Self Storage News

Although it is not something that they prefer to do, sometimes self storage facilities find that they need to hold auctions. The things that are placed up for auction are the contents of self storage units that have become delinquent in the payment of their rental fees. The self storage facility staff takes many measures to be sure that the owners of the contents have ample opportunity to pay their fees before their belongings are sold to cover the payment.

The rental fee of a self storage unit is usually due on a monthly basis on or about the same date that the unit was originally rented. For example, if the paper work was completed and the first payment was made on the fifth of March, then the rent for the unit would be due on the fifth day of every month thereafter. All of this information is in the copy of paper work that is given to the customer. To assist the customers in remembering to make their payments on time, the storage facility staff usually sends out reminder notices a few days prior to the due date.

When a home has been lived in for a while, the family often makes the decision that it is due for some changes. This can either be due to the wear and tear that has occurred or simply because they want something new in their surroundings. These changes could be repainting the walls the same or a different color, or putting in new flooring such as wall to wall carpeting or wood flooring. No matter what the redecoration plans may be, the furniture that occupies the rooms will most likely be in the way. Of course, the furniture can be moved from space to space within the house in order to redecorate and also to protect the furniture during the redecorating, but this can take up a lot of time. The redecoration process might end up being extended past the time when the family needs it completed. Temporarily placing the furniture in a self storage unit will get it completely out of harm's way and allow the family ample space to quickly and easily complete the redecorations that they want to do.

Of course, simply piling everything into a moving truck and plunking it in the self storage unit sounds easy enough, but it is also likely to cause damage to some of the furniture pieces or even injury to one of the family members. Even though the storage time will be short, care needs to be taken to be sure that the pieces of furniture are properly handled and put in the storage unit in such a way that they do not get damaged or fall and hurt someone. Any items that are fragile should be wrapped to protect them. This is especially true of things like large wall decorations that can easily bend or break.

Being involved in some type of sport or enjoying outdoor physical activities is a great way to stay in shape and have lots of fun with friends and family. Unfortunately, when a family has several members that participate in the same or different activities, the house can accumulate quite a bit of large or bulky pieces of equipment, such as surfboards. These items are necessary to participate in the sports or enjoy the outdoor activities, but they can soon start to dominate the living space and cause the home to look cluttered. A perfect solution for this is to rent a self storage unit to keep all of it in one place.

Self storage facilities are quite common and one can usually be found conveniently located within a short distance of the family's home. With most of the facilities having long daily hours, the family can stop by nearly anytime to pick up the things that are needed for the events of the day and return everything before going home. All of the items will be safe and secure in the self storage unit because the facility is protected by a surrounding fence or wall and the only access to the premises is through a gate that is opened with a key code. In addition, the family's individual self storage unit is locked and they are the only ones that can access the contents.

Having a home in a region that has extreme differences in its seasonal temperatures and levels of precipitation can cause a family to accumulate quite a few different outdoor tools and pieces of equipment that are meant to only be used during a few months of each year. For example, things such as lawnmowers and bikes are of little use when there is constant snow on the ground and things such as snow shovels and sleds are purposeless in the warm summer months. Rather than having all of these things stored somewhere in or around the home, a self storage unit can be used for the items that will not be used for the current season. As the seasons change, the items in the self storage unit can be exchanged with those that were left out.

The self storage units come in all sizes and some can even accommodate a large riding mower as well as all of the other warm season tools and entertaining equipment that a family may have scattered around the house. Of course, if a riding mower or other fuel powered tool or piece of equipment is to be placed in a self storage unit, the manager of the storage facility will request that the fuel be drained and stored off of their premises in order to decrease the probability of a fire spreading throughout the entire facility. For the same reason, propane tanks on outdoor grills need to be removed before the grill can be placed in the storage unit.

For those that celebrate holidays with a lot of decorations inside and outside their home, there may not be space in the home to keep everything during the time of year when it is not being used. Placing all of the holiday decorations in a self storage unit will keep them all in one place and free up the space in the home for items that need to be accessed on a more frequent basis.

