How many rent storage space?

[Land Owner]

The "Don't Move" (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?421781-Don-t-move) thread on this Forum reminded me that many of us, me included, rent storage space and pay monthly to keep "stuff" we intend someday to use or sell. How long have you been "hording" this way and what accumulation of cost has this represented for you?

My wife and I have had multiple family members pass and leave us household belongings and we have accumulated "stuff" of our own. We acquired and moved "their stuff" but could not fit it all in our home nor, in good faith, sell theirs (the good stuff) for pennies on the dollar. Off and on since 2014, we have had a 10' x 10' air conditioned storage unit. So say 5 years (pick a number).

Humidity controlled storage costs $150/month. Cumulatively, our storage rental fees are approaching $10,000.00. That is NOT bragging and is a shame really. Still, the "stuff" has value, for which we have paid, and at least as much as the sunk cost of the rental fees.

Sheesh, doing the math, who would have thought it would take this long or cost that much? By the time we get it sold or placed in a larger home, meaning we move "up", we could have BOUGHT NEW STUFF. No good deed goes unpunished and "heirlooms" received "for free" that don't "fit" the current space will, if kept, COST you in the end.

[ryanmattes]

I remember someone breaking that down for me a while back. The gist of it was, whatever you're storing, it'll cost you more to store it than to throw it away and buy it again when you need it. That's true especially for furniture and those kinds of household items. Even a $2,000 couch, stored for 2 years at $100 a month is losing money in the long run.

In my storage space is about $40k of PA equipment from when I was in a band and several instruments that can't easily be replaced and would be expensive if I could even find them. Of course, if I never use the PA or instruments again it's worthless, and it's been in there long enough that the cost of electronics has dropped dramatically. I'm not even close to spending $40k on storage, but as electronics get cheaper I'm getting closer to hitting the cost of buying a newer, less expensive one that does the same thing if I ever needed it.

My only hope is that I move in the next year or two and get all that stuff into a bigger house, where it can lose value without me having to pay for it.

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[Winger Ed.]

You need to have some very valuable stuff to justify the expense of a rented storage space.
And even then, don't plan on leaving it there very long.

This reminds me:
My sister's in-laws put all their stuff in storage, and got a job on the road living out of a motor home.
They paid the storage fee for about 4 years.
When they quit and retired, they decided to live in the motor home.
All but a couple arm loads of the stuff in storage ended up in the dumpster.

I had a buddy over flow his garage, so he rented a storage space.
I watched it get loaded, and thought it was just junk. Old TVs, a dishwasher that didn't work, clothes that didn't fit, etc.
He just rented a place for it all to go to and die, then paid on it for a couple years before he abandoned all.

[10-x]

Have a 10x20 climate controlled unit, mostly family antiques but lots of left over extra kitchen stuff and my for sale flea mkt stuff. Extra kitchen stuff is going in trash after get thumb fixed then kids will get last chance on family antiques as they will be next to be sold. Just moved to smaller place so no space for extras.

[FISH4BUGS]

I don't have a storage unit - I have a BARN!

[Four-Sixty]

I get value from getting rid of stuff I don't use and getting it into the hands of someone who can use it.

Buying and selling used stuff is kind of a revolutionary act. 1) it takes less taxable earnings to acquire used. 2) often no income tax is paid when selling used, so the earnings are like tax free income. 3) reuse is often better for the environment, it consumes less energy. 4) reuse/resell lessens the demand for imported goods 5) resell improves the purchasing power of the impoverished.

Get rid of your excess stuff!

[rancher1913]

I don't have a storage unit - I have a BARN!

I got 4 barns, na na na [smilie=s:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I don't have a barn, but I have stored stuff in other people's barns.
I've stored firewood on other people's land.
All in all, it has never ended well :(

It's just best to not accumulate too much...ya gotta purge once in a while, whether you sell, giveaway, or throw away.

[Hossfly]

We built a barn 40’X50’ for horses 4 stalls and tack room, climate controlled with P tac a/c unit. Stored our furniture in there for 2 years while building the house. Moved into house in 2001, converted tack room to saddle storage and reloading room. Built 40’X50’ shop and now its full of (projects), I’m not a hoarder, I’m a historian told SWOMBO. Saved money on storage to build shop and barn.

[richhodg66]

Or just donate stuff;

Wife: I have a bag of used clothing I'd like to donate.

Husband: Why not just throw it in the trash? Much easier.

Wife: But there are poor, starving people who can use these clothes.

Husband: Honey, anybody who fits in your clothes is definitely NOT starving.

Update, husband is expected to survive, but it will be a long, slow recovery process.

[GhostHawk]

Better to pile it on curb side with a "Free" sign than pay out 10,000$ for things you will likely never lose.

