PLEASE tell me WHAT everyone is storing???

[whatamess]

Okay, I have a random question. First it was one, the another & another. I'm talking about these storage garage places opening everywhere. In the last few years we have had six open around here. Guess what? They are mostly full. I know because my niece who is moving due to a property buyout needed a unit. However, not everyone is moving.
Please tell me, WHAT one earth do we need these for? I do realize individuals who loose a home or move may need one, but otherwise?
I'm left scratching my head. I'd love to just see what is inside most of them. It would make for funny, if not sad and disturbing documentary.
WAM

[JollyGG]

- We don't have enough off street parking. We would love to have one for our old tent camper. Unfortunatelly it's not in the budget.
- I have a basement full of kids toys and old baby clothes. I need to have a garage sale. Mabeys others are holding onto theirs.
- People are getting married later in life. Two sets of houshold goods and no place to store them.

[JRScott]

My neighbor runs a storage facility. He has one little ole lady who rents a unit each month for her washer and dryer. That she might need again some day. (He and I agree she'd be better off selling them, for what she pays assuming she keeps them stored for a couple years she could easily afford new ones if she just saved the money.)

[BKOnce]

Welcome to a new era of... American-junk-yard-nation!!...

[whatamess]

I googled it..curiousity. My husband is a new American, and it marvels him how much stuff we accumulate and store. In Asia people live in small homes or condos/high rises. They manage to keep all they need inside. Since ive spent bunches of time overseas as well, I can say fairly well we are the nation of junkers and collectors. We even hoard food.
So my google came up with moving, eviction, ebay sellers, small business owners/flea marketers warehouse space, dead bodies, things people dont use anymore but wont get rid off, hoarders space, and mens toy storage (motorcycles, boats, etc.)
Mostly though, its junk. It my newspaper has sales weekly of people who never paid for it all to be stored. There is groups of home shopping Tv channels addicts that store the compulsive purchases there too!!!!

I can see the use, sporadic and wisely. But the way they are being built everywhere, with big ugly orange doors at every corner it seems to indicate we have a problem.

I yard sale, then donate yearly everything we dont use. Clothes, childrens goods, toys, kitchen wares, etc. I grew up as a child of a hoarding mother. Clutter makes my skin crawl. Ever get up at night and have mice run across your foot? I figure rather than store, someone somewhere could be using the stuff.

Sorry to rant, it just has me baffled.
Id rather see the cow farm back where this new depot is.
WAM

[Granny]

I glanced at this and thought, oh this doesn't apply to me and as I closed the window. I realized I have the equivalent of a 4 1/2 car garage and my vehicles are parked outside. So what's inside the buildings:

baby clothes (as insurance that we don't have to raise any more grand-babies)

sauna and bench we took out of our house (I live in Texas, I don't need a little room to go into to sweat)

the pump to the hot tub that was also inside the house (the hot tub is turned upside behind the garage, someday we'll get it hooked up outside (yeah, right, I'm not holding my breath on that one))

3 large tool boxes filled with my dad's junk (he died in 1979 and nobody has cleaned them out yet, but all the tools are gone)

my dad's ho scale train that been packed since 1979, that hubby says he's gonna build again with my grandson, (Yeah, right)

riding lawn mower
2 battery powered kids cars
table saw
miter saw
tile saw
PVC pipe we bought too much of and didn't return for credit
torn window screens
tiller that has never been used (my ex needed some cash)
yard tools
air compressor
camping gear
financial records for the last 10 years
the rest of my mom's stuff that I couldn't give away
scraps of wood left over from home projects
2 freezers
2 refrigerators
my grown kids stuff, "Mom can I keep this here"
Christmas decorations, grown kids decorations too
old doors we took down or replaced
my sister's extra large above ground pool, pump and accessories (she couldn't afford to pay storage)

Sad thing is, I have free-cycled a lot of stuff, I burned a lot this past spring and we still can't get our cars in, but at least I can walk around the organized stacks of stuff now.

And to think, when I die, my kids get to inherit all this stuff and being the little pack rats that they are, they'll keep every bit of it too.

[SinkingFast]

When we were moving last spring, we rented a unit for a couple of months. We boxed things and moved odd pieces of furniture there to store until after "Moving Day". Stuff we wouldn't have to fool with during the actual move.

Where we live, there's a major University here. The "kids" have to be out of the dorms over summer break. Instead of wagging their furniture home with them, many store their stuff here, in Storage Facilities, over the summer. Yesterday was the first "Official Move-In" day. The parade of U-Hauls has already begun.

While we were storing our stuff there, we saw several other "regular" folk using those units.

