Storing your stock and packaging, and coming in to collect what you need, is clearly fine, normally between 6am and 10pm (check your site's page and confirm your hours when you book). Cheltenham's page shows two sets of hours (storage access 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm at weekends and on bank holidays, and "Unlimited Free Access: 6am to 10pm" elsewhere on the same page), so if you need evening visits, confirm your site's hours before you book. Whether you can sort orders and wrap parcels inside the unit is less settled: our own pages don't agree, so ask us before you plan a business around it. Some of our guides say yes: "Solo fulfilment work within access hours is permitted", with orders packed "at a folding table". Another says the unit isn't a base for "order fulfilment", and our terms say you "will use the Unit solely for the purpose of storage". Our business guide allows it solo only: "Bringing employed staff to work in the unit alongside you is not." Courier collections from the unit need you or someone from your business there. Call us on 0800 2545585 and we'll tell you what applies to your plans.
What's clearly fine: storing stock and collecting it
Your unit can hold stock, packaging, mailer boxes, tape, shelving and a folding table, and you can visit as often as you like within access hours to load, unload, restock shelves and take out what you need. Our pick-pack guide says "Clothing, homewares, books, craft supplies, small electrical items, prints, ceramics, dry goods of most kinds: these all store well" in a unit. Sorting your own things so you can find them is part of storing them. That's the use our terms are built around, and none of our pages disputes it.
Can I run order fulfilment from my unit?
| Where | Date | Exact wording |
|---|---|---|
| "Is it legal to run a business from a self storage unit?" | 8 July 2026 | "Solo fulfilment work within access hours is permitted." Also: "Solo admin, solo picking and packing, and solo stock organisation are all within the permitted use." |
| "Pick pack and post from a self storage unit: a small seller's setup" | 15 June 2026 | "You arrive, pull the orders for the day, pack them at a folding table, label them up, lock the unit, and head to the post office." |
| "Off-season self storage for wedding and event suppliers" | 4 July 2026 | Suppliers "may be tempted to use the unit as a base for kit maintenance, equipment testing, or order fulfilment" and "The unit is for goods you are storing between uses, not for ongoing business activity." |
| Our terms, clause 22 | Current | "You will use the Unit solely for the purpose of storage and shall not (or allow any other person to): (a) use the Unit as offices or living accommodation or as a home, business or mailing address" |
In plain words, clause 22(a) rules out running the unit "as offices". It doesn't mention packing either way. The operative restriction is clause 22's opening words, "solely for the purpose of storage", and our guides read that differently. Until we publish one answer, don't sign up for a unit on the strength of any single page. Ask us first, and ask what we're happy with for your volume, how long you'd be there and what you'd bring. None of our pages says whether steaming, photographing or pricing stock counts as packing, so include that when you ask us.
Etsy, eBay, Vinted and Amazon sellers
Couriers. We don't sign for, take in, hold or hand over parcels for customers, so a courier collection from the unit only works with you or someone from your business there. Our guide for online sellers (7 July 2026) says "A courier can come to the site, but someone from your own business has to be there to hand the parcel over" and "a courier collecting outbound orders works only if you have planned to be present for that slot", and our guide for florists, stylists and hire companies (4 July 2026) says that for any courier collection or drop-off, "you or someone from your business needs to be there to handle the handover". So if you'd like a courier to collect regularly, say twice a week, ask us before you book it, and plan for you or someone from your business to be at the unit for each slot, and don't leave parcels for a courier to collect when you're not there. Otherwise, take packed orders to a post office or parcel drop-off yourself. Deliveries into the unit work the same way, met by you or someone from your business: see can I have post delivered to my storage unit?
Your address on labels and listings. Clause 22(a) also rules out a "business or mailing address", so the unit can't be your sender, returns or trading address. Anything posted back to it would have nobody to receive it. What to use instead is in can I use my storage unit as a business address?
Packed parcels. Keep them inside your unit. Clause 22(g) says you must not "create any obstruction or leave items or refuse in any common space within the Facility", which includes corridors and yards.
Label printers, lights and power banks. You can't connect a power supply for equipment unless Wigwam authorises it (clause 22(e)); whether it can be authorised for your unit isn't published, so ask on 0800 2545585. Clause 20 limits what can stay in the unit between visits:
| Item | Can it be stored in the unit? |
|---|---|
| Power banks, "portable battery chargers" or "any similar portable power source" | No (20(b)) |
| Removable lithium-ion batteries over 160Wh | No; only built-in ones that "cannot be removed" (20(a)) |
| Laptops, tablets and "other similar items containing built-in batteries" | Up to ten per unit in total (20(d)) |
A battery label printer may count towards that ten, so ask us if you plan to leave one there. Take the power bank home. Clause 20.1 adds: "We recommend all batteries are stored with the lowest practical charge."
Small brands with staff or helpers
Clause 22 says you shall not do these things "or allow any other person to", so you mustn't allow anyone you bring to break these rules. Our business guide says "Bringing employed staff to work in the unit alongside you is not" within the permitted use. If your plan needs more than one person packing, or a daily dispatch run, ask us before you book, and we'd want to check that against clause 22(a).
Market traders
Loading the van before a market and restocking after it is fine; pricing or bagging stock in the unit is packing, so ask us first.
Stock that can't go in
Clause 18(c) bars "combustible or flammable substances including but not limited to gas, paint, petrol, oil, cleaning solvents or compressed gases". Aerosols can't be stored, whether or not the can shows the flame symbol, because 18(c) bars "compressed gases". Candles and wax melts are ask-us items. Sellers of beauty, home fragrance and craft stock should read can I store aerosols, candles or other flammable stock for my business? before booking.
Clause 18(f) also bars "any item that emits fumes, or odours", so ask us about strongly scented stock. Our business guide says units are "not climate-controlled" (no regulated temperature or humidity), so if your products are sensitive to heat or cold, check that before you commit.
If losing stock would stop your business
Clause 30(a) says we exclude all liability for "loss or damage to Your business, if any, including consequential loss, lost profits or business interruption". Clause 31 makes it "a condition of this Agreement that the Goods remain adequately insured by You at all times for their Replacement Value", through our contents protection or your own policy, but lost sales and orders you couldn't fulfil sit outside that. Declare your stock at what it would cost you to replace it today, not its selling price and not what you originally paid: our pick, pack and post guide puts it as "what it would cost you to replace the stock at today’s cost". If your business couldn't run without the stock in your unit, talk to your own insurer or broker about business interruption cover.
Already renting and packing in your unit?
Our guides have told sellers different things, so call us on 0800 2545585, tell us how you use the unit, and get a clear answer for your set-up.
Keeping your stock with us
If you want a unit for stock you pack elsewhere, or you've asked us about packing and it fits, get a price online or call 0800 2545585. To find your nearest site, see our locations. For making, repairing or other work in a unit, see can I use my storage unit as a workshop?
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