Why is there so much rental storage space nowadays?

[raccoon]

Why is there so much rental storage space nowadays?

I can see how there might be lots of people who don't have room for their stuff. But if you're paying rent month after month, unless your stuff is very valuable you are just wasting money on storage when you'd be better off to sell the items or just give them away.

Am I missing something here?

[dalton99a]

1. Well, it's important to buy what you don't need, and save it for after you die

[dhill926]

12. hahaha......perfect......

[madville]

2. People will spend $1200 a year

to store $1100 worth of crap. Doesn't make much sense to me but I'm not sentimental about most of my furniture or other household items. I've moved across the country with just my clothes, a laptop and a TV jammed in my car in the past year as well, I travel light

[applegrove]

3. Condos instead of houses. So less storage. And it costs extra.

[Retrograde]

4. I rented one once

when I was redoing the foundation of a garage with attached workroom, and needed to make room for the builders. I know some organizations that don't own spaces of their own use them to store things they need regularly. But most individuals I know who have storage units are packrats.

[Xipe Totec]

5. I kept my stuff in temp/humidity controlled storage for two years

I moved to South Texas and was staying at my mom's place, to look after her. She had the room and the furniture herself, so there was no need to move my stuff. I was living in the outskirts of Boston before, and it turns out that the cost of keeping my furniture in storage, month to month, was less than the cost of commuter rail into Boston, month-to-month.

The furniture I own is worth it; Kincaid Carriage House furniture and the like.

We're now in own space. The cost of transporting the furniture down was more than what we paid in storage.

Plus, since this was a move, I was able to deduct the cost of storage and transportation on my tax return.

Hope this helps.

[Hortensis]

28. Yours is a big example of sensible storage. Besides family

reasons like yours, jobs and careers often require people to move around. Like you, they want to keep things that mean something to them for the future.

A friend has all his uncle's gunsmithing equipment in storage and means to learn to use it someday. Apparently there's a gunsmith gene in the family. Out of the question during this very busy period of his life, though.

Like your name, btw.

[Grammy23]

6. George Carlin knew years ago ..

We just have too much stuff.

He was right.

[Freedomofspeech]

8. Exactly!

[HopeAgain]

7. Because many Americans' ego is dependent

On how much stuff they can acquire. The accumulation of consumer goods is the new religion.

[Hoyt]

9. I agree. Sadly, when everyone wises up, it'll be economic depression time.

Maybe that would be good in some ways.

[FarCenter]

10. The key is to not acquire crap in the first place.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Cheap to build & maintain, with high ROI. People hold onto shit, paying more rent than it's worth.

.

People will rent units and pay $30-100 month to store their old used shit that has almost no resale value.

Then, after 5-6 years, they finally realize that they've paid more in storage fees than just buying new stuff.


If you have shit in storage for years, and don't really use it, chances are you can live without it.

Those rental fees creep up on people, the same way those rent to own stores inflate equipment prices.

.

[Dulcinea]

29. This.

Rental storage spaces are a cash cow. Unless you have some very valuable stuff or just stuff with sentimental value, you're better off donating it or having a yard sale.

[mahina]

31. Came here to say this. Its steady good money, period. Thats why.

[Nevernose]

13. They say 1-3 percent have OCD/hoarding disorder

They say somewhere from one to three percent of people have OCD that manifests in some sort of hoarding disorder.

Consumerism is a large part of the actual acquisition of stuff in America, but I’ve known or know of hoarders all over the world, across cultures.

Storage units are just the opportunistic capitalists that cash in on other people’s mental illness. People who need space pay the rent; sick people are the profit margins.

(I am not a hoarder, but am related to a shockingly clean hoarder and fight my own tendencies literally daily)

[Dulcinea]

30. My MIL was a self-described pack rat.

I'd call her a hoarder. When she died, we cleaned out her condo, & found clothes she bought 20 years ago with the tags still on, expired food, & broken glassware.

[Puzzledtraveller]

14. In the repub's idea of upward mobility

many can't afford a home and too many who do have trouble staying in them.

[aikoaiko]

15. I rent 600 sq ft for about $350/month

We live in a townhouse and my wife can't seem to part with things.

