What Size Storage Unit Do You Need for a 2-Bedroom Apartment? (Plus Studio, 1-Bedroom, and 3-Bedroom Sizing)

The reason is simple. Bedroom count is a rough stand-in for what actually fills a unit, which is the volume of your furniture and boxes and how tightly they’re packed. Two apartments with the same floor plan can differ by hundreds of cubic feet, and a storage unit doesn’t care how many bedrooms you had.

This guide skips the adjectives and shows the arithmetic. You’ll see how much usable space each unit size really gives you, how to turn a moving company’s weight estimate into cubic feet using the same 7-pounds-per-cubic-foot rule federal relocation rules use, and how to tally your furniture the way professional estimators do. Then we work two real-world two-bedroom examples end to end, and cover studios, one-bedrooms, and three-bedrooms too.

We’ll also tell you when renting a unit isn’t worth it. Sometimes it isn’t.

Table of Contents

1. The Short Answer: Storage Unit Size by Apartment Size
2. Why Every Size Guide Gives You a Different Answer
3. How Much Space a Storage Unit Actually Gives You
4. Method 1: Turn Your Moving Estimate Into Cubic Feet
5. Method 2: Add Up Your Furniture the Way Movers Do
6. Worked Example: Two Very Different Two-Bedroom Apartments
7. Studio and One-Bedroom Apartments
8. Three-Bedroom Apartments
9. Six Things That Push You Up a Size
10. Between Two Sizes? How to Break the Tie
11. When You Shouldn’t Rent a Storage Unit at All
12. Matching Your Number to a 10 Federal Storage Unit
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. The Bottom Line

The Short Answer: Storage Unit Size by Apartment Size

These recommendations assume an 8-foot ceiling, belongings stacked to about 7 feet, and furniture disassembled where it can be. The first size listed fits most households. The others are for the lighter and heavier ends of the range.

• Studio apartment: a 5x10 for most studios. A 5x5 only works if you’re storing boxes and a few small pieces. A furniture-heavy studio may need a 5x15.
• 1-bedroom apartment: a 5x15 for most. A 5x10 can work if the apartment is lightly furnished and packed tightly. Choose a 10x10 if you have a full sofa set and dining set, or you want room to walk in.
• 2-bedroom apartment: a 10x15 for most. A 10x10 can work for a lightly furnished two-bedroom packed tightly with no walkway. Choose a 10x20 if you’re storing a sectional, a king bed, appliances, or outdoor gear, or you want an aisle.
• 3-bedroom apartment: a 10x20 for most. A 10x15 can work if the apartment is lightly furnished and packed tightly. Choose a 10x25 or 10x30 if it’s heavily furnished or you need an aisle.

If you only need a quick answer, that’s it. If you’re paying for months of storage, the next few sections are worth the read, because the gap between a 10x10 and a 10x15 is real money every month, and so is the cost of discovering on move-in day that you sized down too far.

Why Every Size Guide Gives You a Different Answer

Search for the right unit for a two-bedroom and you’ll find recommendations for a 10x10, a 10x15, and a 10x20, sometimes from the same company on different pages. Nobody is exactly wrong. They’re answering a question that has three hidden variables.

Variable 1: How much you own

A two-bedroom can hold one minimalist or a family of four. Apartment size itself varies more than most people expect: RentCafe’s analyses of Yardi Matrix data have put the average two-bedroom in some metros in the low 800s of square feet and in others above 1,100. The moving industry’s long-standing rule of thumb is 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of belongings per furnished room, so a 50 percent spread is built in before you’ve counted a single box.

Variable 2: How tightly it’s packed

A moving crew loading a truck fills nearly every cubic foot, top to bottom. Most people loading their own unit leave gaps around odd shapes, stop stacking at shoulder height, and can’t nest furniture the way a crew does. The same belongings can take a third more space in a do-it-yourself load.

Variable 3: Whether you need to get back in

If the unit is a holding tank between leases and you won’t open it until move-out day, you can pack it solid. If you’ll be swapping seasonal clothes or pulling out the kids’ bikes in spring, you need an aisle, and an aisle down the middle of a 10-foot-wide unit costs about a quarter of the floor.

Get all three right and the “correct” size stops being a guess. The rest of this guide gives you a number for each.

How Much Space a Storage Unit Actually Gives You

Unit sizes are listed as floor dimensions, and cubic footage is usually quoted at an 8-foot ceiling: a 10x10 is 800 cubic feet, a 10x15 is 1,200, and a 10x20 is 1,600. That’s the gross volume. You won’t use all of it.

Plan on 7 feet, not 8

Sofas, dressers, and mattresses on edge don’t stack, and lifting a 40-pound box above your head onto a stack is how things fall. Planning on about 7 feet of usable height is realistic for most people. In buildings with overhead sprinklers, there’s a second reason: NFPA 13, the sprinkler standard most fire codes adopt, calls for 18 inches of clearance between the top of stored goods and a standard sprinkler head. If your unit has sprinklers inside it or an open mesh ceiling, ask the facility how high you can stack.

