Storage area discussion…costs and anything related to storage places

Parent Cafe
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I’ll start.

We don’t have a storage place outside of our house. My feeling is…if it doesn’t fit in our house, we don’t need to own it. We have downsized things like holiday decorations, extra dishes, etc…because paying to store things we don’t use very often feels like a waste of money to us.

If we move into a smaller place at some point, more stuff will be purged…not stored.

Re:costs. We did rent a storage unit for DDs stuff the last year she was in professional school. We knew she would be moving everything a year later, and needed this stuff for her own place…but she and her roommate didn’t need duplicates. When she did the contract, she insisted on the same cost for all twelve months…and did walk away from the first company because they said no. The second one was more convenient anyway…and was very agreeable to this. Auto payment monthly was required but that was OK.

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I too believe if it doesn’t fit in our space, we don’t need it.
I also believe at least MY car should be housed in our garage. It is NOT a place for more crap to be stored. (We had a discussion about that when we moved to a new house, and my husband lost that one).
I’ve never used a storage place, unless you count family member’s garage when we were between houses for maybe 6 weeks.

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I believe that, too, but unfortunately I’m married to a pack rat. Our basement is full of his stuff, but don’t get me started on how to rid him of it. He has a serious problem, and I don’t want to be divorced over this. In sickness and in health……

So, yes, I have a unit. For myself only. It contains Christmas decorations, some furniture when our daughters settle long term, toys and baby stuff, office stuff that I have to keep for a few more years, D2’s things from college and camp that she has no place for now. It’s 10x10, climate-controlled, $100 a month with month 12 free with annual payment. Pricey? Yes, but keeps me sane.

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We never needed a storage unit with our home. It had a lot of closets and we were able to keep all our stuff in those and in our basement (never used the attic or garage - where we kept both our cars).

We downsized last year - sold our house and moved to an apartment. We purged like crazy, but still need a small storage unit. It is only 5x5 the smallest they have, very conveniently located in a well lit, clean, climate controlled building.

We have everything there basically in plastic storage bins. Much of the stuff is actually my daughters. She lives in an apartment even smaller than the one we now live in. The only thing we have removed from the unit and then brought back, is the 3-4 bins of holiday stuff, which will not fit in our apartment.

As I noted on the good buy thread, we originally prepaid for a year at a decent rate. We just renewed for another year. In order to get the bargain internet deal, we had to close the unit in my husband’s name, open a new one in my name (new customer), and physically move our stuff to a different unit within the facility. Saved us almost 50% off the quoted renewal rate.

We were very creative with storage in the apartment. Added a couple of shelves in the closets we have, bought storage bins that fit under the beds, etc. We were also vicious in our purging, kept no furniture, etc. Unfortunately, we are the keepers of two families worth of history - so we have all the old photos, etc. (which we did thin out).

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I also still have a storage until down the street that we got when we downsized 7 years ago. Mostly it is my mother’s stuff-10 dining room chairs she won’t let me get rid of that I used at the old house, but too big and heavy for this house, as well as a huge area rug. Otherwise, I could probably get rid of the other stuff in there if I would go through it; most was my husband. I told my kids they had to help.

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I want to know what kind of stuff people keep in their storage units. And how many times a year you find yourself visiting/adding/removing items. :slight_smile:

We are another couple where one of us (me) likes to pair down items to mostly what we really need and another one of us (H) needs everything and multiples of everything (good thing we have like a dozen shovels in case we need to dig a hole to China!)

For this reason I support @dentmom4 and her storage unit for her own items.

No storage unit now but I tried for awhile to get H to get one at our last house because his stuff was just overwhelming me - it really can be a source of great anxiety for some of us. The storage unit was literally at the end of our street and he could drive there in one minute and access his stuff. Didn’t end up happening but when we moved I told him he could have the entire basement at the new house but the one large closet space upstairs would be mine for saving items - seasonal or otherwise. And that because some closets are not full he cannot fill them with more stuff. He tried once to slip some clothes in an upstairs closet and I admit I lost it - we had a deal! You have the large basement and a big section of the garage (only my car can fit in) - I am not being unreasonable!

Interesting to read how the rates seem to fluctuate a lot - sounds like the cable company!

