Tags: About Self Storage Unit Auctions, Making money with storage unit auctions, What I got out of a self storage auction unit
It was cold Thanksgiving morning five years ago; I was just arriving at a storage facility, over in Decatur to clean out a unit. Work in the morning and play in the evening, was how I rolled during the holidays. Most of my family is close so I am rarely out of town during the season. This is a great time to score some deals on units, everyone is off physically and mentally, one holiday season I got six units for twenty dollars total, yes six units for twenty dollars! I was the only one to show up!
It is six am on the d.o.t! Most storage facilities will not permit entry until six am and will promptly lock you in a nine pm, unless you have a master code (I have quite a few) or you are granted twenty four hour access. No master codes at this location that very anal about that type of thing. I got this unit for two hundred and fifty dollars which was a steal, I would have paid four times that for this unit, it has the feel.
Open… Open… Open… like that crazed woman in the holiday commercial waiting outside a retail store early in the morning, to blow all of her loot. It was a sweet unit, full of nice stuff; items I knew were going to make me a nice pile of dough. At that moment, in that space I realized I was addicted to self storage auctions. Like any addiction it supersedes common sense and there generally are no limits to what you will do to feed that habit. Note my behavior, it was freezing and I could not wait to get out there in the cold to load it. If this was not sheer madness at its best, then it does not exist.
“Finally” The gate was open wide enough for me to get Melvin (Melvin was the big ass truck I use to terrorize drivers in Atlanta) I was almost completely through the entrance before it slid all of the way open with a loud clank.
I was always forgetting were the unit was, this time I actually had the paper work on me. As often the case my new love was all of the way in the back. DAMN! It is Thanksgiving Day and there is someone with a big truck right next to my unit, the rest of the property was empty as that armored truck that went over the bridge in Florida a way back. This happens more than you can know unless you are in the business.
I back Melvin up and go around the other side to back in. Thank God I had a truck will a lift or this was not going to happen. During this business, I learned all types of nifty skills, I can put a big truck just about anywhere, and my friends love this when I help them move!
My new love was clean, well packed and easy to load. Five minutes in I got myself a new leather jacket (eBay jargon NWTs) some new kicks and a ton of smell good. This stuff was mine to keep, at that point unless I felt like I was neglected myself I rarely kept anything. This day was different!
Dude had killer style; it would be called swag today. A kick ass bedroom set, big screen TV, nice stereo, about four hundred cds, equal number of dvds tons of art, a really cool cheval mirror, coffee table set, some model cars, twenty five boxes of clothes, washer and dryer and many smaller items that I did not deal with in the store, my partner handled that end of the business.
It was a very merry Christmas indeed!
The End.
Yes!
Submitted by Philip Brewer on October 5, 2009 – 05:57.
I have a friend who moved away to attend medical school and left stuff in a self-storage unit that runs about $100 a month. The quickest he could have gotten back here after finishing his residency would have been five years, I think–which would mean having spent $6000 on storage costs.
I have no idea what my friend stored, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d have been way ahead if he’d sold what was saleable and then given away or thrown away everything else (except a box of stuff like family photos, legal papers, and such small enough that he could have left it with a relative). Instead of a storage unit full of old junk, he’d have had thousands of dollars with which to furnish his new place with whatever seemed best, instead of whatever he’d accumulated during and after college.
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Great article. Every time I
Submitted by Guest on October 5, 2009 – 06:04.
Great article.
Every time I think about spending money on self-storage, I first think about whhat that extra $50 would do to my mortgage repayment if put there, or — even better — how much more house I could have bought if I had merely been willing to add $50/mo to the mortgage payment I was willing to pay.
Then I find a way to sufficiently recycle other things in my home to avoid the need to store.
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Not for me.
Submitted by Ellen / MoneyLounge on October 5, 2009 – 06:24.
I have to agree that in some cases storage spaces can be very useful, but most of the time they are money pits. I thought about renting a storage space when I moved from a larger apartment to a smaller one, then rethought the situation and decided that storing my goods would just lead me to believe that I needed more things and I would end up wasting more money. I would advise against them generally.
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Depends on how you use it
Submitted by Brian on October 5, 2009 – 07:56.
Self storage is actually a pretty good deal if instead of storing stuff in it you live in it.
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just like a credit card
Submitted by Rosa on October 5, 2009 – 08:09.
I think you hit it on the head – for some people, it’s a useful tool, but that’s not who the storage companies make their money from.
