What you cannot put in storage

Every storage company refuses the same four categories: anything illegal, dangerous, perishable or alive. The list looks short until you meet it in a real flat, where it covers the rice cooker's last cup of rice, the balcony plants, the scooter and the box of camping gas. This is the list in practice, the grey areas, and where each thing should go instead.

Updated September 2026

Refused: the four categories in practice

Allowed, with preparation

• Fridges and freezers: defrosted 48 hours before, wiped dry, door taped ajar. A fridge that goes in wet comes out mouldy.
• Washing machines and dishwashers: drained, a hot empty cycle run, door and drawer left open for a day, hoses bagged.
• Air conditioners: the indoor unit is fine; the outdoor unit only after a technician has recovered the refrigerant gas. Not a job for the day of collection.
• Gas cookers and barbecues: with the bottle removed and the burners cleaned. The bottle itself does not come, full or empty.
• Laptops, phones, cameras, tools and toys with built-in batteries: fine. Loose spare cells and power banks are not; keep them with you.
• Bicycles: yes, cleaned. E-bikes with the battery removed; the battery stays with you.
• Petrol tools, lawn mowers, generators: drained of fuel and oil, run dry.
• Candles, wax, cosmetics, sealed toiletries: fine in the air-conditioned section; they soften in standard.

Ask first

Some things are neither on the list nor obviously fine, and one message with a photo before booking is cheaper than a refusal on the morning of collection. Anything worth more than 30,000,000 VND: the protection plan covers items up to that figure, so a painting, a watch collection or a camera body above it should either stay with you, carry its own insurance, or be discussed before it comes in. Wine and spirits: not perishable in the legal sense, but neither section is a cellar; a case of everyday bottles in the air-conditioned section is reasonable, a collection is not. Sealed medicines and supplements: most spoil in heat and are refused as perishable; ask about the exception. Musical instruments, artwork and antiques: welcome in the air-conditioned section, but tell us so they are wrapped and racked for what they are.

Keep with you regardless

Passports, identity cards, residence cards, work permits and their originals; cash; jewellery; house and car keys; the only copy of anything. Not because they are refused but because the day you need a passport is never a day you want to wait for a delivery. Scan the documents, store the scans, keep the originals in a bag that goes where you go.

Why the list is the same everywhere

The four categories come from what a shared building has to protect against. Fire, first: fuel, gas, aerosols and lithium cells are the things that start one, and a fire in a rack of other people's belongings is unrecoverable for everybody. Pests, second: a single box with food in it undoes a pest-control schedule for the whole floor. Rot and smell, third: anything alive or organic and wet spreads to its neighbours. The law, last: the facility holds a licence and the operator is responsible for what is on its shelves. None of this is a judgement about your things; it is the deal that lets a hundred customers share one roof safely.

What happens if something slips through

The crew packs and photographs every item on collection day, which is where refused items are caught in practice: the gas bottle on the balcony, the half bag of rice in the kitchen box. They stay behind with a note in the inventory, and the plan is counted without them. If something arrives at the facility that should not be there, we contact you to collect it or, for perishables, to agree disposal.

Where the refused things go instead

• Food: eat it, give it to a neighbour or the building's security guard, or the bin. Unopened dry goods are welcomed by most charity kitchens.
• Plants: a friend, the building's common garden, or the plant shops on many streets that take them back for resale.
• Fuel and gas: return the bottle to the gas dealer who supplied it; they take empties and part-fulls. Petrol goes into a vehicle that is staying.
• Paint and chemicals: a neighbour mid-renovation, or the hardware shop; do not pour them away.
• Motorbike: a friend's ground floor, the building's registered parking, or a sale. Storing a vehicle with a company that takes them is a different service with its own registration paperwork.
• Batteries and power banks: with you, in hand luggage if you are flying, which is also where the airline wants them.

Frequently asked