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In the first 13 years after college, I moved 10 times. Despite living in this home for 22 years, I still think of every purchase as “will I want to move this?”. I feel like I could pack up my home in 2 days if I had to, and except for our large furniture, could downsize easily. I am in a constant state of purging. Sometimes neighbors will ask me if we are planning on moving after seeing my postings on the town Buy Nothing page (I’d rather get rid of things quickly than wait around and go through the bother of making a sale). Everyone else gets asked where they traveled after school vacations, I get asked which closets I cleaned.

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Most of the stuff in our storage unit are what I would calssify as sentimental stuff. Old yearbooks, our collection of playbills, my daughter’s favorite stuffed animals, collectible toys, my father in law’s WWII stuff, etc. These are all pared down from what we had. For example, we only saved one american girl doll and a few outfits and gave the other stuff away.

Which is why, except for the holiday decorations, none of it is likely to ever leave the storage unit.

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Well, it might leave the storage unit, if my daughter ever buys a house that has room for it.

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When we downsized, H rented two climate controlled storage units at $100/mo. each. He insisted they wouldn’t be needed for very long. Once he accepted that our new home could not possibly hold all that our former home held, he slowly began donating things. Some items that he brought to the new house I put on the curb because of their condition, and half were taken before the bulk pickup truck came.

We had furniture, dishes, glasses, cookware, small appliances, a sewing machine, holiday decorations, and random decor items stored in one unit. The other unit held tools, lawn equipment, random pieces of lumber and project materials, patio furniture, pool toys, etc. Despite being climate controlled, the humidity in the unit was pretty high for part of the year so not everything fared well.

Unfortunately, H moved some things into his detached garage where they were ruined by the high humidity. Too much stuff is still in there. Some furniture did not survive the multiple moves because H refused to hire help and tried to move everything by himself with a hand truck and dolly. Both he and the furniture were injured.

Altogether we spent about $3K on rent before both units were closed. It was absolutely not worth it. Add to that the gas cost of the multiple trips H made in his pickup truck, sometimes with a U-Haul trailer attached, and we could have easily replaced anything we really needed or wanted.

What was most annoying for me was the time consumed by moving stuff into and out of the storage units. Our buyers wanted some of our furniture and to persuade us to part with the nicer items they said we could leave anything, including the contents of four garages.

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We have a storage unit for my nonprofit instead of having the records and items to give patients in our living room. The cost to rent keeps going up but we prepay for 24 months at a time to keep the price from being even higher. It’s a 5’x5’ unit that fits 2 wheeled racks that has stuff organized in it. It’s air conditioned and conveniently a 5 minute drive from my house. We pay for it from the nonprofit. The building has an electronic keypad and is available pretty readily so it suits my needs pretty well.

Last time I prepaid I got a slight discount because we are a nonprofit but it’s still like $250/month, I think.

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A few tidbits about storage spaces.

Many storage leases are M-T-M. Storage companies will entice you with a low rate and then subsequently raise the rent depending on market conditions.

And just like SFR homes, there are large corporations gobbling up storage facilities and consolidating them in various markets, where they can drive rents up, subject to the availability of land and municipalities willing to approve them.

These large corporations will use AI to set rents on a daily basis, so lease rates on Monday may differ from lease rates on Tuesday and so forth.

OTOH, there are many “mom and pop” shops that are poorly run and their storage sites are in desperate need of capital improvements. Think old wiring and leaking roofs without adequate ventilation, lighting, etc.

Many are built a long time ago and have significant deferred maintenance. And run by the less-than-desirable types.

FWIW, the typical renter will be more than likely a woman and the storage facility will be very close to their home.

Caveat emptor.

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I sold my house in 2014 and have been doing seasonal (summer, fall, winter) rentals for the last 10 years (with one year exception). I donated most of my belongings, books, albums, dishes and furniture. I have kept a 5 x 5 unit for $45/month for photo albums, kids’ memorabilia (I got rid of mine), taxes, and kids’ dance and music discs.

I am buying a 593 s. ft. condo this week and will get rid of more stuff., if possible. But there isn’t much left to get rid of. I could digitalize the photo albums. There is no hope of getting rid of the storage unit but I am going to work on getting rid of more stuff. Kids are in small spaces too and will be for awhile (mid-30’s) except for son, to whom I sent everything belonging to him.