It is important that all of the holiday decorations be stored in sturdy cardboard boxes or plastic storage tubs so that there is less chance of everything falling out of the bottom of the box when it is picked up. The cardboard boxes or plastic tubs should be plainly labeled so that the family knows where to find each item instead of rummaging through each container to find a certain decoration. If the plastic tubs are transparent, instead of writing on the tubs, an inventory list can be packed in the tub with the writing facing outward so that it can be easily read without opening the tub.

Placing sets of china dinnerware, glassware, and other fragile items in a self storage unit requires special packing techniques. If items like these are not properly packed, they could end up being just a box of broken pieces when they are removed from the storage unit.

Simply wrapping them and putting them in boxes is not enough to protect them. The best thing to do is purchase a special packing kit. These kits are usually available in the office of self storage facilities. There are several types of materials in one of these kits and all of them are important for protecting the dishes, glassware, or other fragile items such as holiday ornaments. These materials often include a roll of bubble wrap, special foam sheets to put between stacked plates, clean sheets of paper for wrapping, and cardboard cell dividers that fit into the cardboard boxes referred to as dish barrels. These cardboard boxes are sturdy and will not fall apart while the items are in storage so there is no fear of the contents crashing to the ground when the boxes are moved. 

Although no one ever wants to think about the possibility of it happening to them, things like floods, fires, tornadoes, and other disasters can occur in an instant and damage or destroy the family's home to the point that they can not live there either temporarily or ever again. Often there are relatives that will take in the family or relief shelters in place for the victims of disasters that strike large areas of homes, but these people might also need a place to put any of their possessions that they can salvage from their home. Placing their possessions in a self storage unit is the ideal solution.

By placing all of their possessions in a self storage unit until the home can be repaired or a new home found, the family can be comforted in knowing that their remaining belongings are safe from theft or further damage from the weather. This is especially important for items that have a high sentimental value such as old photo albums or special items that have been passed down from previous generations.

Anyone that is very into collecting memorabilia soon realizes that their living space seems to be shrinking as their collection grows. Mounting shelving for the collection is not always a feasible solution or it is a solution that may not be affective for very long if the collection is rapidly growing. Instead of moving to a larger home or paring down their prized collection, they can rent a self storage unit to keep a large portion of their collection so that their home is not overrun by the memorabilia.

Renting a self storage unit is quick and easy. With many locations having resident managers and long daily hours, the collector can stop in at their own convenience to talk to someone about renting a storage unit. Some self storage facilities even offer the convenience of using their web site to choose the proper unit size and pay the monthly rental fee. This can be quite useful for collectors that travel often.

There are many types of businesses that are actually only open during certain times of the year. These seasonal businesses include retail stores that sell only Halloween costumes and supplies as well as businesses that offer a service such as helping customers file their tax returns. Rather than keep everything in their store front business location during their off season, they will often move everything into a self storage unit until it is time to open up their business to the public again.

For the seasonal businesses that sell products, there can be a lot of stock to move into a storage unit at the end of their season. Often they will have a clearance sale to reduce their stock close to the end of their season or right after the season ends. An example of this is a Halloween supply store having their clearance sale during the first week of November. Many customers look forward to this sale and stock up on what they might need the following year. The clearance sale helps the business by reducing the amount of storage space they will need and limiting the amount of paid labor for moving everything into the self storage unit.

There are many types of businesses that people choose to go into in order to be self-employed. A problem that often occurs for these people is that the amount of supplies and equipment necessary to run their business often outgrows the small space that they had set aside in their home when they started the business. Instead of having the business supplies take over much of their living space, renting a storefront business location, or moving to a larger home to accommodate everything, they often decide to place a portion of their business supplies into a nearby self storage unit. This is an ideal solution because the self storage facilities allow room for the business to grow. There is always the possibility to get a larger storage unit as the person's self employed business needs more space.

All sorts of business supplies can be kept in a self storage unit. For those people that are in the business of selling things that they make, the self storage unit can be used for unsold items, supplies for making new items and any type of documents that the person keeps for the business. Of course, if any of these things are susceptible to damage from extreme temperatures and humid conditions or if the person will be spending a lot of their time in the storage unit, then it is best to find a self storage facility that offers units with a climate that is controlled. This means that the temperature and humidity level are kept nearly constant throughout the year. Depending on what region the person lives in, just heat or just air conditioning may be used to control the climate, but regions that have temperatures below freezing and above ninety degrees will have both.