In New York, start one size smaller than the national charts suggest. The average NYC one-bedroom is 697 square feet — about 200 square feet under the U.S. average apartment — so its contents typically fit a 5×10 unit (50 square feet, 400 cubic feet, roughly 20 large boxes plus two big furniture pieces), and the most-rented unit size in the city is the smallest one, the 5×5. Measure by what you own, not by your bedroom count. And if the storage is part of a move — a lease gap, a renovation, a delayed closing — you can skip the sizing question entirely: a full-service mover like Big Apple Moving, moving New Yorkers since 1979, prices storage on your inventory’s actual cubic feet, not on a unit you guessed.
Choosing storage space is a volume problem that gets sold as a floor-plan problem. Units are priced by footprint — 5×5, 5×10, 10×10 — but what you are buying is cubic feet under a standard 8-foot ceiling, and what you own is measured in boxes and furniture, not floor tiles. This guide translates between the two: real dimensions, honest capacity figures, and the New York adjustments the national charts leave out.
Size is half the decision. What the space costs is the other half — current NYC figures live in our guide to self-storage unit costs — and how you pack decides how much of the unit you actually use; see how to organize a storage unit for that part.
Storage Unit Sizes, Measured in Boxes
Every major operator publishes the same ladder of sizes, and the dimensions are standard enough to rely on. What the brochures undersell is capacity in the unit that matters on moving day — large boxes — so this table says it in boxes.
| Unit size | Floor space | Capacity | What it typically holds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5×5 | 25 sq ft | 200 cu ft | About 10 large boxes, or a twin mattress, a small dresser and a bicycle — a closet’s worth |
| 5×10 | 50 sq ft | 400 cu ft | About 20 large boxes plus two big furniture pieces — a studio’s worth |
| 5×15 | 75 sq ft | 600 cu ft | About 30 large boxes plus a full bedroom set |
| 10×10 | 100 sq ft | 800 cu ft | About 40 large boxes plus two bedrooms’ furniture |
| 10×15 | 150 sq ft | 1,200 cu ft | About 60 large boxes — a two-bedroom home |
| 10×20 | 200 sq ft | 1,600 cu ft | About 80 large boxes — a three-bedroom house, or one car |
Dimensions and capacities as published in storage operators’ own size guides; ceilings are typically 8 feet.
NYC Apartments Are Smaller — Size Down Accordingly
National size guides assume American homes: 908 square feet on average, usually with a garage and an attic feeding the storage pile. New York apartments average roughly 200 square feet less, and the right unit shrinks with them. The average NYC studio is 487 square feet; a one-bedroom, 697; a two-bedroom, 963; a three-bedroom, 1,228. Set those against the table above and the pattern holds: a New York household usually needs one unit size smaller than a national chart recommends for the same bedroom count — a studio into a 5×5 or 5×10, a one-bedroom into a 5×10, a two-bedroom into a 5×15 or 10×10.
Two local wrinkles are worth money. The most-rented unit size in New York is the 5×5 — this city stores overflow, not households. And New York facilities commonly list reduced-height units: the same footprint under a lower ceiling at a lower monthly rate. If your list is boxes rather than wardrobes, a reduced-height 5×10 can beat a full-height 5×5 on both space and price.
How to Estimate the Size You Need in Four Steps
Walk the apartment with your phone and list what is going in: furniture by piece, everything else in box counts. The list is the estimate — every other method is a guess wearing math.
Operators size their own units in large boxes: about 10 fill a 5×5, 20 a 5×10, 40 a 10×10, 80 a 10×20. Count your packed boxes against that ladder — our guide to labeling moving boxes makes the count reusable on delivery day.
Furniture eats space in awkward footprints, not neat stacks. Count each large piece — sofa, mattress set, dresser, table — as displacing two to four boxes’ worth of room, then round up, not down.
A 10-foot rental truck holds 402 cubic feet — loaded full, it fills a 5×10 with room to spare. A 15-footer (764 cu ft) maps to a 10×10, a 20-footer (1,016 cu ft) to a 10×15, a 26-footer (1,682 cu ft) overfills a 10×20. The truck runs about one size larger than the unit you need.
Six Sizing Mistakes That Cost Real Money
Paying for air
The classic mistake is renting a bedroom’s worth of space for a closet’s worth of things. Every unused square foot bills monthly, and in New York the jump from a 5×5 to a 10×10 takes the average bill from under $90 to $271 a month.
Stacking to the ceiling
A unit that is too small forces floor-to-ceiling stacking. That is how box towers crush, sofa legs snap, and upholstery spends a season with no air around it.
Forgetting the third dimension
Footprints get all the attention, but the 8-foot ceiling is where a small unit earns its keep: mattresses on edge, sofas on end, boxes in stacks of four. In NYC, ask about reduced-height units too — lower ceiling, lower rate.