We have been working at cleaning up, clearing out. Last 2 years a few things were sold, lots set curbside which disappeared within an hour or 2.

Know anyone who wants a rowing machine in Fargo ND? Would like to see a few dollars for it but we had it up on facebook marketplace for 3 months and had zero serious offers. Its just taking up space I could use. And after my wifes back surgery there is no way she can use it again.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

When I decided to move, almost 5 years ago now, I bought a 40' shipping container. I filled it up with "stuff" and when the big day came I had it hauled to my new location. Most of what was stored in it is still stored in it, so what does that tell you? It tells me that I probably don't need the stuff anyway. But....here it is. The idea of using shipping containers for storage is still basically sound, though; just be sure to get one that's guaranteed not to be a leaker. As for climate control, if needed, you can run an extension cord to it. I paid $2,500 for it, so it's not a reoccurring expense like space rent.

DG

[JimB..]

Preparing to downsize in the next year or two. For some reason the family members believe that getting stuff into a storage unit will help, so that’s what we’re doing.

[Handloader109]

I rent a 4x5 ft (smallest available) back in MS for items I sell on regular basis to a company down there. $48 a month, but otherwise, I couldn't do it. I have a guy that can get in and delivers for me and I restock quarterly. cost of doing business...

I've never stored junk myself. had a friend that did it for about 4 or 4 years. he finally bought another house to store stuff in....

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[nvbirdman]

A friend of mine has a storage shed with about five hundred dollars worth of junk in it. I asked him about ten years ago why he didn't just throw all that stuff away. He said the shed only costs him fifty dollars a month. That was ten years ago at six hundred dollars a year. Six thousand dollars to store five hundred dollars of junk.

[WebMonkey]

i've never rented a storage unit.

i've never had enough stuff to need one before i 'retired'.

now i have a garage/shop and a radio room full of 'stuff'.
i definitely hold on to stuff more than i should but i may need it someday.
;)

now my mother/father in law AND my sister/brother in law all have multiple storage units in town and their tales of the fees usually keep me from keeping more stuff than i have space at the house for.

:)

[Winger Ed.]

I he finally bought another house to store stuff in....

We have a 'weekender' neighbor with a really, really nice house that used to come 3-4 times a year for the weekend.
He's a bit of a hoarder, and hasn't come in for over a year and a half with the kung-flu going on.

A couple years ago, he referred to their lake house as the most expensive storage shed in the state.

[Parson]

Luke 12:16-21

[Murphy]

I've been watching storage units in my town grow, and grow. Odd thing is, I live in one of the poorest counties in the state of Oklahoma. While I'm reasonably sure some of them are being rented to locals, the majority are being rented out to out of towners. Yes, out of towners. We have a state park and lake that has been booming for the past 20 years, and it's starting to look like Branson, Missouri about 25 miles to the north of me. The vast majority of the tourists come from Texas. I'm located 15 miles from the state line, just across the Red River. Just about any given Friday or Sunday evening, you can see Texas tags on 8 out of 10 vehicles headed home or going to the lake. I'm willing to say a lot of the tourists store their camping gear, jet ski's...etc in those units. Which actually makes sense in some cases.

Our locals are less likely to be wasteful of money, they can't really afford to store something only used occasionally. I have learned long ago when my garage gets a little too full, to do a clean out. It's really been pretty simple the way I handle my overflow. I walk through and if it's an item I haven't needed or used in over 2 years, time for it to go...one way or another. Of course, usually within a couple of months I wind up needing something I just got rid of. Murphy's Law don't ya' know.

Murphy

[TyGuy]

I only know one person who is getting his money’s worth on a storage unit. He has two very rare classic RHD Honda cars that he imported in over the years. One is one of 600 ever made worldwide. The other is the higher performance version of the same car but less rare. That one is his track toy. He lives in a small town house with no garage and is willing to pay for climate controlled parking space as the cars are so valuable. They are so small that both fit in the unit together along with all of his race tires/equipment.

Same guy has a Civic that he built into a rally car and actually took second in the Western division of his class last year. He stores all of his rally parts and gear there as well. Any gearhead who hasn’t been to a rally race is missing out! Volunteer to be a course marshal and then kick back and get a first row seat to the action.

[Petrol & Powder]

Self-storage facilities are extremely profitable. They generate some of the highest returns per square foot of rental space and are inexpensive to build.

However, from a renters point of view, those metal boxes are expensive.

I understand the need to store items for a short term. Military members that get deployed, temporary jobs, relocating and the need to store excessive property while you search for permanent housing.
BUT, if you're just just storing property that you have accumulated and you will NEVER use it.......that stuff needs needs to go.