My parents have a small storage unit – they live in an RV, but they really wanted to keep a few things (some photo albums, the bedroom set they bought when they got married, some paintings) and my little brother, who lives in another country, asked them to keep some of his childhood stuff and some things he only uses on his annual visit here. But first they sold off most of what they owned on Ebay, gave sentimental pieces to friends and family, and had an estate sale.
They have RVer friends who dump a lifetime of possessions on their kids to store, or keep their original houses just to be full of stuff. It’s insane – and it’s just like your friend, holding onto the past even when you’ve decided to leave it behind.
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we used it for 6 months
Submitted by Michele on October 5, 2009 – 08:29.
we used self storage as a tool to clear out our home while it was on the market, and again to store our boat for 6 months during the winter before we added a boat driveway to our new home. I just don’t understand storing stuff…but then, I regularly clear stuff out and donate it to Goodwill or hold a garage sale. We have 10 boxes stored in our attic that hold the decorations for different times of year. Otherwise, everything is in use or stored in cabinets in the house.
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The best use I’ve ever seen
Submitted by Kevin on October 5, 2009 – 08:57.
The best use I’ve ever seen of Self Storage is as a set for the X-files. Some of my favourite episodes involved the unspeakable goings-on within locked storage facilities!
Seriously though. Renting a self-storage place to resolve a clutter problem is like curing obesity by buying bigger pants.
I briefly considered self-storage before deciding that it would be better to use the monthly cost of self-storage to make a case for getting rid of junk. That was harder than you might think. My wife seemed to have unusually strong attachments to battered Ikea bookshelves that you wouldn’t cross the road to spit on if I left them by a dumpster.
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Common space for non-profit storage
Submitted by Guest on October 5, 2009 – 09:15.
Our non-profit group recently started storing our event materials in a self-storage unit. Previous to this, people were storing things in their own garages or closets which made it difficult to keep an inventory of all items. And made it almost impossible to track down items once people left or moved from the city. We found a local self-storage that gave us a discount for being a non-profit.
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Temporary use OK, habitual use bad
Submitted by Jim on October 5, 2009 – 10:34.
Generally I think most people should not be paying for storage. Most of the stuff is junk they could / should do without. So they’re likley paying more in storage than the stuff is really worth.
However, some temporary use of self storage could be OK. If you’re moving or in transition then storage is a reasonable solution.
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Love this!
Submitted by Patty on October 5, 2009 – 11:23.
My sister uses self-storage because she is staying with friends to save money and does not plan on her current living situation to be long term. So she will need her stuff once she is living in her own place again. I understand her reasons, but also long for the days when I could move everything I owned in my volkswagon!
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Former Storage User
Submitted by Treacle on October 5, 2009 – 11:24.
In September 2008, I began renting a storage unit because I needed a place to stash my stuff while I fulfilled a life long dream of backpacking across Europe.
Roughly, six months later, in April 2009, I got a job clear across the continent and moved from Atlanta to Seattle. I kept my belongings in storage in case the move didn’t work out and I needed to come back.
In September 2009, I visited home and cleared everything out of storage. I gave away most things, and have a few boxes that couldn’t be sorted stored in my parents’ garage.
I kept my storage unit for exactly one year, and I used it for exactly what it should be used for…a place to keep your belongings while you’re in transition. Once I settled down, the storage unit had to go.
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Commercials
Submitted by Arvin on October 5, 2009 – 11:36.
The commercials for self-storage that portray it as a “got too much stuff? Save money by storing them!” solution sicken me. People here are right… if you’re not using it as temporary storage while you’re moving, you’ve got too much stuff… use it or sell it if you need the money.
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Living on a Sailboat
Submitted by LaDonna on October 5, 2009 – 11:50.
I was surprised to see you specifically mention that those who live on a sailboat are an exception. I live on a sailboat and find our 8×10 unit invaluable. We actually use it as our ‘warehouse’ for our small business, so we’re in it nearly every day. We consider it an excellent investment because of this.
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Irony in Google Ads for this posting:
Submitted by econobiker on October 5, 2009 – 13:59.
Seen here as a link:
CONSIDER US YOUR SPARE ROOM
1ST MONTH FREE- RESERVE YOUR UNIT TODAY
EXTRASPACE STORAGE
ADS BY GOOGLE.
Anyone else find it ironic?
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Why storage facilities proliferate and large homes…
Submitted by econobiker on October 5, 2009 – 14:40.
First: I agree we Americans have too much stuff. That said there are deeper issues. For the record I do have a storage unit- see the end of this comment.
“It took 25 years to build the first one BILLION square feet of storage. But it took just eight years (1998-2005) to add the second billion.”