Usable volume by unit size

Here’s what each size holds at a 7-foot stack, packed solid and with a 2.5-foot walkway running front to back. Units 5 feet wide can’t realistically hold an aisle, so they’re listed packed solid only.

• 5x5: about 175 cubic feet, packed solid
• 5x10: about 350 cubic feet, packed solid
• 5x15: about 525 cubic feet, packed solid
• 10x10: about 700 cubic feet packed solid, or about 525 with an aisle
• 10x15: about 1,050 cubic feet packed solid, or about 790 with an aisle
• 10x20: about 1,400 cubic feet packed solid, or about 1,050 with an aisle
• 10x25: about 1,750 cubic feet packed solid, or about 1,310 with an aisle
• 10x30: about 2,100 cubic feet packed solid, or about 1,575 with an aisle

Notice what the aisle does: a 10x15 with a walkway holds roughly what a 10x10 holds packed solid. That single choice often decides between two sizes.

One more check before you rely on the last few inches. Listed unit sizes are often approximate, so if a long sofa or a king box spring is the tightest fit, confirm the actual interior measurements and the door opening first.

Method 1: Turn Your Moving Estimate Into Cubic Feet

If a moving company has already given you an estimate, you’re holding the best sizing number you’ll get, even though it’s in pounds. Converting it takes one division.

The 7-pound rule

When a moving van can’t be weighed, federal relocation rules for government employees (the Federal Travel Regulation, 41 CFR 302-7.13) and state household-goods rules in Illinois and Ohio let a “constructive weight” stand in for a scale ticket: 7 pounds for every cubic foot of properly loaded van space. Run it backward and you get volume:

Estimated pounds ÷ 7 = cubic feet of space your belongings occupy when loaded by a crew.

A 5,600-pound estimate works out to 800 cubic feet. A 4,200-pound estimate is 600.

Why you should add a third if you’re loading it yourself

Seven pounds per cubic foot describes a tightly packed professional load, and real loads are often lighter and bulkier. In one federal relocation dispute, carriers reported household goods averaging roughly 3 to 5.7 pounds per cubic foot, and the board reviewing the case treated a careful do-it-yourself load as about three-quarters as dense as a properly loaded van. Three-quarters the density means about a third more space. So if you’re doing the loading, multiply your cubic feet by 1.33.

No estimate yet? Use these benchmarks

Movers commonly plan on 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per furnished room, and interstate carriers publish rough totals by home size. Here’s what those benchmarks look like in cubic feet, crew-loaded at 7 pounds per cubic foot and then with the one-third allowance for loading it yourself:

• Studio (about 1,500 to 2,000 lbs): about 215–285 cubic feet crew-loaded, or 285–380 self-loaded
• 1-bedroom (about 2,000 to 3,000 lbs): about 285–430 cubic feet crew-loaded, or 380–570 self-loaded
• 2-bedroom (about 4,000 to 6,000 lbs): about 570–860 cubic feet crew-loaded, or 760–1,140 self-loaded
• 3-bedroom (about 5,000 to 7,500 lbs, five furnished rooms): about 715–1,070 cubic feet crew-loaded, or 950–1,430 self-loaded

Set those beside the usable volumes in the previous section and the two-bedroom split explains itself. A crew-loaded, lightly furnished two-bedroom fits the 700 cubic feet of a 10x10 packed solid. Most self-loaded two-bedrooms land between 760 and 1,140, which is a 10x15 packed solid. The heaviest end, or anyone who wants an aisle, needs a 10x20.

Method 2: Add Up Your Furniture the Way Movers Do

No estimate? Do what an in-home estimator does. Movers use a “Table of Measurements,” a standard list that assigns each household item a volume in cubic feet. The same trade table is reprinted in the Defense Department’s household goods weight estimator and on state agency cube sheets, and California’s maximum-rate tariff for movers publishes its own version.

Standard volumes for common apartment furniture

• Sofa, three-cushion: 50 cubic feet
• Loveseat: 35 cubic feet
• Sectional: 30 cubic feet per section
• Overstuffed armchair: 25 cubic feet
• Coffee table: 10 cubic feet
• Bookcase: 20 cubic feet
• Large area rug: 10 cubic feet
• Bed, including mattress and box spring: 40 (twin), 60 (double), 65 (queen), 70 (king)
• Dresser: 30 cubic feet
• Nightstand: 5 cubic feet
• Dining table that seats six: 30 cubic feet, plus 5 per chair
• Small desk: 22 cubic feet
• Washing machine: 25 cubic feet

Then add your boxes

Boxes are counted at their nominal size: about 1.5 cubic feet for a small box (16 by 12 by 12 inches), 3 for a medium (18 by 18 by 16), and 4.5 for a large (18 by 18 by 24). A two-bedroom typically packs into 30 to 55 boxes, weighted toward mediums, which works out to roughly 90 to 165 cubic feet.

