I recently helped a friend of mine rid herself of the stuff in her storage units along with the monthly rental expense. For the Bargain Queen, this has been an eye opening educational experience.Public storage facilities are popping up everywhere and the move-in specials and seemingly low rental rates appear to be a tantalizing and easy solution to having more stuff than room.
It is so tempting to take your stuff and shove it into a storage unit and promise to “go through and toss it out when I have time.”
Believe me, you will NEVER take the time and effort it takes to go purge your unit until the day you move out.
The people that sell storage units know this, which is why they make it very cheap to get a unit and very costly to leave. Many storage facilities give you the first month free, but when you vacate, anything that is left in the unit is removed at your expense by their favorite (costly) junk hauler.
Unless you have had a fire or water damage to your home and your insurance company is paying for the moving and storage of your stuff or you are using a storage unit for business purposes to store merchandise that is actively being sold, then it is a budget drain to obtain and maintain a storage unit.
If you absolutely must move stuff into a storage unit, then try to avoid these costly mistakes:
- Do not move unexamined boxes into a storage unit. Once those boxes are in the unit – no matter how good your intentions – you will most likely never go back through them.
- Do not put things in random boxes and bags. Organize your storage unit. If you don’t, it will be too hard to find something when you need it and you may buy the item new. This defeats the purpose of having a storage unit in the first place. Instead, number your boxes and then inventory each box. Put items of a similar nature together and put the name of the box on the outside of the box on ALL sides (since the boxes end up getting turned around.) Keep the inventory list on hand.
- Do not store anything that is liquid. I don’t care how expensive it was or how tightly the lid was put on; it is Murphy’s Law that the $3.99 bottle of transmission fluid will leak and forever destroy everything in all the boxes underneath it.
- Do not store any food item. NOTHING! Storage units are already prone to bugs. Don’t invite them in.
- Do not store anything flammable. No propane, no matches, no lighters.
DO keep in your storage unit the following items:
- Broom and dustpan – to clean up at the beginning and end
- Handcart – to move your boxes
- Toilet paper and hand sanitizer – most facilities have bathrooms but no paper
- Large and strong garbage bags – for taking items to dump and donation dropoff
- Marking Pen – for marking boxes
- Packing Tape – to tape back up boxes you have opened to look inside
- Extra flattened boxes – stuff reproduces, I swear!
- Flash light – to see into the dark recesses of your boxes and unit
The results of my efforts with my friend’s stuff? I completely cleaned out her two storage units. It took three people working several very long days over the course of a month, but we cleaned it out. With my bargainista advice, she made almost a thousand dollars selling items, will get a hefty break on her taxes, and donated much needed materials to several schools and non-profits. Plus, she no longer has the expense of the rentals. Not bad, considering she was planning on paying someone to take it all away in a truck.
What has been your experience with storage units?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
That sounds like a lot of work! Sounds like we should just accumulate fewer things to begin with.
I totally agree with your assessment. The cost of storage units adds up quickly. The only exception I would see is when a person is in a transitional state and must store their furniture while out of the area or living in a severly downsized situation for a period of time. Better to sell, give away, or dump the contents whenever possible especially if you have a garage at home that is also packed. May just be a sign of hoarding.
We have one now — my DH and I were getting divorced and he rented it to put his stuff in that he couldn’t bear to live without, before he found his own place. In that case, it made sense. Now, however, that we are trying to work things out, he wants to keep it and has said terrifying-to-me things like “I see us having a storage unit forever!” NOOOOO! Not at $75/mo that I could happily stash in an emergency fund or CDs or some other much-more-worthwhile place. So his goal may be to keep it – mine is to somehow, over time (yeah, yeah, I know) get rid of it. I’m not sure how yet, since it still contains all the crap he insists he can’t possibly live without (but hasn’t touched once in years except to pack it and put it in this unit), but I’m gonna find a way! 🙂
@fairydust Oh, I feel for you. Maybe if you explain to DH that he is not spending $75 a month, but that he is spending $900 a year! If he leaves that stuff there for ten years, it will be $9000. (and of course, that is after taxes money) What could he get for that kind of money. Also, $75 is a BIG unit. Maybe you could get him to at least downsize. There MUST be things that could be donated. Just think of the tax deduction.
I love that you talked about putting the same things together so that it will be easy to find them when the time comes that you will be needing them. I will keep this in mind once I’ve found a storage unit that I can trust to keep my belongings. My partner and I will be living together, and our things together can be quite a lot for the small unit that we will be renting. So I have decided to rent a storage unit for us soon. Thanks!
You’ve got great tips for renting a storage unit. I love how you said that it’s smart to organize the unit and not just put things in a random place. We’re hoping to store some of our stuff when we downsize, so I’ll remember this!