Keeping things in rented storage

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Why do they call it SELF STORAGE, anyway? Doesn't that sound like a place to put yourself away until the Mayan calendar turns over?

Have you ever had to put possessions in storage? How did that work out? Were there things you wish you had just gotten rid of rather than stored? Did you end up storing them longer than intended? Was there much difference in fees from one place to another?

Son may have to store very small household over the summer. Do you recommend extra measures such as covering furniture in plastic to protect from rain seepage or dust? What should he know that the rental business is not apt to tell him? What should he ask about or look for?

[mom-from-missouri]

Don't put good furniture on the floor. Even the "climate controlled" ones draw moisture during a heavy rain. I had some good furniture damaged that way. But pallets or something under it.
Most say in their contract not responsible for theft. So, get a rider on your homeowners policy or renters policy. Some insurance companies now sell storage unit policies.
pay it on time--they are famous for empting and selling your goods if you are late. a cousin of mine had her stuff disappear after the unit cut off the wrong lock. she had something like unit 1a and they were supposed to be getting unit 1b--she had her receipts and they had to buy her new furniture.
don't keep personal papers/cancelled checks.....in one. I was an idenity theft victim that way. He was caught-he had me and several others info--he also worked for the storage unit company.
my stuff did get dusty, and my file cabinet got rust on it. I was told it was "normal", after all, it was nothing but a metal building with a lock on it...
Dont' store film or photos--they get tacky when damp.

[Caoineag]

I have done it twice, both times only for a couple of months. We didn't do too much special for it except made sure anything that doesn't like moisture wasn't touching the ground. Nothing wrong with anything when we came back.

Never regretted the things I stored because it was storage in between successive moves and I had already thrown out anything not worth keeping. Storage places run specials, so yes, big difference in pricing. Never stored anything beyond the time expected since everything had been planned out.

[MonkeyMama]

Why do they call it SELF STORAGE, anyway? Doesn't that sound like a place to put yourself away until the Mayan calendar turns over?

Have you ever had to put possessions in storage? How did that work out? Were there things you wish you had just gotten rid of rather than stored? Did you end up storing them longer than intended? Was there much difference in fees from one place to another?

Yes, twice. Worked out well.

The first time we cleaned our condo out of all the clutter/excess when we put it on the market. At the same time our grandma moved and down-sized and gave us a bunch of stuff as we were upgrading to a house. So we stored it all about 6 months. Was fine. I don't really remember shopping around. IT just wasn't that much for the place down the street (& so convenient).

The 2nd time we put our house on the market and stored things. I don't even remember why, but we were lazy to get the stuff back out. I think we held out hope we would put our home back on the market. We were too lazy to go through all the effort with that possibility. But we finally moved everything back once our budget got tighter. First bill to go. Went down the street because they had a bunch of grand opening specials. Didn't shop around; went for convenience.

I don't regret storing anything. Wasn't stuff we wanted to part with permanently. (Though the second time we shouldn't have stored so long).

Can't think of anything special. As with anything, don't sign a long-term contract. Rent month to month. (Not sure if there are contracts for storage, but only thing that comes to mind. & yes, making sure insurance is squared away). I don't think we had anything of much value so we didn't care.

[FrugalFish]

My advice is to:

1) find a newer storage facility- might even be in a nicer area of town than the traditional ones in the industrial part of town.

2) Don't go with one with has 24 hour access, but rather choose one that can only be accessed when staff is there.

3) Go in and ask to see some empty units- some have much more headroom than others and this can make a huge difference in storage capacity.

We stored EVERYTHING a couple years ago when our rental was sold out from under us and we did not have a place to live. All wood furniture was wrapped in blankets, upholstered furniture was "saran-wrapped." Having a taller storage unit (see #3 above) allowed us to do a lot of stacking- put good furniture up on other things. Anything of value should be put up on cinder blocks or something similar- just in case of flood.

Also, when you pack the unit, do it in waves if you can. Start with the stuff you definitely don't need and work your way to stuff that you might want to get out of storage at some point. For me, things like books and collectible toys went in the back- these were things I had no immediate need for at any time, and things like tools and other gadgets that we knew we would probably want first went in at the end.

Our rent charged directly to our CC, which was very handy. I found the entire experience of having to store our stuff very easy. A family friend owned a storage facility and said it is rare that theft occurs, but DH worked with a guy last year who had his unit cleaned out by thieves. In that case they determined it had to be an inside job, so theft is not something you should worry a whole lot about. FWIW, we did buy extra insurance to cover our stuff while it was in storage- I think it was an extra $20/month, but worth the peace of mind to me.

[cptacek]

Am I right in assuming that your son will have to store the stuff because he is coming home for the summer, and he doesn't want to move everything?

Regardless, if it is just for a few months, I suggest maybe finding a trustworthy, single friend of his with an extra room, and pay the friend to let him keep things in that room. It helps the friend out, it is climate controlled already, it has the security of someone looking out for it, the friend can shut the door and not worry about it until your son moves it out, etc. Come up with a simple contract to protect the both of them (in case your son doesn't pay, the friend can get rid of his stuff after 2 weeks or so; in case the friend steals something, your son has a record and can get things back.)

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

You guys are really helpful. Lots of good comments and ideas.

Son and two friends rent a house together and will do so again for the 2008-09 school year. All the household items belong to my son. He found beds, linens, rugs, lamps, etc for his friends, as they joined him from out of the country.

They hope to find another house to rent that they can move their things to immediately when this year's contract ends. But it is possible all of them will have to leave town before they could move the stuff into a new house rental. They will all go to do summer research at other universities. So maybe they will have to leave at the end of May and not have a house rental that begins until the end of June, when they are already out of town. None of them will be in the small, rural university town during the summer. Son is also looking into just renting shed space from a townsperson. He has not mentioned knowing any other students who would be able to rent him some storage space, but I bet it is a possibility.

[tabbycat31]

the only time I would have considered it was that if I went to my initial college for a 2nd year. I woudl have stored stuff over the summer that would make no sense to take back.