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My inlaws do not believe renting storage units, thinking them inconvenient and untrustworthy. Plus, they like having their things around them.

So when they run out of space in the house (contemporary 3 bdr, 2.5bath multi level they purposely built w no basement to control hoarding) my FIL just buys another outbuilding. [they have a 3 car garage plus an entire 6 car building where they kept the boating stuff)

Last count, he had 6 sheds of stuff. Car parts, christmas decor, yard equipment, lawn furniture…Sometimes a storage unit would be a good choice!

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Congrats on your new place! And ownership! :house_with_garden:

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I’ve shared our journey a couple of times.

We did a major downsize from 3,500 sq ft to 935 sq ft when we moved to Florida. Had a living estate sale and got rid of most of our belongings. Our ds was still in college, and I did have him go through his stuff when he was home for Christmas before the big downsize. However, I told him not to feel compelled to get rid of anything as we knew we would have a storage unit when we first got to Florida. Initially it was a 10 x 10. We had Christmas decor, sentimental items, and ds’s things. Not sure what else, really. It was a larger space than we needed, but that made everything quite accessible. When ds visited for a spring break we went through the storage unit, and he got rid of a lot, often asking aloud, “Why did I keep this?” That enabled us to move down to a 5 x 5, which helped because the rate had crept up on the 10 x 10. Eventually the rate on the 5 x 5 became higher than the initial rate on the 10 x 10. They were very clear about the intention of their units - this is supposed to be temporary storage, and your rates will go up. We purged some more and invested in some efficient shelving and storage containers and got everything to fit in the on-site storage closet that each condo had. It was probably only 3 x 4 but pretty tall.

We then moved to a 1,600 sq ft condo that did not have an on-side storage closet. We had a small storage container in the condo garage. With more square footage in the condo, everything worked.

We have now moved back to the state we left Florida for. We are up to 1,900 sq ft and back to having a two-car garage (something we never had while in Florida). There is entirely too much storage in this townhouse for us. I will never fill it up. I will work had to make sure I don’t. I will not burden my kid with a bunch of crapola.

I know people who have storage units solely for the purpose of storing their Christmas decor. These people put up multiple trees, have elaborate tabletop decor, and Christmas china. People should have and do what they want, but I cannot imagine spending that kind of money and time on that. I am no Scrooge, but one tree is enough for me.

My mil had a friend who had a storage unit holding his mother’s belongings for over ten years in his hometown. I think he kept precious little when he finally went through it. So much wasted money.

IMO, outside storage units should be used as a temporary mechanism when necessary. If your stuff won’t fit in your house, get a bigger house or get rid of the stuff.

Edit to add - our garage has two, “soccer chairs,” and some shoes. Being in a townhouse means no lawn/bed maintenance for us which definitely helps with keeping our garage virtually empty other than our cars.

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I really admire your minimalism. And, even though in my own comment I wrote that I think storage units should only be used temporarily, I wouldn’t apply that standard to you. 600 sq ft is small.

What drives me crazy are people that live in McMansions who STILL need off-site storage.

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I a 5x5 unit do you use shelved storage tot she advantage of the height in the space? Stackable boxes? 5x5 seems so small! I guess you’re not storing like furniture and such there.

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No storage unit. Basement suffices for seasonal items (Holiday, Camping, Tools, etc.). Kids’ closets are still full of their memories. We purged once, so supposedly these were items they once wanted to save. They moved 2400 miles away, however, so doubtful they will ever claim. As long as we hold the house, there’s no need for a second purge – yet.

We’re considering a storage unit for our “home away from home”. We currently rent an apartment in our second location, but it sits empty about 6 months a year. We’ve considered switching to AirBnB type accommodations, but since our stay is so long, we have enough we would prefer to keep available (musical equipment, hobbies, duplicate camping gear, holiday décor, specialty kitchen ware, etc.). Since we typically fly (2400 miles away), even lugging enough clothes for 5-6 months would be tough. It is so nice to just hop on a plane, and arrive at our apartment. But it is also a huge price to pay to sit empty, and only store ‘stuff’ while we are away.

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This is me! Glad I’m not alone. Somehow we make it work. :sweat_smile: