All people have possessions for business and pleasure, ranging from furniture to a car to sports goods to clothing, and in some cases, a person or a small business owner might not have enough room at their home or place of business to store everything. This can be a problem, since a person would not want to throw away their excess materials, so what can be done? The solution is the large industry of self storage units, and a self storage facility may meet all of a homeowner’s or a business owner’s storage needs. If a person has too much inventory or other items, a personal storage space can be the solution, and storage facilities can also hold items for months at a time until they are needed, such as seasonal business items for smaller businesses. Some merchandise or store decorations are only relevant during certain times of the year, such as Halloween items, Christmas items, or summer pool and beach items, and seasonal business items will take up space and look out of place on the premises. So, seasonal business items can instead be put into self storage. How can a person take advantage of this, and how big is that industry, anyway?
The Business of Storage
Seasonal business items, sports gear, an extra couch, or even a car can be placed at a self storage site for convenience and security (the actual level of security will vary from one site to another). How common is this? Very. One out of every 10 Americans makes use of offsite storage for seasonal business items and more, and across the United States, nearly 50,000 different storage units can be found. In fact, these places outnumber Starbucks five to one, and there are plenty of Americans who need that space. In some cases, households have more cars than their garage can hold. Some 25% of households with a two-car garage don’t even have room for parking a car inside, and 32% of homes have room for just one car. But a homeowner would not want to just sell an excess car or pickup truck. Instead, they can drive it to a self storage site and keep it there on the parking lot. The same is true for RVs and even boats on their trailers. And with some nine million households owning an RV (according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association), and 12.7 million American households owning a boat, it’s clear that a storage solution is needed.
Find the Site
Given how many self storage sites are out there, a person many have multiple options within their county for finding a self storage location that they would want to rent. A person who needs somewhere to put their boat or sports goods may get a recommendation from a friend, but if not, they can start an online search, with queries such as “Storage units near Dallas TX” or “self storage sites in Los Angeles CA” to find nearby results and their addresses. A person may not want to use a self storage site that is very far away, however, if they plan to visit it often, so this may be a factor as well.
A person can check out a self storage site in person and determine if it fits their needs. Here, the price of renting a unit is just one factor. The indoor units should also have enough physical room for the items being stored, and the potential renter can inquire about square or cubit footage within indoor units, just to be sure. The customer can also inquire about security, which will vary from site to site. Common security features may include a tall fence around the parking lot to keep thieves away from parked cars and RVs, and the indoor units should have tough metal doors and a secure keypad that requires the correct entry to open the doors. Other attractive security features may include high brick walls to keep burglars away, as well as security cameras or even security guards who will patrol the premises in person. The site should also be well lit at night so that intruders are easier to spot.
