When a family wants or needs to be out of town for an extended time, there is always the question of how to best protect the special belongings in their home while they are away. The thought of losing anything due to theft, vandalism, or even natural disasters while they are away can be very upsetting. Depending on the neighbors to keep an eye on the house does not always work because there are times when the neighbors might be away from their own home due to work, school, or other things happening in their own lives.In order to assure the best protection for their belongings, the storage facility should be checked to see what type of security they offer items that are stored on the property. Usually, there is either strong fencing or a wall surrounding the entire property so that access is denied to anyone that is not an employee, a renter, or a potential renter of storage space. In addition, the only access to the property is usually through a gate that is kept locked at all times. Depending on the facility, the gate might be opened by entering a code on a keypad or swiping a card on the mechanism. Other security measures include cameras and outdoor lights and either periodic guard patrols or a manager that actually resides on the premises.
The family should give several numbers where they can be reached and request that the manager of the storage facility call them if there is any type of emergency involving their storage unit. Most facilities have this in their policies, but they might only have the home phone number in the rental contract and calling that number to inform the family of an emergency involving the storage unit would not be helpful in this situation.
