Working in the storage industry over 10 years I saw many interesting things. Most interesting were the customers who rented for 10, 15 years only to come in and throw away up to 100% of its contents into the dumpster. Wow
I was selling at my house and moving into a small apartment before buying a bigger house. I almost got a large storage unit but we decided instead to clear everything out that would not fit into the small apartment. It was such a great decision
When my mom passed away, she left a storage unit behind. Knowing that it was just full of old junk, I didn't even contact the storage facility, I just let it go to auction. She was paying $150/month to store maybe $50 worth of junk.
My daughter bought a house from a guy who rented out storage units. When talking with him I asked if they were profitable, he said yes around. $70,000. I said $70k a year wasn’t bad, he said that’s $70,000 a month, $3,000 in the sales of locks. He also said if he built 500 units on his side of the street and I built 500 on my side we both would be full.
While trucks and SUVs are more popular than ever, new home garages are smaller than they've ever been. If you want to park your car in the garage, you don't have much room for anything else. If you want to park two cars... Good Luck! I have a house with no garage at all. There's off-street parking, but no garage. We do have a 12x14 shed for household storage space, and I have two 10x30 storage units nearby. I use one of them for woodworking and general workshop space, and the other one currently contains a classic Jeep I'm restoring. What would be really nice is a facility with medium-sized workshop spaces with climate control, good lighting, and electrical service.
I live in a small studio apartment and I share a storage space with a friend. My part of the space is about 8' x 5'and contains all my artwork, LPs and 45s, my stereo, books and letters I do go and visit my stuff but not often enough. I really miss everything, particularly my artwork. I wish I had another closet and then everything would fit in my apartment.
You didn't mention the periodic price increases-- they rent units at a "teaser" rate, and then raise the price every year, so long-term storage gets very expensive unless you move your stuff to a different unit to reset the price (which is a hassle, so people don't want to do it). An employee once told me that the average stay is about three years.
I had to clean out a unit that had human remains. My supervisor tried to have me toss them. I'm not religious or spiritual but theres no way I was gonna willingly take on that bad juju, absolutely not.
Consider this - there are about 6.3 sq. ft. of self storage space for each person in the US. A little of 2' x 3' for everyone. By 8' high that is a lot of space. I am nearly 70 and throughout my life I have had such storage areas for a lot of years. Some of it was for a business where we legitimately needed short term storage. The bit where they talk about renting storage as an extension of your apartment - for the sea kayak and so forth. Sure, that probably happens. But it's a triple sigma renter. A lot of renters may think that's what they are doing, say that's what they are doing, but it's rare. The reality I have experienced is the total cost of storage rental never exceeded the replacement value of the stuff stored. You could rent a sea kayak every time you use it for a lot less that the total you'll pay. The one you buy will be better. And that's the thing - do you really want to pay that price? The thing is you can't see this when you start. The story begins exactly that way, a person in the throws of a divorce, a death, some other catastrophe. It's a terrible time to be making long term decisions and just stashing the stuff is a valid option. The problem comes after a few months. The initial trauma is over but you're not ready to fully deal with feelings yet. The monthly storage bill, if you even see it (there's good reasons to have it on auto-draft...), isn't _that_ big. Next month. And so on. Yeah, the stuff isn't worth what I've paid to store it but I have it! Maybe next week I'll... This is really the insidious thing about these places. That 'stuff' is laden with emotional freight. The value never was empirical - it's emotional. And that is so much harder to recognize at the start than after a long time. The fallacy of sunk costs gets multiplied by guilt, grief, fear and loss. The incredible success of the self storage industry is ironic perhaps. Listening to the industry reps talk about it reminds me of cigarette executives speaking 40 years ago. I'm not suggesting self storage is carcinogenic, but there is an element of denial that is fundamental to both. I think the industry knows it and plays off of it in subtle ways.
The proliference of self-storage units are a clear indictment of our current culture. Of course some people might need one but the fact that there are so many relatives to the size of the population is simply shocking. And unless you're somebody who just used one temporarily as you were changing homes, you could probably throw away everything in your storage unit and I wouldn't affect your life. Key word is "probably." There is no simple. Eventually the cost of the storage unit is far more than the value of the stuff in it.
