Walking down the street earlier from our Camden branch of CityStore, my eye was drawn to a display in a branch of a local shop that reminded me of a storage solution for kids that are seen in airports every time we travel.

The Trunki was first seen on Dragon’s Den where the dragons opted not to help finance entrepreneur Rob Law’s idea for a ride-on suitcase for kids. Ultimately the Dragons had to eat there words as over 85,000 cases have been sold and the company valued at £1m+.

We take our hat off to Rob. Trying to get a small child to carry their own stuff is a challenge at the best of times but to produce an item that they actually want to take hold of is quite a thing.

Whilst our storage centre in Camden had its own internal design issues during its construction the final result is certainly something of a success as well. Visit us at our store on Malden Crescent, Camden NW1.

When it is time to collect a bicycle, the owner swipes a card through a reader which located at the entrance and the bicycle is returned via the same automated system, taking between 15 seconds and one minute to retrieve depending on the capacity of the storage area.

The Bike Tree, now in operation in various train stations in Tokyo, can store between 600 and 6,000 bicycles. And the cost to the user? Roughly ¥1,800 (£13.50) for a secure monthly bicycle parking spot with additional discounts for students.

Sometimes we all find products that transform their everyday lives and we wonder how we ever survived without them. Then there’s the Scooter-Cooler – one of those products that won’t transform your life but would love to have….With the ability to travel at up to 13 mph whilst keeping your drinks cool, this surely must be the ideal summer portable storage solution. It can accommodate 24 cans of your beverage of choice whether that be water, Coca-Cola or something slightly stronger.

It is no great surprise that these are only currently available in the States, but maybe the recession is causing some belt-tightening within their marketing departments and it is just a matter of time before we see them over here.

Be sure to come and visit us at CityStore if you do purchase one as we would love to see one.

Calling all Camden Residents! Join Camden Council in helping them define their vision for being a sustainable, low carbon borough by 2030!

Recently Camden Council have been active in promoting green issues throughout the borough and is eager to involve as many residents as possible in their discussions. The focus will be on providing energy-saving tips for the home, practical food-growing and also a free bicycle surgery for all those cyclists.

Where and when is it?

The meeting is being held on 17th July at Parliament Hill School

Interested? Just register online here to take part. Limited spaces available so don’t delay.

Camden launched a new re-cycling service last week to encourage the residents to become ‘greener’ and to do their part for the enviroment.

Like councils in other parts of the London and the U.K, residents will receive a special recycling kit to enable them to easily recycle food and garden waste on a weekly basis.

As part of the service residents with individual bins will receive:

- small green kitchen caddy to use inside (for food waste)

- a lockable brown outdoor caddy to use outside (for food waste)

- three white reusable bags for garden wastea blue bag for paper and card

Residents with shared bins, for example those living in a high rise property will receive:

- a small green kitchen caddy (for food waste)

- new shared recycling containers for food and garden waste

In Camden the current rate of recycling is 29.75%. The council is in the top 10 of London boroughs for recycling performance and in the top five for dry recyclables. This new service means the council can get closer towards a rate of 45% by 2015. For more information, read Camden Council’s press release here. We wish them luck in reaching their target.

CityStore Self-Storage is committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible. CityStore refurbishes existing buildings rather than demolishing old ones and building new. This dramatically reduces the energy used.

Camden Council has recently announced a shortlist of architects who will now compete for the opportunity to design sustainable housing for residents in one of the borough’s estates. The plans build on earlier investment in the estate, which has included a new football pitch and new CCTV.

Councillor Chris Naylor, executive member for homes and housing strategy at Camden Council, commented: “This is an exciting opportunity for the community at Maiden Lane. There is a pressing need for investment in new and environmentally sustainable homes, particularly for larger families.”

The shortlisted architects’ ideas are on display now at the Maiden Lane Community Centre from  for residents to look at and comment on.

To read the full Camden Council press release click here.

Berlin was the host city of this year’s European Self-Storage Conference and CityStore were in attendance as full members of the UK Self Storage Association (SSA).

Over the 3 days of the conference all member visitors were able to see new innovations in the self-storage marketplace as well as hearing from guest speakers such as Anne Ballard (Universal Management Company) and Jonathan Perrins (Self Storage Association Australasia) about growth of self-storage in other world markets.

We were also lucky enough to be able to spend some time in Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, visiting one of the breathtaking palaces.

Roll on 2011 in Portugal!

CityStore Self-Storage have launched their Weekly Special Offer for all new customers taking storage space. Read on to learn more.

The rules? – every Monday morning, each of our Centre Manager’s choose a room size that is available at a heavily discounted rate for up to 6 months. Call 0207 428 9988 when you see it and ask whether it is still available. If it is, pay £20 to reserve the unit and it’s yours. Simple.

How many are there? There is only one of these units available, so it’s first come first served!

Is there any catch? No catches. All we ask is that you move into the room within 7 days of reservation.

So if you are interested in a great deal for storage, look-out for our Manager’s Specials every week. Even if you don’t happen to get this deal, we have other great offers in store. Just call 0207 428 9988.

Good luck.

Here at CityStore Self-Storage we love everything storage. So we couldn’t resist sharing a great new storage solution that we saw on sale recently – storage cufflinks!

For the man who never likes to go anywhere without a means of saving important documents, it is the perfect solution.

While CityStore caters for business storage of another variety, namely for those looking to store stock and archives, we do acknowledge that it is a clever use of space.

As word spreads that there is self storage company just up the road from The Stables Market,  more and more traders are deciding to take space.

One trader in fact has moved lock, stock and barrel from the market into CityStore. Roomscape, a company that specialises in vintage and retro antiques, asked us to create a large unit that he could use as a showroom for potential buyers.

With free access to the centre 7 days a week via pincode, Sergio from Roomscape has found a great solution.