Moving in Chatswood with a Storage Gap: How to Handle the Between-Homes Wait

Chatswood Removals · 27 June 2026 · 6 min read

Moving house in the Chatswood and Willoughby district is rarely a clean, single-day event. Settlement dates shift. Building lift bookings run out. A new apartment settles two weeks after the old one must be vacated. What sounds like a neat handover often lands you with a gap of ten days to a month, and a household of furniture with nowhere to go.

This post explains how to plan that gap, what your storage options look like, and why a move-store-move booked as one job almost always comes out better than managing the legs separately.

Why settlement gaps are so common in this area

Chatswood CBD apartment buildings change hands constantly. The market moves quickly, and completion dates are set by conveyancers working from contract conditions, not from the practical logistics of two households needing to exchange on the same day. When you sell one apartment and buy another in the same precinct, a perfect date alignment is the exception.

The house suburbs around the CBD create a different version of the same problem. Families in Castlecrag, Castle Cove, and Northbridge often sell homes they have held for decades. The sale settles, the family must vacate, and the new purchase, whether a smaller house in the same district or an apartment in the CBD, might not settle for another two to four weeks. Furniture that was in a family home for thirty years suddenly has nowhere to go on a Thursday afternoon.

How much storage do you actually need?

Here are indicative volume ballparks for common move sizes. These are guides only; your actual volume depends on how much furniture you own and how full the move is.

Move type	Indicative volume	Typical storage unit
Studio or 1-bed apartment	8 to 12 m3	3x2 m unit
2-bed apartment	15 to 20 m3	3x3 m or 3x4 m unit
3-bed house	25 to 35 m3	3x6 m or 3x9 m unit
4-bed house	35 to 50 m3	3x9 m or two smaller units

The practical rule: go slightly bigger than you think you need. Stacking furniture in a storage unit to maximum height saves money in theory, but it makes accessing anything mid-gap a significant undertaking and increases the risk of damage when items are retrieved.

Your storage options: a plain comparison

Move-store-move with your removalist

You book one job. The crew loads your old place, transports everything to a secure storage facility, and comes back to deliver when your new place is ready. You deal with one company, one quote, and one set of access arrangements.

For gaps of one to four weeks, this is usually the simplest and most cost-effective approach for Chatswood and Willoughby district moves. The double-handling charge (loading and unloading a second time) is included in the single job quote, which is typically lower than hiring two separate removalists at separate rates.

The main benefit beyond cost: your goods move from truck to storage and storage to truck without being repacked by a different team. That matters for fragile items, artwork, and electronics.

Self-storage unit

You organise the storage unit yourself and the removalist delivers to it. Useful if you want daily access to your belongings during the gap (retrieving a specific piece of furniture, for example) or if you are storing for longer than a month and want to review the contents before the final delivery.

In the Chatswood and Artarmon area, there are multiple self-storage operators along and off Reserve Road in Artarmon. Walk-in access is usually 24 hours. Costs vary by unit size and operator; for a two-bedroom apartment, budget $200 to $400 per month depending on the unit size and the facility’s location.

The downside: you are co-ordinating two removalist bookings instead of one, and the receiving storage unit is often not the same size as the one you expected, which requires on-the-fly rearranging.

Mobile container

A container is delivered to your property, you load it (or have it loaded), and it is picked up and stored at a depot until you are ready. Useful for suburban houses with a driveway large enough to take a container, or where you want to pack in stages over several days.

Less well-suited to Chatswood CBD apartment buildings, where a container on the kerb in Victoria Avenue or Archer Street creates access and parking complications that most building managers will not approve.

Planning the gap: timing and sequencing

The most common mistake is leaving the storage arrangement to the last week before vacate. Lift bookings, storage unit availability, and removalist schedules all tighten as the vacancy date approaches.

A practical timeline for a Chatswood apartment with a two-week gap:

• Three to four weeks before vacate: Book your removalist and confirm the storage option. If using a move-store-move, give the removalist both addresses (old apartment and the storage facility) so they can plan the truck size.
• Two to three weeks before vacate: Book the goods lift at your old building for the move-out day. Most Chatswood CBD buildings allocate two-hour slots; confirm the COI requirement with your removalist at the same time.
• One week before vacate: Confirm the goods lift booking at the new building for the delivery day, once you know the settlement date. Book that slot early; move-in lift slots fill up just as fast.
• Move day: The crew loads, transports to storage, and confirms the delivery date. You vacate cleanly without scrambling.
• Delivery day: The same crew retrieves your belongings and delivers to the new building, including the goods lift slot you pre-booked.

What to tell your removalist when you book

The more specific you can be at booking, the more accurate the quote and the smoother the day.

• What floor are you on at the old and new building?
• Is there a goods lift, and what is the booking window?
• How many rooms and approximate volume?
• How long is the storage gap (indicative is fine)?
• Is there anything that needs special packing or handling (artwork, instruments, electronics)?

A good removalist will ask most of these questions anyway. The goal is to have no surprises on the day, and no surprises start with a complete brief at booking.

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If you are facing a settlement gap in the Chatswood area and want a quote for the move-store-move as one job, get in touch here. We plan the lift booking, the storage logistics, and both legs of the move from the start.

Common questions

How much storage space does a two-bedroom apartment need?

As a rough guide, a two-bedroom apartment generates around 15 to 20 cubic metres of furniture and boxes. A standard 3x3 metre storage unit (9 m2) can hold the essentials if you stack carefully; a 3x6 unit (18 m2) is more comfortable and lets you access items without unpacking everything.

Is a mobile container or a self-storage unit better for a short gap?

For gaps of one to four weeks, a move-store-move with a removals crew is often the simplest option: we move you out, store your belongings, and deliver when the new place is ready, all quoted as one job. A self-storage unit makes sense if you want ongoing access during the gap or are storing for longer than a month.

What is the cheapest way to manage a settlement gap?

Book the move-store-move as a single job rather than hiring two separate removalists for the two legs. The crew already has your items loaded and can move them straight into storage, which saves double-handling costs and the risk of damage from repacking.