Why and How Should You Use Self Storage

Posted on 10/09/2016

Storage units are a peculiar thing. One might find them useful as their purpose should be, you store things there that you don’t currently need, or you store something temporarily until you are in a better position to use it. One might use them as temporary storage while moving house, to ease up on the man and van and save money with the relocation. And then there is the one who simply might use them for things which he or she currently considers unneeded and stores them until the sentimental value passes and it’s time for their disposal. And this is where the storage draws a line between being a useful thing and an expensive delay before you downsize.

The Practical Side

Hiring a storage unit, naturally, costs money. And if you are spending money on a container, you either want to immediately drop it out, as is the case with skips, or you want to use it practically by keeping there something you will eventually use again – otherwise, what is the point, right? The storage is the extra room to your house. The additional cellar and the added attic where all the clutter that currently throngs your rooms can find a home until you either get a bigger home, or you start exchanging between decorations or useful items. It is the preferable use of the storage – one that will assure mutual satisfaction between yourself and the moving company that provides it. You get useful storage space and they get a nice rent fee – everybody wins.

The Tragic Side

But then there is the period of wait that gets longer and longer, and eventually becomes too long. At a certain point, some people only remember they have a storage unit because the company still takes their rent fees from the credit card account. And then, long after that, there is the moment where a certain customer stands in front of his or her rented space and can think nothing besides ‘rubbish’. This is the time where the owner stands in front of the age-old decoration and thinks how old this is and how it no longer has any place in the house. This is when you realise that everything here has outlived its time and for the past few months you have been doing nothing but delaying the inevitable disposal of every single item in this storage. The storage unit has basically become a graveyard of memories – ones you didn’t want access to when you put them here, and ones you don’t access to even now, when you have actually remembered what you are keeping here.

The Solution

If you are keeping things in a storage facility because of the latter, then do yourself a favour: be merciless. Simply throw any item away as soon as you decide that you don’t want it in the house at this moment. Or gift it away, or donate it, or even get some money by selling it – people will buy the craziest things on eBay. Just make sure you are not spending money on something you will never use again. If you are using storage, use it when in transition or use it to hide something – at least be practical about it.

And there you go – when you need storage, know that you need it for a reason. Don’t postpone hard choices, make them early and that way you will not have to wait to see the consequences because there will be none. Be smart when organising your things and looking for space – the more proactive you are about something, the less it will cost you.