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New research carried out by RAC Home Insurance has revealed that it could be the end of the road for the garage as we know it, as 4.6 million of Brit’s garages are no longer used for their cars.
4 in 10 of the 1000 car owners polled about their garage revealed that their garages were so full of ‘stuff’ that they could no longer fit their car in.
It seems that half of Britain’s motorists have taken to storing clutter, sports equipment and gardening tools in their garages, like our ever-expanding households overflow.
The RAC report said: ‘The death of the garage as a place to keep the car is now confirmed.
It suggests we have become a nation of hoarders with our garages capturing the overspill from our homes which are not built with enough storage space available for today’s consumers.’
The research revealed that other than a car, the top five items Brits store in their garages are:
1.DIY tools – 76%
2.Decorating kit, ladders etc. – 67%
3.Gardening equipment – 64%
4.Sports and gym equipment – 49%
5.Bikes and scooters – 47%
RAC Home Insurance spokesman Simon Williams says: “It’s frightening to think that nearly 5m garages are not used for the purpose they were made. The findings of our research appear to indicate that there is an issue with the design of houses as people do not have enough space to keep all their possessions in the house itself and many garages are so small that anyone in the car has to perform a contortionist act to get out.
“More than a third (37%) of the people we surveyed said they would still rather use their garage for its original purpose if possible, but for some, the idea that the garage is a place to keep the family cars is secondary compared to the need for storage for household goods, or indeed to create additional living space by converting it into another room in the house.
In the past, Britain’s motorists used garages to protect their vehicles from theft and damage from the elements, but with so much clutter filling up the extra storage space, cars are left to sit on the drive or parked on the street. More than a third of the people surveyed by the RAC stated that they would still rather use their garages for their intended purpose, but tiny properties and growing amounts of household items mean that it may never be possible.
With self-storage you have two options:
1. Put your seasonal sports gear, DIY tools and other household clutter into one of our secure units. You can access your Spaces and Places unit whenever you need and your car can return to its rightful place in the garage!
2. Another option is to keep your garage as a storage area and store your car with us. Owners of vintage vehicles or seasonal sports cars often come to us looking to store their vehicle safely and securely. When parked and unused, these types of cars can become vulnerable to theft and deterioration.
Call us free on 0800 124 4363 or email us at info@spaces-and-places.co.uk for more information.