[MT Gianni]

We have used storage units when we were building in between houses and for relatives belongings before the trust was fully in effect. 14 months is our limit. Get rid of it or find a place for it.

[slohunter]

In my old neighborhood I would put stuff on the curb marked "Free" It would sit for weeks, put a $50 price tag on the same stuff and it would gone in minutes!

[john.k]

Im too smart for that....i just spent $50k on a new 60x40 shed to store $1 k worth of scrap metal.(cars and bikes)......still ,it impressed the neighbours......the ones who lodged objections ,anyway.

[slim1836]

I've got a 40' shipping container at the farm I store items in. Once I build and move out there I will need at least one more.

Slim

[GregLaROCHE]

I have a barn, but I’ve got so much crap in it I can never find what I’m looking for. I think when you have a large space available you tend to store too much. I’m starting to get rid of a lot of it. Given away or hauled to the dump. Of course nothing at all related to guns and shooting.

Slims idea about getting a used shipping container is a good one, as long as you have the place to put it and local ordinances allow it. My son is planning to get one. You can find 20 foot ones too.

[Petrol & Powder]

There are few events more liberating than disposing of stuff you don't need.

[SeabeeMan]

I don't rent a storage unit and only have while on deployments or when we had a boat but only a 1 stall garage.

I'm in far NW Wisconsin and I'm always amazed at the random little storage units in the middle of nowhere. Even on back roads it seems like you're not ever more than 10 miles from a storage unit rental. We're 8 miles off the highway and there are 4 places just on my drive from there to home. 5 if you count the roughly 60'x200' pole shed that is used for off season vehicle storage.

[2A-Jay]

We didn't rent a storage locker. Kept the stuff I would never be using again in my Garage/reloading room. Then started listing the stuff on FB Market Place with prices, everything sold in a week and I was $500 richer it was pure profit, Then the election happened during the Pandemic. Still bought 2 rifles and 20 pounds of pure lead with the money.

[David2011]

When we moved about 18 months ago I had to rent climate controlled storage for many of my tools, radio controlled airplanes and kits, reloading gear and over a ton of casting metals. It took a lot longer than expected to get a contractor to build the new shop but it’s done and I have about half of the cabinetry built. With a little luck I’ll start moving things from storage to its new home in a month or so so there’s light at the end of the old tunnel.

[GregLaROCHE]

There was a movie that showed a store that sold your stuff on EBay. I wish such places really existed. I would be glad to give 50% of the sale price, just for not having to go through all that is entailed to sell on EBay.

[HATCH]

I have a 20x16 climate controlled shop.
I have about $12000 tied up into the whole setup (concrete pad, stick built vinyl siding, electrical, mini-split)
My brother has had stuff in a commercial storage unit for 10 years.
I suspect that he has spent twice that much in storage fees.
We were discussing it this weekend and 1/2 the stuff in storage he isn't planning on keeping anyway.
And now since he bought a house last year he has enough space to put the other 1/2 of the stuff

[HATCH]

There was a movie that showed a store that sold your stuff on EBay.



40 year old virgin

[GregLaROCHE]

40 year old virgin

That’s right. I always thought it was a good idea.

[bedbugbilly]

The only time my wide and I have ever had a storage unit was when we were moving from our house of 45 years into a condo we bought in town - not knowing what we were going to need at the condo, which we had to go in and put new flouring in and paint during the time we listed the house, got it down to the bare minimum to show. It worked well for that . . . but to keep a unit just to store "stuff" seems like a waste of money to me. I have had friends who have had storage units for years - climate controlled units. You know . . .store books you'll never read, furniture you'l never use . . . clothes you'll never wear . . . kitchen utensils you already have multiples of . . . really valuable stuff like that. Then they would complain that they have to keep working because they haven't saved enough for reitirement.
do you get the picture?

Probably 90% of the storage units are just holding "stuff". This "stuff" could be liquidated for whatever it would bring - that money and the monthly rent a person is paying could then be invested in something that will appreciate and grow in value to benefit them when they retire. But a person has to finally "realize" that they have an "issue" of hanging on to stuff they don't really need or use. If you have had it in storage for a time . . . anything . . . and you haven't used it or needed it . . . do you really need it.

Worse yet are those . . . and I have seen this tie and tie again . . . even with my own family members . . . sho store stuff in barns and outbuildings. In Michigan . . and I'm sure other paces . . mice, coons, possum, etc. eventually get into ti and there is nothing worse that the destruction they do . . especially mice. It does a lot of good when you go to get that "important stuff" and find out it smells from mice droppings, urine or has been chewed on.

