Shipping containers Gold Coast.

Furniture and boxes while you renovate or sell

Gold Coast homeowners spend a lot of time either renovating or getting a place ready for sale, and both mean emptying a room or two. A 20ft holds most of the furniture from a three-bedroom house when it is packed carefully; a 10ft suits one or two rooms. With the container on your own driveway, you can fetch the winter doona or the good platters without driving to a storage facility.

Humidity is the thing to plan for. Summers here are warm and sticky, and a closed steel box can form condensation on the inside when the temperature drops overnight. Leave a hand’s width between the walls and anything soft, stand furniture on pallets, and put a few moisture absorbers in before you close the doors. Load mattresses and upholstered lounges last, nearest the doors, so they are easy to check and air on a dry day.

In a townhouse or unit complex, read the body corporate by-laws before ordering. Many complexes do not allow anything on common property, even for a fortnight, and a visitor car park is not your space to fill. The committee or building manager can usually tell you quickly whether a container is possible and where.

Surfboards, boats, bikes and the camping kit

A lot of Gold Coast garages stopped holding a car years ago. Boards, a tinny on its trailer, paddle skis, mountain bikes, fishing rods and the camping gear for the Easter trip all fight for the same floor. A container in the side yard or behind the shed gives that gear a lockable room of its own, and the car gets the garage back.

Fibreglass and foam do not like heat, and a container in full afternoon sun gets very warm inside. If you can, place it where it catches some shade, and rack boards on their rails rather than stacking them flat. If you are hoping to back a trailer boat straight in, measure the boat and trailer together, drawbar included, and compare that with the door opening rather than the outside of the box.

Salt comes in with the gear. Rinse reels, outboards and wetsuits before they go inside, wipe sand off the door seals now and then, and give the hinges and locking bars a little grease every few months.

Stock for an online shop or a market stall

The Coast has no shortage of small businesses run from a spare bedroom: swimwear and clothing labels, surf accessories, supplements, candles and craft for the weekend markets. When cartons start taking over the hallway, a container is a common next step before leasing a shed. It is a dry, lockable room on your own property, with space for shelving down both sides and an aisle in the middle.

Think about how often you will be in and out. If you pick and pack every day, place the doors where you can reach them without moving the car, and leave enough room to stand at the doors with a trolley. Cardboard and soft goods are where condensation shows up first, so keep cartons off the floor. For anything you sell, a new single-trip or a checked cargo-worthy unit is a better fit than the cheaper as-is grade.

Running a business from home can raise zoning questions, particularly if customers will collect from the container or it will sit in front of the house. City of Gold Coast can tell you what applies to your property.

Tools and materials for a trade business

Electricians, carpenters, landscapers and pool builders often keep more stock at home than fits in the ute. Fitted with shelving, a 20ft becomes a small warehouse: cable drums along one wall, fittings sorted into labelled tubs on the other, and long lengths of timber or conduit along the floor. A high cube gives extra headroom if you plan to rack materials vertically.

If the container is going into a leased business yard, ask the landlord where it may go before it arrives. A container in a marked parking bay can put a tenancy at odds with its lease. On a home block, keep the doors visible from the house if you can, and fit a lock box so a padlock is harder to attack. Ask about lock boxes when you enquire.

Gear for clubs, schools and events

Nippers and surf clubs, junior footy and netball clubs, schools and festival crews all collect equipment that comes out a handful of times a year: marquees, barbecues, line markers, lighting, signage and trophies. A container on the grounds gives all of it one home instead of five sheds and somebody’s garage.

On council-owned land or a leased reserve, the committee will need permission from whoever controls the site, and the groundskeeper will want to know where the truck will drive across the grass, especially after rain. Shared equipment also needs shared rules. Agree who holds the keys, fix an inventory to the inside of a door, and keep the heaviest items at floor level near the opening so volunteers are not climbing over stacks.

What to send with your enquiry

Tell us the suburb, what is going inside and roughly how much of it, which way you would like the doors to face, and whether a body corporate or landlord needs to agree first.

Photos of the street, the driveway or gate and the spot you have in mind let us confirm the right vehicle. For a hinterland address, include the last stretch of road and the steepest part of the driveway.