Chalk that second billion up to the easy building loans and people realizing the headaches of renting homes to actual people who need utilities, heating, etc and call at 3am to complain about broken pipes, trash the rental home’s interior, leave the place dirty, quit paying rent, and then are hugel legal pains in the neck to evict. Or you can rent out a practically indestructable metal wall/concrete floor storage space and quickly sell the stored goods if they don’t pay- put a few lights on timers, install a keypad entry system, and away you go…
“According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average 1960’s home was 1200 square feet. In 2004 the average home had ballooned to almost twice that size to 2330 square feet.
Bigger houses are harder to fill up, which may explain why Americans buy twice the number of consumer goods than the citizens of any other first world nation. (Okay, so we’re a geographically huge country, but if we’ve got such big homes, why do we need an additional billion square feet of storage space?)”
One answer to your question is because the new big homes typically have crap designs for storing good s and items. Ever hear about the “big home small lot” or “McMansion” issue? What would have been a full attic 75 years ago is now a “bonus room” of sellable square footage. Or this attic space is now unusable due to lack of planning that just puts a small square access hole or lame pulldown stair in an inaccessable closet and cheap building practices which do not install flooring in the space during the building phase. Or the engineered trusses for the roofing are maximized for the least wood use but not the most usable open space. Anyone want a slab or crawl space home for a complete lack of basement space? An unfinished crawlspace which a small entry door but in which you can stand up is an obnoxious issue but that is what cheap builders provide today otherwise it would be a sellable square footage basement…
Another answer is that certain towns/cities and home owners associations now have laws and/or rules against storing certain items or building un-attached outbuildings or altering your existing home to add storage. Sure you might be able to buy a used 10′ x 20′ shipping container and get it dropped on your property for about $2000-$3000 but the fun will really start when your town cites you for code violations or the HOA says you have to move it or face a lawsuit because it is against the rules.
Some other issues: people are just plain dumb/stupid and do not know how to pack/store items in their homes for least amount of space. That same issue follows through to the storage units. I estimate that most people could probably store their same items in 1/2 the size unit they currently have. I know this because I have had to pack out a storage box for myself and also participated in clean outs with people who have purchased defaulted units. It is incredible the empty and unused space in found in the cleanouts- people literally move items into the storage units like they arrange them in their homes. I helped with one in which the people had put the dining room chairs around the dining table as if they were going to eat at it- though they did put about three medium sized boxes on the table top which could have held about 10 of the same size.
I do have a 10′ x 30″(12.5′ x 30 actual) storage unit in a rural area outside of a major Southeastern US city. I pay only $97! per month for this space. I needed to get it when a divorce forced me to move a volume of vintage motorcycles, parts bins, tools, workshop items from my former residence’s full basement garage and put myself into an apartment with no storage other than the room closets and no tolerance for unregistered vehicles parked on the property. At my initial move out I actually needed two units for about two months to store and sort the equipment. I knew that it would all fit into one unit but that is what happens when moving but not packing and I got everything into one unit after two months.
So it is not all cut and dried the issues…
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Having purchased the
Submitted by Bellen on October 6, 2009 – 04:01.
Having purchased the contents of several, maybe 6, storage units whose ‘owners’ had not paid their fees I’d like to make some observations. Total cost was $651.
First – based on what we’ve found, if the owners of these units had simply sold off 1/10th of what was in the unit, they would have been able to pay the charges.
Second – All of the units had real junk stored – there is no reason to store paint encrusted brushes, broken or pieces missing toys or food (it should be eaten).
Third – I don’t believe any of these people had any real thought of using, selling, donating, dumping the items they stored. Sort of using a basement/attic for the extra stuff – except it costs them monthly and you have to travel to get there.
Some of the items we have found and sold: 2 LR sets, 12 lamps with shades and bulbs, children’s toys, set of dishes service for 6 in the box never opened, same for stainless utensils, several 100 candles/candleholders/vases/knick knacks, designer purses including authentic Dior/Coach/Nine West, a dining room set with table/6 chairs/china hutch, really nice costume jewelry, pots and pans, and clothing including Victoria’s Secret, David’s Bridal and Martha Stewart towels with tags. Total was about $5000.
What we’ve kept include a 5 pc. bedrooom set with no mattress, more Martha Stewart towels and sheets with the tags still on, service for 6 STERLING silverware, several paintings, lots of craft items, yard tools, hand tools and power tools, glasses and dishes service for 8, pots and pans. Total was about $2500
We’ve donated probably 1/3 of what we bought, value about $500 and tossed about 1/4, worthless. State law requires that return personal papers, photos etc. We have returned passports, birth certificates, credit cards and even the CREMATED REMAINS OF A 10-month old child.