I'm not making light of this . . . in some ways . . . storage units and hanging on to stuff is like an addiction . . . no different than smokinging . . . . you keep paying good money to keep stuff that you really do't need . . but to you . . it has value . . which in theory what you pay each month for the unit SHOUKD be increasing the value fo the contents by the amount of rent each month . . . but doesn't . . . so it's a lot of money that is wasted . . . . a smoker will drop what $60 plus dollars on a carton of cigarettes . . . and then wonder why they do't have enough money to pay bills or save for retirees - and if they go through a canon a week - that's a minimum of $240 a month or $3,120.00 a year - $60.00 X 52 weeks - money that is wasted that could instead go towards retirement or be saved for unforeseen expenses.

Yep . . . makes perfect sense . . . . .

[1hole]

It has truly been said, "If our foresight was as good as our hindsight we'd be better off by a dampsight." ... or something like that.

No one has told me anything about the hazards of temp storage but I suspect few folk think of it as a long-term solution at first. But, bad things can happen in life and short term storage plans can become quite long.

As the costs of long term storage sinks in, we're faced with the question of, "After a long and expensive effort to save my best stuff, do I now toss it and be left with nothing to show for either the original investments AND the storage cost to this point?"; that's rarely an easy decision.

[farmbif]

I would not mind owning storage units.

[waksupi]

I do like storage unit sales, when the fees haven't been paid. I've made some good scores from them over the years.

[danmat]

I worked with a old guy when I was young, he was about my age now. We were talking about no garage space at our houses, he said I will never understand why someone would go spend 15 thousand on a new truck and leave it out in the weather because he had 100 dollars worth of junk in his garage.
When stuff starts pilin up I always remember him saying that.

[WebMonkey]

I only know one person who is getting his money’s worth on a storage unit. He has two very rare classic RHD Honda cars that he imported in over the years. One is one of 600 ever made worldwide. The other is the higher performance version of the same car but less rare. That one is his track toy. He lives in a small town house with no garage and is willing to pay for climate controlled parking space as the cars are so valuable. They are so small that both fit in the unit together along with all of his race tires/equipment.

Same guy has a Civic that he built into a rally car and actually took second in the Western division of his class last year. He stores all of his rally parts and gear there as well. Any gearhead who hasn’t been to a rally race is missing out! Volunteer to be a course marshal and then kick back and get a first row seat to the action.

280040

the 100 acre wood rally went by my property this past weekend.

[sharps4590]

I've had a storage unit for....about 16 years. $50.00 a month for a 10 X 15. The first 15 years it was deductible as I used it for my business. When I retired I emptied it and let it go. Last year I needed to do something with a vintage car, a 1955 MG-TF. I was flat out of room in my shop and I wasn't letting any of my 4 collector cars set outside over the winter. So, I picked the one that didn't have a heater, the TF, and put it in a storage unit in town. Same $50.00 a month. It helps to have a good friend who owns storage units. Anyway, the plan was to add on to the shop this summer.....until I bought 20 sheets of OSB for my shop ceiling......at $32.00 a sheet!!!! If we hadn't had a bunch of "credit card dollars" and a credit at Lowes, that stuff never would have been bought. Material prices are going to have to come down considerably before we add on. I can rent a storage unit for $600.00 a year for a long time for the 25K plus the addition was going to cost. At 68, I'm not going to worry about $50.00 a month.

As far as renting a unit for household goods....ain't gonna happen. When the wife's Dad died a year ago this month, she had an auction...and there was some nice stuff sold. Momma kept the few things she wanted and the rest went down the road. We don't keep stuff to have stuff, we keep what we use....and that's a bunch!!! A 4260 sq. ft. house doesn't have any unused space.

[wv109323]

I never have. It seems most things within the las t 30 years are made to be disposable. Manufacturers quit providing replacement parts and the newer items are more efficient with more features. That said I seldom get rid of gun related items because when I do it seems I need it later.

[Ural Driver]

I did for several years......but then I bought this place. The first order was to tear down the old (falling down) goat barn and build me a shop. 40x40x12 all steel on a concrete floor. Now, for the first time in many years, all my "stuff" is in one location. :redneck:

[poppy42]

I did. Until I lost all my stuff! Never again!

[abunaitoo]

I probably could use one, but can't afford it.
I too have many things I should just get rid of.
But like most of us, as soon as it gets trashed, I find I need it.
Times like this has made me not want to get rid of things.
Having said that, I really need to start getting rid of stuff.

[Winger Ed.]

I too have many things I should just get rid of.
But like most of us, as soon as it gets trashed, I find I need it.
Times like this has made me not want to get rid of things.
Having said that, I really need to start getting rid of stuff.

Yep. Sounds like you need to get rid of some stuff.:bigsmyl2: