What Can’t You Put in Storage? (UK Rules)

You can’t store flammable or explosive items, fuel, gas bottles, perishable food, living plants or animals, illegal or stolen goods, or unsealed hazardous chemicals. UK storage rules and insurance exclude them because of the fire, health, pest and legal risks they bring.

Most of what you own is perfectly fine to store. A short list of items is not — not to be awkward, but because they are a fire risk, a health risk, or against the law. Here is what you can’t put into storage in the UK, why, and what to do with it instead.

What items are not allowed in storage?

The items not allowed in storage are fuels and flammables, pressurised gas and aerosols, explosives, perishable food, living plants or animals, illegal goods, and hazardous chemicals. The table below lists what you can’t store and the reason for each.

Why can’t you store these things?

You can’t store these things because each one puts the building, other people’s belongings or your own safety at risk — and most are written out of storage insurance and the law. Fuel and gas are fire hazards regulated by the Health and Safety Executive under DSEAR, food and damp items attract pests and mould, and illegal goods are not permitted anywhere.

If it can catch fire, rot, or get you into trouble with the law, it can’t go into storage — those are really the only rules.The short version

What about gas bottles, paint, batteries and white goods?

The trickiest items are the everyday ones. Gas bottles, paint and aerosols are not allowed because they are flammable or pressurised; loose lithium batteries are best avoided for the same reason; and white goods are fine once they are emptied, drained and fully dried.

• Gas bottles, BBQ gas & camping fuel — not allowed; return or dispose of them safely.
• Paint, varnish & aerosols — flammable; use them up or take them to a recycling centre.
• Lithium batteries, e-bikes & scooters — check first; loose or damaged batteries are a fire risk.
• Fridges, freezers & washing machines — fine once emptied, drained and dried, with the doors left ajar.
• Cash, jewellery & key documents — better kept with you; storage insurance limits high-value valuables.

What should you do with items you can’t store?

Deal with items you can’t store before collection day rather than hiding them in a box. Slipping a fuel can or a gas bottle into a container puts everyone at risk and voids your cover — and most of these things can be used up, returned, or taken to a recycling centre instead.

• Use it up or give it away — half-tins of paint, cleaning products and food.
• Take it to a recycling centre — your council’s household waste site takes paint, chemicals and batteries.
• Return pressurised items — gas suppliers take back empty and part-full bottles.
• Keep valuables with you — cash, jewellery and important documents are safest at home.

Can you store a car, caravan or motorbike?

No — we don’t store vehicles of any kind. Cars, vans, caravans, motorbikes and boats all sit outside what we take, drained tank or not, because a vehicle brings fuel, oil, a battery and its own insurance requirements into a building full of other people’s furniture. If you need somewhere for a vehicle, look for a specialist vehicle or caravan storage site rather than a household storage provider.

What we can take is everything that usually surrounds the vehicle: the tools, the roof box, the awning, the camping gear and the garage shelving that has to come out when the space is cleared. Those go into a sealed storage container in exactly the same way as household furniture.

Items you can store once you have prepared them

A good number of the things people assume are banned are actually fine. They just can’t go in as they are, and the rule underneath all of them is the same: nothing wet, nothing fuelled, nothing pressurised, nothing edible.

Seasonal kit is the category this catches most often, and there is more on getting it away properly in our guide to storing garden furniture over winter.

A worked example: clearing a garage before a move

Here is how the list plays out in practice. A household clearing a garage and a spare room before a renovation typically has a mower, a couple of bikes, boxed decorations, garden furniture, a chest freezer, half a shelf of paint tins, a BBQ with a gas bottle, and a fuel can for the mower.

Of that, the paint, the gas bottle and the fuel can stay behind and go to the council recycling centre. The mower comes once it is drained and run dry, the BBQ comes without its bottle, the freezer comes emptied, defrosted and dried with the door ajar, and everything else goes straight in.

A load like that is worth sizing properly rather than guessing at. Each container holds 250 cu ft — 5ft × 7ft × 8.6ft, or roughly the contents of a one-bedroom flat — and our storage size guide works out how many you need from your rooms. One container is £21 a week, two are £42, three £63 and four £79 — that covers storage and insurance, while collection and redelivery are charged separately and quoted upfront from your volume and distance. The pricing page sets the weekly figures out in full.

What we do if a banned item turns up on collection day

Nothing dramatic. Our team points the item out and leaves it with you rather than quietly loading it — a gas bottle or a fuel can in the back of a lorry is a risk to your whole load and to every other container in the warehouse. It costs a couple of minutes on the day and saves an insurance argument later.

The easier version is to ask beforehand. Prohibited items are far simpler to deal with in the week before collection, while the recycling centre is still an option, than at the kerb with the lorry waiting. You can see the whole collection sequence on our how it works page, and we collect from the towns listed on our areas we cover page.

More questions about what you can and can’t store

Can you store a fire extinguisher? Ask first. An extinguisher is a pressurised cylinder, which puts it in the same category as gas bottles and aerosols, so it is not something to slip into a box unannounced.

Can you store wine or spirits? Sealed bottles are not perishable food, but our warehouse is dry and ventilated rather than temperature-controlled to cellar conditions. A few bottles are one thing; a collection you genuinely care about belongs with a specialist.

Can you store medicines? Keep them with you. Medicines have expiry dates, temperature ranges and a habit of being needed at short notice, none of which suit a container that comes back to you on 24 hours’ notice.

Can you store paperwork and archives? Yes — dry, boxed paperwork stores well, and old records are one of the most common things kept in business storage. Passports, deeds and wills are the exception, and are better kept to hand at home.

Can you store furniture and mattresses for months? Yes, provided everything goes in clean and completely dry. Damp is the one thing that genuinely damages a load over months rather than weeks, which is why furniture storage starts with breathable wrapping, and why long-term storage belongs in a dry, ventilated warehouse rather than a garage.

Do the same rules apply for a short stay? They do. Flammables, pressurised cans, food and living things are excluded whether the container is with us for a fortnight of short-term storage or for a year — the fire and pest risks don’t shrink with the booking.