Did any of the owners really value their things, respect them, or want them? I don’t think so. BTW we were warned about the Remains after we bought the unit – it was sad & creepy all at the same time.
Just for the record, we have used storage units off and on (total 4 months) for the 5 years we’ve lived in FL – after Hurricane Charley and in between moves. It’s been mainly for furniture & appliances, never for personal papers or food.
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GREAT ARTICLE!
Submitted by Guest on October 6, 2009 – 05:52.
I just sent this link to all my friends so they can choose (or not) to do the math and take a good hard look at their own addiction…or forward to someone they know who has this addiction!
This piece is a total “Keeper” and I don’t need a storage unit to have it on hand!
Thanks
Redhawk, Compact member for 3 years and lovin it!
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freecycle!
Submitted by yoshhash on October 6, 2009 – 14:21.
I swear, it saved my life. I had the same problem, fortunately, I was set free the moment I discovered freecycle. I just could not dispose of things that were still good- still can’t! but there are better solutions now, thanks to f.c., craigslist, kijiji, etc.
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Another Use…
Submitted by MDP on October 7, 2009 – 07:07.
When I was helping my sister move her things into a storage unit for one of her college summer breaks (several kids shared one small unit for the couple of months between semesters), we saw a rock band rehearsing in an otherwise empty unit nearby. We got a kick out of seeing how you could have a garage band without having a garage.
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When I was just entering
Submitted by Guest on October 7, 2009 – 09:23.
When I was just entering high school, my mother moved me and my siblings to another state, and for some reason, she put all of our belongings in storage. We didn’t have money to pay for rent, let alone a storage facility (yes, we were that poor), so it came as no surprise to me a couple of months later to find out my mom stopped paying the bill and all of our stuff had been auctioned off. She never told us our things were at risk, probably because she knew what our reaction would be. My entire childhood was lost in a single stroke. All of the belongings I’d treasured for years, gone. Things my father had bought for us for birthdays and holidays for over a decade, sold to the highest bidder. I was crushed. It was tragic. The memory of it is still bitter today, twenty years later. I wish I’d thought to go in person and appeal to the storage facility owners/managers, but I was too young to drive, and it was really long walk.
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Right on
Submitted by Guest on October 7, 2009 – 09:55.
Right on! I used to do pickups for a local non profit. A storage center called to donate what was in a trailer out back. That was where they put someones stuff before they got rid of it. The stuff was surprisingly OK for having been in the trailer for three plus years. No diamonds, but adequate for a resale store.
Don’t store, it costs you more.
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I always think of serial
Submitted by Guest on October 7, 2009 – 10:20.
I always think of serial killers using them to stash heads and things. They creep me out.
We rented one for a month when we had to stay with my parents for a month until our house was ready, and at one, the owner admitted they had a rat problem. Ugh.
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the Art Deco Public Storage
Submitted by Jillian on October 7, 2009 – 11:14.
I assume you’re referring to the hollowed out Art Deco Public Storage building at the Silverlake/101 exit as one of the less blighting storage facilities in the area, right? If so, it’s actually ALWAYS been a storage facility of some kind, according to Los Angeles Magazine. But apparently there was once a speakeasy at the top!
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Fine for moving, for storing…not so much
Submitted by Karen on October 8, 2009 – 04:36.
We used a self-storage unit temporarily for a move. We sold our house, moved to a new city, rented a teeny apartment and took 3 months to buy a new house. Self-storage was great. Other than that…I don’t own anything that’s worth paying $100 plus a month to store.
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Temporary Great – Permanent Aweful
Submitted by Andee Sellman, One Sherpa on October 9, 2009 – 13:25.
Great post and a reminder that out of sight is often out of mind. The hardest thing to remember is the fact that you have all this stuff and when you’re not looking at it regularly then you forget.
I know we have cupboards in our current house that we never go into and given we’re contemplating moving into a smaller house we’re going to have to make a decisiion. DO WE REALLY NEED THIS!!
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I Am Thrilled With My Slice of Storage Heaven
Submitted by MarcusMaximus on October 10, 2009 – 01:00.
I use my 5′ x 10′ slice of heaven to store my seasonal high bulk items like mountaineering gear, vintage audio equipment, munitions, and emergency food rations. Almost everything is in easy access bins lining the wall with a pathway in the middle, and everything is a fast grab when I need it and a quick dump when I’m done.