I lived next to a storage place in the late 80s. Someone had a mining company and stored their TNT in one of the units. Of course they went bankrupt and the stuff sat there sweating out the nitroglycerin. When they found it, it had to be burned in place after they evacuated us.
You are every episode is good for me.Because I study English from the site and TH-cam pocast. .Every serious including various new industrial vocabulary.!!
I dated a woman a few years ago who told me a story. She had gone through a divorce during which the family home was sold and its contents put in storage. She 'assumed' the husband was paying the monthly rent. He was not. Then he died suddenly. During all this turmoil the storage facility foreclosed and sold the contents to the highest bidder, probably a few hundred dollars. During the marriage she and her husband had traveled the world due to his work. Thus, the contents of the storage unit included Persian rugs, valuable furniture, quality lamps, etc. It was a large collection, basically enough to furnish a house. She lost it all.
I was expecting the economics to be about how the renters would be better off disposing of their belongings and buying new stuff when needed rather than storing it. (I understand some stuff has sentimental value and sometimes a truly short term rental makes sense.)
I can remember being in the local bike shop in Longmont, CO ca. 1978 and overhearing another local businessman telling the shop owner about building storage units and what a good business this was. This was a new concept back then. Just some steel buildings and no on-site management back then. Or security. It's quite a racket. Per square foot rents as high as a house without any of the headaches,. And then the renter MUST have insurance, which BTW, only the owner can provide. THAT is it's own racket since the payout over time approaches zero, if not that. And I'll bet it has plenty of exemptions. Acts of God, etc.
Have you noticed that the actual size of the unit is always about 10% less than advertised? A “5x8” is measured at 4’6” by 7’6”. Isn’t that fraudulent advertising?
Working in the storage industry over 10 years I saw many interesting things. Most interesting were the customers who rented for 10, 15 years only to come in and throw away up to 100% of its contents into the dumpster. Wow
I thought that was the norm. All these stories about people moving out in a year just sounds way too fantastic.
This is exactly why everything is a subscription now.
I was selling at my house and moving into a small apartment before buying a bigger house. I almost got a large storage unit but we decided instead to clear everything out that would not fit into the small apartment. It was such a great decision
I like the consultant that refers to a triangular piece of property, and then goes on to describe what's on each of the four sides!
When my mom passed away, she left a storage unit behind. Knowing that it was just full of old junk, I didn't even contact the storage facility, I just let it go to auction. She was paying $150/month to store maybe $50 worth of junk.
My daughter bought a house from a guy who rented out storage units. When talking with him I asked if they were profitable, he said yes around. $70,000. I said $70k a year wasn’t bad, he said that’s $70,000 a month, $3,000 in the sales of locks. He also said if he built 500 units on his side of the street and I built 500 on my side we both would be full.
$70k / month revenue?
While trucks and SUVs are more popular than ever, new home garages are smaller than they've ever been. If you want to park your car in the garage, you don't have much room for anything else. If you want to park two cars... Good Luck!
I have a house with no garage at all. There's off-street parking, but no garage. We do have a 12x14 shed for household storage space, and I have two 10x30 storage units nearby. I use one of them for woodworking and general workshop space, and the other one currently contains a classic Jeep I'm restoring.
What would be really nice is a facility with medium-sized workshop spaces with climate control, good lighting, and electrical service.
I live in a small studio apartment and I share a storage space with a friend. My part of the space is about 8' x 5'and contains all my artwork, LPs and 45s, my stereo, books and letters I do go and visit my stuff but not often enough. I really miss everything, particularly my artwork. I wish I had another closet and then everything would fit in my apartment.
@@Iwishiwasanoscarmeyerweiner ROTFLMFAO!!!!!
There's definitely a shift from holding onto memories to just pure functionality.
You didn't mention the periodic price increases-- they rent units at a "teaser" rate, and then raise the price every year, so long-term storage gets very expensive unless you move your stuff to a different unit to reset the price (which is a hassle, so people don't want to do it). An employee once told me that the average stay is about three years.
Some people run a business from a storage facility such as an online seller.
I had to clean out a unit that had human remains. My supervisor tried to have me toss them. I'm not religious or spiritual but theres no way I was gonna willingly take on that bad juju, absolutely not.
Consider this - there are about 6.3 sq. ft. of self storage space for each person in the US. A little of 2' x 3' for everyone. By 8' high that is a lot of space.