Losing the walkway
Pack a unit solid and reaching anything at the back means unloading everything in front of it. A one-box-wide aisle costs about a tenth of the space and saves the whole afternoon.
Sizing by bedroom count
National charts map bedrooms to units for 908-square-foot homes. A New York two-bedroom at 963 square feet holds a lot less than a suburban one — size from your inventory list, not the floor-plan label.
Ignoring the visit schedule
Weekly access needs loose packing and an aisle — go one size up. No access until move-in day? Then a unit may be the wrong product entirely; sealed mover’s storage is built for exactly that.
Storing Between Moves? There’s No Size to Pick
A whole category of storage removes the sizing decision. When belongings are stored between two addresses — the old lease ends before the new one starts, a closing slips, a renovation runs long — a full-service moving company loads them once, holds them in its own warehouse, and delivers them when the new place is ready. The crew inventories what you actually own, measures it in cubic feet, and that measurement is the price. A guessed-at unit standing two-thirds empty stops being a possibility, because there is no unit.
That model is how Big Apple Moving has stored New Yorkers’ belongings since 1979: climate control as standard, furniture padded and sealed on load day, the building’s certificate of insurance handled before delivery. The trade-off is honest — sealed storage is not for things you need weekly. For a gap measured in days to weeks, see short-term storage; for open-ended stays, long-term storage; for the complete pick-up-and-return service, full-service storage. Comparing product types first? Start with the types of storage solutions.
Will It Fit? Common Items and Their Units
A queen mattress set
A 5×10 is the honest minimum — the mattress rides on edge along the 10-foot wall with the box spring beside it. A 5×5 technically takes a queen alone, but nothing else fits after it.
A sofa
A loveseat fits a 5×5 standing on end; a three-seater needs a 5×10; a sectional is a 10×10 job. Wrap the arms — upholstery corners take the worst of a tight unit.
A dresser and 20 boxes
The classic studio clear-out is a 5×10: dresser as the stack base, boxes in rows of four, aisle down the middle.
A bicycle and season gear
Skis, the AC unit, holiday boxes and the bike hang together in a 5×5 — the unit size most of New York actually rents.
A dining table for six
Legs off and blanket-wrapped, tabletop on edge: 5×10. Legs on, it commandeers the middle of a 10×10.
Washer, dryer and appliances
Full-size appliances travel with two-bedroom contents into a 10×15 — doors propped open against mildew, and never stacked under boxes.
Storage Unit Sizes — Frequently Asked Questions
In New York, usually a 5×10 — 50 square feet and 400 cubic feet, enough for about 20 large boxes plus a couch, a mattress set and a dresser. National guides often say 5×15 or 10×10, but they assume a 900-square-foot home; the average NYC one-bedroom is 697 square feet with no garage feeding the pile. If everything you own is going in — not just the overflow — size up to a 5×15.
100 square feet of floor and, under the standard 8-foot ceiling, 800 cubic feet of capacity — about half a one-car garage. Operators rate it at roughly 40 large boxes plus two bedrooms’ furniture. In New York it is often the largest unit a household ever needs: the average two-bedroom apartment here is 963 square feet, and its contents fit with an aisle to spare.
A strip 5 feet wide and 10 feet deep — 50 square feet, 400 cubic feet under an 8-foot ceiling, about the size of a large walk-in closet. It takes around 20 large boxes plus two big furniture pieces, or a queen mattress set, a dresser and a TV. It is the workhorse size for New York studios and one-bedrooms.
A 5×5 is 25 square feet and 200 cubic feet — a large closet. It holds about 10 large boxes, or a twin mattress, a small dresser, a bicycle, ski gear and a few suitcases. It is also the most-rented unit size in New York City, which says something about how this city stores: overflow, not whole households.
A 5×10 takes a full NYC studio — the average studio here measures 487 square feet, and its furniture plus 15 to 20 boxes fit inside 400 cubic feet. If you are clearing seasonal gear and a few boxes rather than emptying the apartment, a 5×5 does the job at roughly half the monthly rate.
Lockers. Below the 5×5, many facilities rent reduced-height lockers from about 4 square feet — a pantry-sized box for documents, a seasonal wardrobe or a few cartons. New York facilities in particular list reduced-height units at lower prices than full-height ones on the same footprint, so ask about height, not just floor size.
Neither mistake is free. Too big and you pay monthly for air — in New York the step between common sizes runs well over $100 a month. Too small and you stack to the ceiling, which is how boxes crush and furniture scars, and you lose the walkway, so reaching anything means unloading. Inventory first, then rent what the list needs with one box-row of slack.
No. When storage is part of the move — loaded at the old address, held, delivered to the new one — a full-service mover measures the cubic feet of your actual inventory, and that measurement is the price. Nobody rounds you up to the next unit. Big Apple Moving has run storage this way since 1979: one written estimate covering the move out, the climate-controlled stay and the move in.