That number surprises people. Even a box-heavy two-bedroom has far more volume in furniture than in cardboard. If you’re trying to shave a size off your unit, the furniture you decide not to keep matters much more than the boxes you consolidate.

Two cautions

First, these are averages. A deep modern sofa can run well past 50 cubic feet, so measure your largest pieces. Second, like the 7-pound rule, the table describes space in a professionally loaded truck. If you’re loading the unit yourself, apply the same one-third allowance.

Worked Example: Two Very Different Two-Bedroom Apartments

Here are two real-world two-bedrooms, tallied with the table above. Same floor plan, different households.

Apartment A: a couple, moderately furnished

• Living room (124 cu ft): three-cushion sofa, overstuffed armchair, coffee table, TV stand, bookcase, two floor lamps, large rug
• Primary bedroom (105 cu ft): queen bed, dresser, two nightstands
• Second bedroom used as an office (107 cu ft): double bed, small desk and chair, bookcase
• Dining (50 cu ft): table that seats six, four chairs
• Other (5 cu ft): vacuum
• Boxes (about 128 cu ft): 45 boxes, mostly mediums

Total: about 520 cubic feet. At 7 pounds per cubic foot that’s roughly 3,600 pounds, a little under the two-bedroom benchmark, which is typical: room-by-room tallies tend to miss small things. Round up.

Crew-loaded, Apartment A fits a 10x10 packed solid with about 180 cubic feet to spare. Self-loaded, the one-third allowance takes it to about 690, which fills a 10x10 to the brim. If you’re loading it yourself or will need to get back in, rent the 10x15.

Apartment B: same floor plan, heavier household

Swap the sofa for a three-section sectional, the queen for a king, and add an armoire, a washing machine, and 10 more boxes.

• Living room (164 cu ft)
• Primary bedroom (140 cu ft)
• Second bedroom (107 cu ft)
• Dining (50 cu ft)
• Washer and vacuum (30 cu ft)
• Boxes (150 cu ft): 55 boxes

Total: about 640 cubic feet, or about 855 self-loaded. That’s a 10x15 packed solid. With a walkway, a 10x15 holds only about 790, so Apartment B needs a 10x20 if you want an aisle.

A truck-size cross-check

If you’ve already reserved a truck, U-Haul’s published size chart pairs its 15-foot truck (764 cubic feet) with a two-bedroom apartment and a 10x10 unit, and its 20-foot truck (1,016 cubic feet) with a three-bedroom apartment and a 10x15. Those pairings work only if the unit is packed as tightly as the truck, nearly to the ceiling with no aisle. A 15-foot truck filled to the roof is roughly 95 percent of a 10x10’s total volume.

Studio and One-Bedroom Apartments

Smaller apartments face a different trade-off, because the sizes that fit them are mostly 5 feet wide. That shape changes how you pack.

Studios: a 5x10 for most

Self-loaded, a typical studio comes to roughly 285 to 380 cubic feet, and a 5x10 holds about 350 packed solid. A queen mattress set stands on edge along the long wall, the frame and a dresser go in behind it, and boxes fill the rest. A 5x5, at about 175 usable cubic feet, works for a studio only if you’re storing boxes and a few small pieces and selling or keeping the bed.

One-bedrooms: a 5x15 for most

A self-loaded one-bedroom typically lands between 380 and 570 cubic feet. The 5x15, at about 525 packed solid, covers most of that range. A lightly furnished one-bedroom loaded tightly can fit a 5x10. If yours has a full sofa and loveseat, a dining set, and a desk, or you’ll need to get things out mid-rental, the 10x10 is the better fit.

The 5x15 versus 10x10 question

These two get compared constantly because their floor areas are close: 75 square feet against 100. The shapes behave differently, though. A 5x15 is a corridor with no room for an aisle, so whatever you load first is effectively buried until move-out. A 10x10 is a square you can walk into, and with a walkway it still holds about 525 cubic feet, the same as a 5x15 packed solid.

So the tiebreaker is access. If the unit is a sealed holding tank, take the 5x15. If you’ll be in and out, the 10x10 earns its extra cost.

Three-Bedroom Apartments

Three-bedroom apartments are less common than smaller units, and the sizing range is wider because so much depends on whether the third bedroom is a full bedroom, a nursery, or an office.

Counting five furnished rooms at 1,000 to 1,500 pounds each, a three-bedroom runs about 715 to 1,070 cubic feet crew-loaded, or about 950 to 1,430 self-loaded. That makes the 10x20, at about 1,400 cubic feet packed solid, the right size for most. A lightly furnished three-bedroom loaded tightly can fit a 10x15.

