Do you have a storage unit?

[pacergal]

I live in the country on 10 acres of land. No need to pay anyone to store my things.

However, I really think more of y'all should consider renting storage units. Preferably from NSA (National Storage), or Cube Smart. That way my Dividends will increase faster and I can have a better retirement .

BTW, I'm kind of new here. Been reading the posts occasionally for several years, Now I've decided to register so I can post if I ever feel like it.

Welcome to the Forum! Great place to be.
Please consider posting a new introduction in the "Hi, I am" forum.

 

[Fermion]

We do have a pole barn, fully enclosed with concrete floor. We had this built right at the beginning of COVID on our 30 acres of mountain property. The building is 30x40 with a 12x40 open lean to section on one side and cost us $30,000 for the builders. Right after that prices went up 2x or more but probably have dropped down some. It is amazing how fast we filled it up considering we had all our worldly stuff in a RV in 2017. Most of the stuff is tools and excess supplies from our house build (which we did do ourselves unlike this pole barn...2 weeks for them to build, 4 years for us).

 

[disneysteve]

Related to the whole storage topic, I have to laugh when people have $1K (or less) worth of stuff filling up their garage, and then $100K of vehicles sitting outside.

We have never parked a car in a garage. Growing up in Philly the garage was too small for a 1970s sedan. Since moving to NJ we never have either. Around here garages are primarily for storage. I think there are only a handful of houses on our street that use their garage for a car.

We also had a car spontaneously combust in our driveway. Had it been in the garage we would have lost our house. So no garage use here ever.

 

[FlaMariner]

Related to the whole storage topic, I have to laugh when people have $1K (or less) worth of stuff filling up their garage, and then $100K of vehicles sitting outside.

+1

This one always amazes me.....I seriously think we may be the only folks in our neighborhood who use the garage to park their car.........

 

[disneysteve]

I seriously think we may be the only folks in our neighborhood who use the garage to park their car.........

It's definitely not common practice, at least not around here. Several homes in our neighborhood went so far as to close off the garage entirely and make it a regular part of the house.

 

[athena53]

It's definitely not common practice, at least not around here. Several homes in our neighborhood went so far as to close off the garage entirely and make it a regular part of the house.

Someone did that in my neighborhood of NJ- a pretty expensive suburb (Wyckoff) in Bergen County. Wonder what it did to the resale value.

 

[aja8888]

It's definitely not common practice, at least not around here. Several homes in our neighborhood went so far as to close off the garage entirely and make it a regular part of the house.

Most HOA's are against turning a garage into an office, shop, or living space around here. I know that's crazy, but it is what it is.

 

[disneysteve]

Most HOA's are against turning a garage into an office, shop, or living space around here. I know that's crazy, but it is what it is.

Thankfully we live in a non-HOA neighborhood. That was at the top of our list of requirements when we bought our house.

 

[mountainsoft]

Negative. And we park both of our cars in the garage. Unlike many of our neighbors who have turned theirs into a storage unit.

Our two car garage is my workshop. It never sees a car unless I'm working on one of them. I do store my wooden utility trailer in the garage though to keep it out of the weather. We have a large 16'x28' storage attic above the garage. It's mostly just holiday decorations, suitcases, some camping stuff, and random extra building supplies.

 

[Sue J]

We’ve never had a storage unit, but DHs parents did. In 1979 they moved from a large colonial house in the Cleveland suburbs to a new house in Denver, CO. DH and I were already married and living in a tiny apartment so we couldn’t store anything for them. They put a lot of old family hand me down furniture in the storage unit. Things that they didn’t need in the new house in Denver but that they could not get rid of. The storage unit was not near us and we never went there for anything.

After about 4 or 5 years they asked DH to empty it and he sent some things to them in Colorado. His brother came in from NJ for some of the family treasures. I don't remember if we took anything.

We have an attached 2 car garage with a large storage area above it. We put a door at the end of the upstairs hallway for easy access to the attic above the garage. Plenty of storage there.

Our cars always have a place in the garage. Many of our neighbors park outside because their garage is full of important stuff.

 

[RunningBum]

Most HOA's are against turning a garage into an office, shop, or living space around here. I know that's crazy, but it is what it is.

Last time I bought a house, around 2004, I saw one I liked but the guy next door was using his power saw in his garage. I forget why but something told me he'd be out there a lot. I passed.

Office can be an issue if you're business is something that brings a lot of people to your office. Traffic and parking issues.

Living space, I saw plenty of, but the only knock against that is that people can't park in their garage. Some don't like the car in driveway look but as noted here, people are even more likely to use the garage as storage so that's going to happen anyway.

 

[Out of Steam]

We've had a storage unit to reduce clutter in a house to show it for sale, but never for more than 6 months or so.

 

[Out of Steam]

Living space, I saw plenty of, but the only knock against that is that people can't park in their garage. Some don't like the car in driveway look but as noted here, people are even more likely to use the garage as storage so that's going to happen anyway.

We're not under any HOA restrictions, but one of my current projects is to empty our detached garage enough to easily store both cars in it. Right now, we can put one car inside quickly, but need to transfer things to the screened patio to be able to put both inside. That process takes about 30 minutes, and I've done it several times when hail was expected.

 

[athena53]

Our cars always have a place in the garage. Many of our neighbors park outside because their garage is full of important stuff.

I don't get that at all. In my area people are caught on camera all the time pulling up to driveways and checking cars with a flashlight and testing whether or not they're locked. Reports are that the police don't/can't do much. To be practical, I suppose by the time they got there the thieves would be gone, anyway.