I saw no reason to get rid of my good stuff just because I sold my home before the housing bust was approaching and my neighborhood was in rapid decline (lease option no money downers, pit-bull owners, and multiple residences of illegals w/ more than 8 cars parked in front of 2/3 homes each night). I am saving more than half of my mortgage payment, and the extra $100 for the elbow room and staging for Ebay auctions suits me fine. A larger apartment would be much more than an extra $1200 per year.
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Storage space is essential for city apartment-dwellers
Submitted by Guest on October 29, 2009 – 19:14.
Good points but not always relevant.
We have lived in the same apartment in a major city for over 30 years. We also work from home and have a home office/library that takes up a huge part of our space, along with all the electronics, files, books, etc. that go along with it.
We could NEVER afford office space in NYC these days. However, we can “space shift” and store off-season, financial and special stuff (displaced by the office stuff) in affordable storage.
In a one-bedroom apartment, even basic stuff takes space.
The “cost” of storage is worth it to have a space we can live in without feeling literally trapped by stuff.
Sure, you can look at what we spend each month and say: Wow. I could use that for X…but we look at it and say: Wow, we’ve gained another whole room for a literal fraction of what it would cost a month to rent that space and/or live in a larger space.
It’s all relative.
If you live in a city in a studio or one-bedroom, you NEED storage at some point, if only for off-season clothing or sports gear. (And what isn’t discussed is how many people store their stuff in other people’s homes–like their families–for free.)
If you don’t do anything, wear anything, collect anything and have a huge space–which is NOT most people in a city–you can get away without storage. But real people, including those of us who recycle, repurpose and give to Salvation army, sell on craigslist, still need space.
Another use for storage spaces? Many people keep their small biz inventory in them. Some even try to run their biz from these spaces! Which you can do in the boondocks but not in the city.
What we need is more of these spaces so the prices were more competitive.
FYI: It makes no sense to rent space to compensate while you go from a huge home (3,000 square feet) to 1, 200. That’s just delusional.
As you noted, the real issue is NOT the storage space, but the psychological issues involved in hanging on to “stuff”– your friend is trying to pretend she still has that lifestyle. Until she admits those days are over, she won’t move on.
It’s easy for us to say: Get rid of it. But all those years, she’s been in fear of what is inevitable.
FYI: You have to be sensitive to people’s belief and feelings on all of this. Being too tough does not help.
Passing stuff on is important to people. And FYI: You do NOT know what her daughter will or won’t value.
I can tell you stories of families where one member decided on the death of a parent, for example, to get rid of stuff. Meanwhile, siblings became hysterical, enraged and so upset (because they did want the possessions for sentimental value) that family members literally stopped speaking to each other.
This is a highly loaded issue.
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I have some drawings,
Submitted by Patti C on November 9, 2009 – 06:09.
I have some drawings, paintings, and art supplies in a climate controlled storage unit that costs me $15 a month, hoping for the day I have an art studio where I can use them.
I have a big enough apartment now that I could put them in here, but they are very messy.
I won’t give up on my future, so right now I consider it worth it.
They’ve been in there a few years now.
Old art school drawings can be valuable fodder for new paintings.
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I have some drawings,
Submitted by Patti C on November 9, 2009 – 06:10.
I have some drawings, paintings, and art supplies in a climate controlled storage unit that costs me $15 a month, hoping for the day I have an art studio where I can use them.
I have a big enough apartment now that I could put them in here, but they are very messy.
I won’t give up on my future, so right now I consider it worth it.
They’ve been in there a few years now.
Old art school drawings can be valuable fodder for new paintings.
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Great Article
Submitted by Joan on January 28, 2010 – 07:16.
You have made some excellent points and doing “the math” is absolutely key to helping people see the light on storing stuff they just can’t part with. I apply the same math when walking people through their basements that have become nothing more than storage units. Many people are paying even higher annual rates (per square foot) in giving whole rooms over to stuff they don’t use but don’t want to let go of.
There are, of course, times when the math for a storage unit does make sense. We live in a very small condo. We rent a storage unit that houses our off-season items (only during the offseason) my husbands tools (which he uses regularly) extra storage for tools I need for my business and our archived paper files (which we are legally obligated to keep). Essentially, this storage unit is the equivalent of our basement/garage since we don’t have one. To purchase this extra 120 square feet of living space in our neighborhood would cost substantially more than the monthly fee on this storage unit. It’s one example of when the math does make sense.
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Even smart people fuck up!
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