spot the gas bottles?
These gas bottle storage units secure
and hide the gas bottles

When it comes to locating the shed you may have very few options. It will most likely be adjacent to the caravan. When assessing the location consider the ground and whether the new storage unit will be sat on concrete hard standing or do you need to construct a new shed base for the storage unit out of timber or concrete. If you have a choice of locations it is worth considering the invisibility cloak principle again and deciding which is the most discreet.

On most well run sites security is not a big problem

However taking a bit of time to get a mobile home storage unit of the correct size, an appropriate level of security for the area and also siting the unit in a good location will enable you to store more of your things outside and give you more space inside to enjoy.

Your new mobile home storage box may be a bit more cumbersome than an invisibility cloak but a big advantage it has over invisibility cloaks it that they are very weatherproof and a lot better if you really need to keep anything secure from the Dementors.