Storing furniture before moving to Israel is a problem nobody plans for and almost everyone meets. You have a date for the flight, probably a date for the shipment, and no address. Apartment hunting here rarely finishes before you land, leases follow a seasonal rhythm that will not bend to your timetable, and the short term flat you booked for the first few weeks cannot hold a three bedroom household. This guide covers the gap between arriving and signing a lease: what to ship, where the furniture and boxes wait meanwhile, how much space you need, and how to arrange it from abroad.
Most people treat the move as a space problem, as though the only question were where a sofa fits. In practice it is a timing problem. A household shipment from Europe or North America takes weeks at sea and then needs customs clearance, so the arrival window is wide and not under your control. A lease starts on one fixed day. The two almost never meet, and pretending they will is paid for in rushed decisions at both ends.
The Israeli rental market sharpens the mismatch. Much of the supply turns over in the summer, with leases beginning in July, August or September, and again around the start of the calendar year. Land in a quiet stretch and you may search for six to ten weeks before something suitable appears. People who arrive with everything on a truck behind them take the first apartment they see; people whose belongings are already safe somewhere can wait for the right one.
Write down the date your shipment is collected and the earliest date you could realistically hold keys to a long term apartment. The gap is the storage period, and it is almost always longer than the first estimate: add a month for the search, then two weeks for the handover, the painting and the deliveries nobody schedules on time. If that comes to two months or more, a private unit is the plan rather than the fallback.
There are only a few honest answers to where a household waits, and each has a clear trade off.
Which option fits depends partly on what you will rent. Unfurnished apartments in Israel are genuinely unfurnished: often no wardrobes beyond a basic closet, sometimes no light fittings, and a kitchen with cupboards but no appliances. Furnished apartments, more common in central Tel Aviv, come with the landlord’s furniture, leaving your own with nowhere to go. Knowing which market you are aiming at tells you how much is worth bringing.
The regrets are remarkably consistent, and rarely about sentimental items. They are about bulk: things that cost a lot to move, suit a different kind of home, and are easy to buy locally.
Israeli apartments tend to have smaller rooms than North American houses, narrower stairwells, and in older buildings no lift at all. A deep sectional sofa or a tall wall unit may simply not enter the apartment you choose, and will certainly narrow the list you can accept. The same goes for appliances built for a different electrical standard.
Give each large item a three part test. Would replacing it here cost more than shipping and storing it for the period you expect? Will it fit through a standard door and up a narrow stairwell? Would you buy it again today at full price? Anything failing two of the three is better sold at origin, which also shortens the list you have to store on arrival.
Size the unit by counting rooms rather than boxes. A studio or one and a half room household fits a small unit, a two room household needs a step up, a three room household is comfortable in a medium unit, and a house or four to five room apartment needs a large one. The dimensions of each model are on the pages for storage units in Israel, worth comparing against your inventory before you book.
Packing for storage is not packing for a move into a known apartment. Nothing is unpacked next week, so every box has to survive on its own for the whole period.
Some things cannot go in at all: fresh or perishable food, flammable and hazardous materials, gas, fuel, plants and animals. On a long wait this matters more than usual, because one forgotten perishable item affects everything stacked around it.
This feels impossible and is simpler than it looks: pick the branch nearest the area you are searching in, not where you happen to be sleeping on arrival. Green Storage runs four branches, Florentin and Kibbutz Galuyot in Tel Aviv, Kiryat Anavim near Jerusalem and Kibbutz Yakum in the Sharon. For Jerusalem and the towns around it, Kiryat Anavim sits at the Route 1 interchange. For Tel Aviv, the two city branches are closest to the apartments you will view. For the coast towards Netanya and Herzliya, Kibbutz Yakum is on Route 2, with parking beside the units and truck access.
It is worth knowing what protects your belongings while you are busy elsewhere. Units sit inside a closed building, each closes with your own padlock and key, and the compounds have closed-circuit cameras and alarm systems connected 24/7 to a security and patrol dispatch centre. Indoor units are raised off the floor, keeping boxes clear of damp during the winter rains.
Access matters most on two days: when the shipment goes into the unit, and when you empty it into the new apartment. At the Kibbutz Galuyot branch in Tel Aviv access is 24/7. Kibbutz Yakum is open seven days a week from 06:00 to 22:00, with entry by your own key and no appointment needed. Florentin opens Sunday to Thursday from 09:00 to 19:00 plus Friday morning, and Kiryat Anavim Sunday to Thursday from 09:00 to 17:00. If you expect to move in on a Friday or a weekend, say so when you book.
All of this can be settled before you land. Agree the unit size and the commitment track in advance, so the shipment has an address to arrive at; there are three tracks, no commitment, six months to a year, and over a year, with the longer track carrying the lower rate. Set up a payment method that will still work after you move, and name one person in Israel authorised to open the unit while you are travelling. Foreign residents and new arrivals facing the same sequence will find the details in the guide to self storage for foreign residents and olim.
Contents insurance is not part of the rent; it is bought as an add-on covering the full declared value of what you store, and the cover is comprehensive and includes earthquakes. Deal with it while the shipping inventory is still in front of you, because that list gives a realistic declared value rather than a guess made months later.
The gap between landing in Israel and holding keys to a long term apartment is normal, and it is the part of the move that most often goes wrong. A private unit rented in your own name closes it: the shipment has an address from the day it clears customs, the temporary flat stays liveable, and you choose an apartment because it suits you and not because your furniture is on a truck. Unit sizes and commitment tracks are listed on the storage unit price list. Get in touch and our team will match a unit to your inventory and to the area you are searching in.
Yes. A unit is rented in your name, and what is needed is identification, a working payment method and a contact number we can reach. Many customers arrange the unit while still abroad so the shipment has somewhere to go on arrival, then update their details once they sign a lease.
That is the usual arrangement. Coordinate the date with us in advance, because the branch has to be open and reachable by truck when your forwarder arrives. Kibbutz Yakum and Kiryat Anavim both have truck access and parking beside the units.
As long as you need. There is no upper limit, and the only thing that changes is the commitment track: no commitment, six months to a year, or over a year, with the longest carrying the lowest rate. If the search runs long, you continue in the same unit.
Not automatically. Contents insurance is bought as an add-on on the full declared value of the items, at a rate of ₪1.8 per ₪1,000 of declared value, and the cover is comprehensive and includes earthquakes. Use your shipping inventory to set the declared value accurately.
Choose by the area you are searching in. Kiryat Anavim covers Jerusalem and the towns around it, Florentin and Kibbutz Galuyot cover Tel Aviv and the centre, and Kibbutz Yakum the Sharon and the northern coastal plain. All four are listed on the branch locations page.
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