One guy keeps his motorcycles in a storage unit. When the weather is good, he'll come over, pick a bike, and go for a ride.

We saw some folks who store boats there. I guess they don't have garage space for them at home, and don't wanna leave their boats at a marine storage facility.

There's several units here that are climate controlled with access thru a security entrance. People store all kinds of valuables in those units. Antiques and collectibles.

[Granny]

I've also noticed tons of new storage places going up just outside of gated communities, so I would guess people are storing recreational vehicles in the storage units because of the rules inside the gated community against "having fun" lol. There's always some hoopla on the tv about the tenants assoc is suing somebody over some silly thing, once it was over the American flag and the location of the flag pole on some guys property.

Sure glad I live in the country!!! Think I'll get a flag pole and run hubby undies up the flag pole. rofl

[whatamess]

Good grief, buy a home and spend out the wazoo, and you cant hang out a flag or have your belongings on your property??? I hate those gated places anyhow. To suburban sprawlish nosey neighbor for me. I live in an ungated old development, but we all have an acre with tons of trees. Its not as bad as most. People still get mad if you dont have your grass mowed perfect. I dumped mulch, as I cant be bothered.

I had a tift with someone who didnt like me hanging out laundry before on sunny days. It wsnt like I hung out undies.. It is just some towels and shirts.

Ive never thought about college kids, but thats a good idea. Are those places expensive? Are these antique dealers storing stuff?

I saw another one being built today on the way to the ocean. Right next to the bay. Now when I crab and fish I can see orange doors too. Whoopee.

WOW Granny! My mothers is a storage bin for others stuff too though. I keep telling my sisters if you cant find a place for it, get rid of it. This isnt a garage!! When it sits for a year w/o use, its time for the ol' buh bye!!!
WAM

[Granny]

The good daughter recently moved back home after boyfriend decided he didn't want to be tied down (it was almost time to buy the cow because my daughter will graduate from college in December and is ready to settle down), so we store her stuff until she graduates. No point in her starting over, she has everything to set up housekeeping again when she lands the job after graduation.

At least they could paint those doors green huh?

[SinkingFast]

Ive never thought about college kids, but thats a good idea. Are those places expensive? Are these antique dealers storing stuff?

We didn't get the smallest unit available. We went for the next size up. And Management offers all sorts of discounts. Something like 25% off if you pay for 6 months to a year at a time. We got 10% off because Son was a college student.

The smallest unit ran $15-$18/mo on a monthly basis. We paid something like $22/mo. If we'd have paid for a year in advance, it would have been less than $200 for the year.

I don't know what all goes in the climate controlled, security access facilities. We looked at one thinking about the furniture pieces we'd be storing. But the unit was too small and cost too much. We figured a couple of months in a regular unit was not gonna hurt the furniture. And it didn't.

[whatamess]

I found this..kinda funny!

I hope it okay to post a link...

http://www.slate.com/id/2122832

WAM

[freshstart32]

We actually are getting ready to go get one on Friday. Since we are filing for bankruptcy and short selling the house......we have moved in with my inlaws until all of this mess is sorted out and we can save some money back and then we will find somewhere to rent. They live in a different school district (the one that my husband and I lived in and went to school in) so we had to move last weekend in order to get my daughter enrolled there. So until we have our own place we need to pack up the rest of what we didn't take there and put into storage.

I know what you mean about them all being full....it took us over a month to finally get one here. I said the same thing "What the hell are people putting in these things"

[Bandit]

I used a place like that twice. Both times during a move when I first got to the location. My few things only stayed in there for about 2 or 3 months.

[PaKettle]

Junk

We didn't get the smallest unit available. We went for the next size up. And Management offers all sorts of discounts. Something like 25% off if you pay for 6 months to a year at a time. We got 10% off because Son was a college student.

The smallest unit ran $15-$18/mo on a monthly basis. We paid something like $22/mo. If we'd have paid for a year in advance, it would have been less than $200 for the year.

You must not live in a major cities. Here in L.A. those things go for a MINIMUM of $50/month and most are more like $75/month!

For $20-25/month I could see where people may want to store some things they don't have room for but just aren't ready to get rid of. But for $75/month, I don't know why people do it, except for cases like me one time where I had to store stuff temporarily while I was moving and was living with a friend until I found my own place.

I think many people just have too much stuff and live in houses without a lot of storage space. Mostly junk they really don't need.

I live in an apartment without a lot of storage space and IF they were only $20/month, I'd store a lot of my old books and old stuff from my childhood that I want to keep but really don't have room for. But we can't afford the $50-$75/month it would cost to store them here so we have our closets stacked to the brim, you can hardly get into them to get anything out, without a domino effect, things falling everywhere... it's a real drag...