Comments on: The state of self-storage in the U.S.

By: Angela

Angela — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:18:22 +0000

To the person whose adult daughter has left all her stuff there for 3 years, I would set a deadline for her to move everything out-say 3 months so she has time to go through everything. Or when does their lease renew? Give her till then so she can get a bigger place to store her stuff if she really wants it. If you have room and want to, you could offer to store a box of treasures in the attic.

By: jane

jane — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:29:06 +0000

Scott is right, homes are getting larger but not better. In the old days there would have been attics, pantries, linen closets, etc. But also people are ignoring the fact that they are filling their former storage with electronic devices, computer, tv, dvds. I have noticed that pack rat homes are usually without bookcases, china cabinets or hutches or even shelves or pictures on the wall. They don’t seem capable of arranging what they have. I think we should study housekeeping 101 and get a collective clue.

By: Lady Day

Lady Day — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:29:03 +0000

I have a totally different problem. I lost my home in 2004, and was renting another home that the owner lost in 2008. I moved home then because my mom was on the verge of loosing her home, and I told her I would help her out awhile. My mom has been accumulating stuff for over 30 years and has no storage, so I moved my stuff into storage with a friend to cut costs. I don’t know how long I will be here, but the only thing I have is clothing and a computer. I sleep on a couch. All my furniture is in storage.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:09:28 +0000

For the art lovers out there, why cram beautiful artwork into a closet when you have the option to make sure that they are safe and not in danger of destruction.

http://tinyurl.com/lzsxoa

By: Lola

Lola — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:16:31 +0000

I think Scott is right on the money! He said:

“I think a big culprit also is that even though new homes are much bigger on average than they used to be, they have LESS storage space than the smaller homes of years past. They increase the size of the homes, while decreasing amount of storage at the same time.

My wife and I have been house-hunting recently, and it is downright offensive to me that these houses are seriously being considered places to live in, with almost no consideration for storage.

So what happens? Almost every new neighborhood has all of their cars outside, because all the extra stuff is in their garage, and there are self-storage places popping up everywhere.”

When we bought our house, we were young and easily dazzled by the vaulted ceilings and open floorplan. We didn’t realize how impractical it was to actually *live in* until we’d moved in: very little space for our books, only one room suitable for a tv, tiny, ill-conceived cabinetry in the kitchen and hall, etc. We never resorted to renting a storage unit, but it’s forced us to really be really brutal when shopping and donating items that have outlived their usefulness.

We’re the only people on our block who park our cars in the garage. Everyone else has at least one car parked outside because their garages are packed to the brim with stuff.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:57:29 +0000

Erin – No argument there, honestly. The whole robbery was a learning experience. I had no idea how much pushback we were going to get from the insurance company on proving what we had owned (I ended up arguing rather brusquely to them with much what you said — what if our home had burned down; would our claim then be denied? They said no, but we might have had to litigate to get paid the policy limits.) It turned out saving those boxes was a benefit. And before I give you the wrong impression… they all fit nicely in one garage cabinet. It wasn’t boxomania.

Since the robbery, though, I’ve taken your approach by recording all the serials digitally and having a cloud backup. Only luck saved my time machine drive — they had rummaged around it and for whatever reason abandoned it instead of taking it. I hang onto the boxes now for the warranty duration and no further.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:34:30 +0000

@Mike — ACK!! Don’t keep those boxes!! Instead, keep an inventory of all your possessions in a secure online location. Keeping the cardboard boxes is a huge fire hazard and wastes incredible amounts of space. 20 seconds to record the serial numbers is a much better way to keep an inventory — you would have been out of luck with the insurance company if your home would have burned down.

http://unclutterer.com/2008/08.....-software/

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:25:08 +0000

Amanda – not parting with the packing crap from TVs and such saved our hides when our house got robbed. We still had all our original boxes with serial numbers and such, and the insurance company paid every penny of our claim (minus deductible) without giving us a bunch of static about substantiating our loss. I hate having it take up space too, but sometimes it’s worth keeping the original box and etc. Sometimes you can even use it to ebay off an item at a slightly higher price once you upgrade out of it… that helped me sell a 3-year-old Mac for a pretty healthy percentage of retail!

That said, I agree in principle with you (and others) that the storage locker math doesn’t work. In the long run you’re better off just re-buying everything new.

My band rents a storage locker for practices. It lets us make a lot of noise without getting the police called, and we’re all adults with families so we don’t want to leave equipment around our houses. The same storage complex has 3 or 4 guys living in it full-time… they go to the gym down the road to wash up, apparently.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:30:07 +0000

oh. my. goodness.
That’s just….. incredible!

I have often wondered how it could be possible that house-sizes have doubled while family-sizes are down by more than 50%…. again: incredible! And it’s not just in the USA either, I see it happening around me as well….

Greetings from the netherlands!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:52:03 +0000

We have a storage unit to store my husband’s motorcycle (we have no garage) and my grandparents’ bedroom set that (dimension-wise) doesn’t fit in our attic.
But aside from that – it’s amazing how the crap-creep goes. My husband won’t part with boxes and packing materials from our TVs, an old metal file cabinet, and a chair from his PhD advisor with a busted arm. Seriously.

I sent this to him. We are SO doing a fall cleanout next weekend. (I’m not sure how I’m going to convince him about the boxes, though…)

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:13:16 +0000

I’ve actually got a somewhat different take on self-storage units. I go to a 2-week, 10,000-person medieval camping event once a year (Pennsic), and some people really go all-out. Just my own 50-odd person group has a huge communal tent (about 30×30 feet), various smaller tents, kitchen gear, a camp shower, etc. None of us need this equipment during the rest of the year, and given that we’ve got people coming from as far away as Texas, it doesn’t make sense to transport it. So the group chips in for self-storage to hold it for the year until we need it again. Multiply this by hundreds (maybe thousands) of groups in similar situations, and the local self-storage industry does quite well for itself.

I’m not saying this is the most common use for self-storage. I doubt it’s even particularly common. But it definitely has a use beyond “storing clutter.”

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:07:00 +0000

You know, of course, that the google ad that accompanied this feed in my reader was for a storage place!

By: Consultant Calamities

Consultant Calamities — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:57:38 +0000

wow, what a really depressing article. I”m sure is all basically true (I see storage facilities EVERY.WHERE around where I live…) but, still…depressing that people store JUNK in them and pay for it.

Yes, I do see the use of these facilities for in-between moves, etc…but just “to put stuff?” sounds like a huge waste of money…

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:27:28 +0000

I had a storage unit for several years. I was living in a tiny studio apartment close to work, and it was easier to pay for storage than to live somewhere larger that came with a longer commute. I’m sure it wasn’t all valuable, but it had a lot of sentimental value – my parents had just died and I wanted to keep some of the family mementos and heirlooms for later on. I wish I’d been able to keep more – I had to give away a lot of larger items that had a lot of sentimental value. A picture or a scan just isn’t the same as having your great grandmother’s china cabinet that you can feel and touch.

I don’t see the difference between renting a storage unit and living in a small house, vs. buying a bigger house that has more storage. Lots of people buy houses with garages and big closets. But if you live in a small apartment instead and rent storage, you’re “wasting money”.

By: infmom

infmom — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:55:47 +0000

I must admit I have been tempted to insist my daughter rent a storage unit so we can get all of her stuff out of our house. She moved out more than three years ago and all this stuff is still here. She and her partner have a shoebox sized apartment with precious little storage space, so the amount she can take there is minimal, but ye gods, there’s so much junk here that could just be summarily tossed out and she keeps making excuses not to come over and just for pity’s sake do it.

If she had to come here, pile it all in a rental van, and schlep it somewhere else for storage, you know that’d be the motivation to give most of it the heave-ho.