Lots of stuff from over the years and inherited things.

[NightWatcher]

16. I've got a lot of stuff. Is that what you want to hear?

[milestogo]

17. Once you acquire a lot of "stuff" it becomes an overwhelming task

to sort through it and pare it down to what you actually need. Its easy to put off doing this for years, and that's what people do. Hell, some people keep extra homes they don't need.

[OriginalGeek]

18. I have 2 units

I inherited my grandpa's house in June and luckily we sold our house right after but that means I have 2 houses worth of stuff but only one house to keep it in. We're still trying to figure out what to keep, what to sell and what to donate.

[Hortensis]

25. Sure. And a LOT of people inherit items they feel they should

keep for the family or future but don't want or need to use right then themselves.

[OriginalGeek]

41. Yeah there's quite a bit of that

Lol, I'm not having much luck getting even nearby family to come take something much less far away folks.

Grandpa was 96 - he and grandma accumulated quite a bit. I've found receipts for mechanic work on his cars from the 50s. (Grandma was an accountant. .I don't think they ever threw out a receipt. )

I intend to keep his medals but I have no idea how interesting his other WWII stuff would be to anyone other than me. Uniforms, newspapers, tons of pictures, his service .45 that he never even loaded or fired unless he had to for testing when he got it in the war. It's been wrapped in an oil cloth probably since the 40s.

Grandma's Hammond organ that hasn't worked since the 80s. It's beautiful but I have no room for it, and it's apparently not worth much. We have donated some furniture but there's more nobody wants.

And the worst part is I feel guilty about every single thing we get rid of. If I had unlimited space and money I'd make a museum to them. I'm 53 and most of this is part of my earliest memories.

[Hortensis]

42. Know what you mean. We're fortunate that our kids,

our daughter especially, do want most of the family heirlooms we do have. Not as much as you, I think. My MIL was Jewish and she donated a lot of family memorabilia from Europe to historic institutions.

These days, though, items that were considered nice, just aged, in their rather elegant grandparents' homes have required refinishing, reframing, etc., to fit in with the rest of their decor (lots of nice stuff we could not afford at their ages!). To me a few chips are evidence of the dimension of age, while even very professionally done finishes that make them look as if they once did new diminishes them. Whatever. They live on in the homes of a next generation as heirlooms, and that's what matters.

[krispos42]

19. I rent a space for a friend's stuff

Former fiance, sloppy and awkward breakup, long story.

Anyway, I crammed her stuff into a storage unit while she's trying to get her life together. She's disabled now and waiting (still) for some kind of permanent housing arrangement.

I'm hoping that when I buy instead of rent I'll have room to haul her stuff into a basement and save myself the cash.

Soon... maybe. Hopefully.

[Hortensis]

27. Where would we be without friends? :)

Seriously. Imagine the world, our lives, without the enormous contributions of friendship. You sound like a good one, btw. Enjoy finding a great new home, with or without the storage.

[krispos42]

39. Trying to be one.

The breakup was terrible. We had just moved in together. Just prior to getting married. Then she couldn't leave for a year due to illness.

Long story. Very painful. She had to live with me after I broke it off. Oy.

[LeftInTX]

20. Probably because those storage units are cheap to build

And don't require much in terms of building codes.

They will back them up next to flood plains where commercial buildings aren't willing to take the risk. Although the units would be considered flood resistant, getting in and out of the site during a flood would leave a regular commercial property at a disadvantage.

[Raine]

21. I have two of them

because I have lots of stuff that I inherited from my relatives combined with the stuff I already had of mine own. As you get older you tend to end up with more and more stuff.

[dembotoz]

22. Sometimes ur dream gets downsized but u have furniture

1 kid moved out..got apt load of stuff...job was awful, moved home but store furniture until next attempt at independence... hopefully next march.
2 friend lost apt . She moved in w friends. Household has to go somewhere.

Don't see storage unit as a beacon of hope in this economy

[mnhtnbb]

23. I separated from my husband two weeks ago.

Moved to a furnished rental beach house several hours away. Only brought what I could fit into the car. Hadn't intended to rent a storage space, but decided there were some things I didn't want to leave to chance my husband might destroy or get rid of that I would want when this rental is up at the end of March and I hopefully can go to an unfurnished rental and we can split furniture.

I rented a very small climate controlled space for $55/month. The stuff that's in there would definitely cost me a lot more than $300. to replace and some of it is irreplaceable.

[Ilsa]

24. We had one for awhile when we were in an apartment.

We kept my husband's scuba gear, our camping and backpacking gear, etc in it. We added some other stuff after the baby came and we were waiting to buy a house. Once we got the house, we cleared out the storage unit.

[Throck]

26. Republican idea of affordable housing?

[iamateacher]

32. Travel trailers, boats

Cars and work vehicles

[CK_John]

33. The middle class is down sizing and living in rent storage, we need UBI.

[left-of-center2012]

34. My brother's widow is a hoarder

The home is filled to overflowing,
and she has rented at least two HUGE storage units.

Her kids and grandkids no longer visit her.
One daughter, now grown, told me they never had a table to eat at when she was a kid
as it was loaded down with junk.

I tried to have Adult Protective Services check on her,
but they never responded to my phone messages, letter, email.

She lives 1,400 miles from me.

[Lee-Lee]

35. More of them than you might think are businessss

A lot of small businesses use them, especially ones that are based on a mobile setup where people operate out of vehicles.

I know a lot of people in that situation. They need secure storage but don’t need power, water or anything else.

One is a food truck owner. She keeps a lot of spare tables, dining tents, etc that she uses in some places but not others as well as her trays and napkins and such more than the truck holds, she makes a once a month run to a discount supply place a few hours away and between that and the rent expense to store it still saves over buying the same stuff locally.

Another one owns a mobile glass repair service. He uses the storage unit to store glass for jobs he has coming up, spares, tools etc. And the owner of the unit let’s him have deliveries made to the office so he can have glass for upcoming jobs delivered while he is working a job.

[Blue_Adept]

36. This

Hopefully a thread like this is educational for people on WHY other people do things in ways that may not make sense to someone that doesn't really think about it.

[Bayard]

37. We have three

In two states. I had to put everything in storage before I left CA because I was staying with friends. Those two are full of mostly books, my favorite furniture, and many things I inherited from family passed. My favorite things, not about to give them up till I can get them moved here.

Our garage here in KY is full of stuff we have no room for in our little cabin while construction has been going on, and until we can get a garage built.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

38. Renting a storage space for a temporary need

makes sense. But year after year?

Where I currently live, Santa Fe, NM, almost no one uses the garage to park their cars. Instead, the garages are completely full of stuff. I'm of the opinion that if you have too much stuff in the garage to accommodate your car, you have too much stuff and need to get rid of some of it. In my little townhouse development (about 35 or so units) I am literally the only person who parks her car in the garage.

I live in a two bedroom two bath space of about 900 square feet. At present I'm not yet willing to downsize enough to move into a one bedroom place, but perhaps some day.

As for having inherited stuff, you need to check in with the younger generation to see if they really are ever going to want great-grandma's china, or Uncle Steve's collection of Civil War memorabilia. I've seen more than one article talking about how the younger generation simply does not want any of the "treasures" their elders have. They have their own stuff and generally don't need anything else.

My brother has been renting a storage space that is not climate controlled where he's kept his very large comic book collection for some twenty years now. He thinks they're quite valuable, but I doubt that if he were to sell them he could even get back the money spent of storage.

When I was younger I moved frequently, including the first ten years I was married. Those moves kept me from acquiring or hanging on to too much stuff. And now I'm trying to cull things that I simply never use. It's a slow process, but recently I got rid of (as in donated to Goodwill or its equivalent) some baking dishes and decorative platters that I'd had for years but never once made use of. I absolutely don't miss them, and it's nice to have reclaimed that shelf space.

[crazycatlady]

40. A company I used to work for has at least a dozen

They were one of those large paid canvassing operations. With each employee hired (a lot needed for a large-scale canvassing operation, plus a lot of turnover) there is a lot of paperwork produced. Not sure if it is federal or state (which one?) law but they're required to keep employee paperwork on file for 7(?) years. So instead of renting bigger office space, they have storage units stuffed with boxes of employee paperwork for the required holding period.