Plan on a 10x25 or a 10x30 if the apartment is heavily furnished, if you’re storing appliances or patio furniture alongside the household, or if you need a walkway. With an aisle, a 10x25 holds about 1,310 cubic feet and a 10x30 about 1,575.

At this size, it’s also worth pricing two smaller units against one large one, particularly if part of what you’re storing will come out much sooner than the rest.

Six Things That Push You Up a Size

The benchmarks above assume an average household. These are the items and habits that most often turn a “should fit” into a reload.

1. A sectional: at 30 cubic feet per section, a three-piece sectional takes nearly twice the space of a standard sofa, and the sections don’t stack.
2. A king bed or a platform bed that won’t come apart: anything you can’t break down has to go in at full size, and it claims a wall.
3. Appliances: a washing machine is 25 cubic feet on the movers’ table, it’s an awkward base for stacking, and a refrigerator takes more.
4. Outdoor and hobby gear: bikes, grills, and patio sets are awkward shapes that waste the space around them.
5. Mirrors, framed art, and glass tabletops: they stand on edge, can’t carry weight, and can’t have anything leaning on them.
6. Needing access: a walkway costs about a quarter of the floor in a 10-foot-wide unit. If you’ll be visiting, size for the aisle from the start.

Two or more of these usually means going one size above the benchmark for your apartment.

Between Two Sizes? How to Break the Tie

Run the numbers and you’ll sometimes land right on the line, say 690 cubic feet against a 10x10’s 700. When that happens, the deciding factor isn’t the volume. It’s which mistake costs you more.

What sizing down wrong costs

If the last third of your apartment won’t go in, you’re renting a second unit on moving day or reloading the truck for another trip. That usually means paying movers by the hour while they wait, keeping a rental truck an extra day, and splitting your belongings between two units for the rest of the rental. Two smaller units also tend to cost more than one unit of the same combined size.

What sizing up costs

The price gap between the two sizes, every month, for as long as you store. That’s a known, predictable number you can look up before you rent.

The rule

Size up when the stay is short, the movers are on the clock, or you’ve never packed a unit before. A few months of the price difference is usually less than one bad moving day. Size to the number when the stay is long, you’re loading on your own schedule, and you’re willing to pack tight. Over a year or more, the monthly difference adds up and a careful load pays for itself.

One practical tie-breaker: load the furniture first. If the big pieces take more than about half the floor before a single box goes in, the smaller unit is going to be tight.

When You Shouldn’t Rent a Storage Unit at All

A storage unit is the right tool for a lot of apartment moves. It isn’t the right tool for all of them, and paying for months of space you didn’t need is the most common storage regret there is.

The gap is only a few days

If your move-out and move-in dates are a few days apart, ask your moving company about storage in transit, where they hold your goods on the truck or in their warehouse until you’re ready. Compare that price against a unit plus a second round of loading and unloading. For a short gap with movers already booked, keeping it on the truck is often simpler.

The furniture costs less to replace than to store

Do the math before you sign. Multiply the monthly rate by the number of months you realistically expect to store, then compare it with what it would cost to replace what’s going in. For example, at a hypothetical $100 a month, a year of storage is $1,200. If most of what you’re storing is an aging particleboard dresser, a futon, and a sofa you were already tired of, selling or donating it and buying again later may come out ahead.

Your next home already has the room

If you’re moving into a place with a garage, basement, or spare room, store the overflow there unless you need it gone for staging, renovation, or a lease that limits what you can keep on the property.

“Someday” is the whole plan

Storage works best with an end date: a closing, a lease start, a return from deployment. If you’re storing things because you can’t decide what to do with them, set a review date when you rent. Otherwise the unit quietly becomes a monthly bill for decisions you’re postponing.

Matching Your Number to a 10 Federal Storage Unit

If storage does make sense, you now have everything you need to pick a size with confidence:

1. Get your cubic feet: divide your mover’s estimate by 7, or tally your furniture and boxes with the table above.
2. Adjust for who’s loading: if it’s you and not a crew, multiply by 1.33.
3. Decide on access: if you’ll be visiting the unit, use the aisle figures.
4. Pick the smallest unit whose usable volume beats your number, then go one size up if two or more of the push-up factors apply.

Our storage unit size guide shows every size side by side, and the moving box calculator will tighten up your box count before you tally. For a closer look at the sizes that come up most for apartments, see what fits in a 5x10, a 10x10, and a 10x15.

When you’re ready, browse available units by size: small units for most studios, medium units for one- and two-bedroom apartments, and large units for heavily furnished two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms. Leases are month to month, so you aren’t committing to a size for a year, and you can rent online without visiting an office.