I am nearly 70 and throughout my life I have had such storage areas for a lot of years. Some of it was for a business where we legitimately needed short term storage. The bit where they talk about renting storage as an extension of your apartment - for the sea kayak and so forth. Sure, that probably happens. But it's a triple sigma renter. A lot of renters may think that's what they are doing, say that's what they are doing, but it's rare. The reality I have experienced is the total cost of storage rental never exceeded the replacement value of the stuff stored. You could rent a sea kayak every time you use it for a lot less that the total you'll pay. The one you buy will be better. And that's the thing - do you really want to pay that price?
The thing is you can't see this when you start. The story begins exactly that way, a person in the throws of a divorce, a death, some other catastrophe. It's a terrible time to be making long term decisions and just stashing the stuff is a valid option. The problem comes after a few months. The initial trauma is over but you're not ready to fully deal with feelings yet. The monthly storage bill, if you even see it (there's good reasons to have it on auto-draft...), isn't _that_ big. Next month. And so on. Yeah, the stuff isn't worth what I've paid to store it but I have it! Maybe next week I'll...
This is really the insidious thing about these places. That 'stuff' is laden with emotional freight. The value never was empirical - it's emotional. And that is so much harder to recognize at the start than after a long time. The fallacy of sunk costs gets multiplied by guilt, grief, fear and loss.
The incredible success of the self storage industry is ironic perhaps. Listening to the industry reps talk about it reminds me of cigarette executives speaking 40 years ago. I'm not suggesting self storage is carcinogenic, but there is an element of denial that is fundamental to both. I think the industry knows it and plays off of it in subtle ways.
This is the most articulate and logical TH-cam comment I’ve read in many years
The proliference of self-storage units are a clear indictment of our current culture.
Of course some people might need one but the fact that there are so many relatives to the size of the population is simply shocking.
And unless you're somebody who just used one temporarily as you were changing homes, you could probably throw away everything in your storage unit and I wouldn't affect your life. Key word is "probably."
There is no simple. Eventually the cost of the storage unit is far more than the value of the stuff in it.
Where we live in Texas, there are no basements and attics are typically full of HVAC. Storage units abound.
In our area we have many businesses that store their equipment and go there daily to get tools. Mainly plumbers, landscapers, construction.
I lived next to a storage place in the late 80s. Someone had a mining company and stored their TNT in one of the units. Of course they went bankrupt and the stuff sat there sweating out the nitroglycerin. When they found it, it had to be burned in place after they evacuated us.
You are every episode is good for me.Because I study English from the site and TH-cam pocast. .Every serious including various new industrial vocabulary.!!
I dated a woman a few years ago who told me a story. She had gone through a divorce during which the family home was sold and its contents put in storage. She 'assumed' the husband was paying the monthly rent. He was not. Then he died suddenly. During all this turmoil the storage facility foreclosed and sold the contents to the highest bidder, probably a few hundred dollars. During the marriage she and her husband had traveled the world due to his work. Thus, the contents of the storage unit included Persian rugs, valuable furniture, quality lamps, etc. It was a large collection, basically enough to furnish a house. She lost it all.
The thing that puts me off putting stuff into storage is the fear that they do not take good care to keep people from stealing or damaging stuff.
I was expecting the economics to be about how the renters would be better off disposing of their belongings and buying new stuff when needed rather than storing it. (I understand some stuff has sentimental value and sometimes a truly short term rental makes sense.)
I can remember being in the local bike shop in Longmont, CO ca. 1978 and overhearing another local businessman telling the shop owner about building storage units and what a good business this was. This was a new concept back then. Just some steel buildings and no on-site management back then. Or security.
It's quite a racket. Per square foot rents as high as a house without any of the headaches,. And then the renter MUST have insurance, which BTW, only the owner can provide. THAT is it's own racket since the payout over time approaches zero, if not that. And I'll bet it has plenty of exemptions. Acts of God, etc.
It's soooooo much better to get rid of all your stuff instead
Completely agree. An abundance of stuff is an expensive burden. Paying to store things you aren't using is just bad financial management.
They are good if you are moving and need a place to keep your stuff for a month or two.
Have you noticed that the actual size of the unit is always about 10% less than advertised? A “5x8” is measured at 4’6” by 7’6”. Isn’t that fraudulent advertising?