 

[brett]

SIL and husband had a double garage full of junk. Cold, snowy north. Never once in ten plus years did they park in the garage. They also had a large storage locker full of important items. Those important items went into to the dump eleven years later when they moved.

Our approach....if something makes it into our double garage (that we do use for our vehicles) for storage it is one step away from the recycle bin or the dump.

We learned our lesson the hard way after moving downsizing our 20 plus year residence.

 

[Out of Steam]

Someone did that in my neighborhood of NJ- a pretty expensive suburb (Wyckoff) in Bergen County. Wonder what it did to the resale value.

The small single-car attached garages of most houses built in the urban Northeast and mid-Atlantic US before the 1980s aren't very practical places to store a car. Many were converted to living space in our former neighborhood in Maryland.

 

[RunningBum]

I don't get that at all. In my area people are caught on camera all the time pulling up to driveways and checking cars with a flashlight and testing whether or not they're locked. Reports are that the police don't/can't do much. To be practical, I suppose by the time they got there the thieves would be gone, anyway.

In my area, it's bears that come check cars to see if they are locked! We've had a bunch of car break-ins by bears looking for food. Mostly it's visitors who ignore the sign at the resort entrance warning them to lock their cars. I don't even want bear prints on my cars, so they stay in the garage. Which isn't 100% safe. Two years ago I had a garage window cracked for ventilation and a large bear pulled it all the way open. I came out and it was considering hopping in so I banged on a pot to get it to leave, in a huff.

 

[CaliKid]

The bane of my existence! I hate having a storage unit! It's small (maybe 5 x 10), is climate controlled (important here in the desert), but has doubled in cost in two years! Now up to $240/month to store a bunch of old photos, a few family heirlooms we just "can't get rid of," and a few other items of junk. We could squeeze them into our house but we don't have a lot of extra room unfortunately. I hate wasting money and I hate keeping crap! Ok, it's not all crap as the photos are important. May be time to do more scanning!

 

[Sojourner]

In my area people are caught on camera all the time pulling up to driveways and checking cars with a flashlight and testing whether or not they're locked. Reports are that the police don't/can't do much. To be practical, I suppose by the time they got there the thieves would be gone, anyway.

We've had this happen several times over the years here in our "otherwise quite safe" neighborhood. Doorbell cameras have caught roving groups of thieves walking openly and brazenly from driveway to driveway in the middle of the night, quietly testing the doors of all cars parked outside. Unlocked doors are opened, and whatever valuables are easily accessible on seats, dashboards, and in glove boxes are grabbed. They methodically go from house to house around the entire neighborhood over the course of about two hours. AFAIK, no one has ever been caught and no stolen property has ever been recovered, despite extensive doorbell camera footage given to the police.

 

[Sojourner]

Ok, it's not all crap as the photos are important. May be time to do more scanning!

Absolutely! Scanning photos has never been easier or cheaper than it is nowadays, and even if you bought some top-of-the-line equipment to help you scan everything, you'll still end up spending less than two months of storage unit rent.

 

[Golden Mean]

Most HOA's are against turning a garage into an office, shop, or living space around here. I know that's crazy, but it is what it is.

I'd prefer an HOA that restricts parking on the street. I've heard of them but haven't seen one. All of my neighbors park on the street and I can't see anything when backing out of the driveway.

Think there are a few (in FL?) that require cars to be in the garage by evening. Heaven...

 

[Jerry1]

I keep one car in the garage. My truck would fit in the garage, but it would be very tight. Mainly, we need the garage for storage because we don't have a basement. My previous house had a basement and a three car garage. We simply haven't downsized as much as this house requires so the garage is still half for storage and my work area, the other half for a car. Good thing is that there's plenty of room to park and swing the doors open given that it's the only car in a two car garage. I should probably build another shed for the Christmas decorations which make up a significant portion of what is in the garage. Still, it really doesn't matter unless/until I get rid of my truck and get a smaller vehicle. The shed I do have is comfortably full including my riding mower and our garden equipment and pool supplies/furniture. I don't leave anything outdoors in the winter, except my truck and I make sure to never leave any valuables in the truck though, the area I live in isn't really conducive to people roaming around looking into cars.

 

[Koolau]

I guess we do sorta have a storage unit. Our building provides every apartment with a 4 X 4 X 5 storage locker. I'd never keep anything of value in it since it's not terribly secure.

We keep a couple of lawn chairs, old paint, larger tools and DW's old rehab stuff (walker, commode, shower chair, etc.) plus some other stuff we don't want to throw away. It's a bit inconvenient but at least it's on site. No need to drive to it.

Lots of people also store stuff in the aisles (no security - but who's gonna steal a broken bike?) Every year, the Res Mgr. threatens to throw out all the stuff in the aisles, but he never does.

 

[aja8888]

I guess we do sorta have a storage unit. Our building provides every apartment with a 4 X 4 X 5 storage locker. I'd never keep anything of value in it since it's not terribly secure.

We keep a couple of lawn chairs, old paint, larger tools and DW's old rehab stuff (walker, commode, shower chair, etc.) plus some other stuff we don't want to throw away. It's a bit inconvenient but at least it's on site. No need to drive to it.

Lots of people also store stuff in the aisles (no security - but who's gonna steal a broken bike?) Every year, the Res Mgr. threatens to throw out all the stuff in the aisles, but he never does.

Interesting...the stuff in the aisles could be a hazard if all ever had to flee in the event of a fire, etc.

 

[Koolau]

Interesting...the stuff in the aisles could be a hazard if all ever had to flee in the event of a fire, etc.

It's a separate room, not really connecting anything (it's co-located with the shop building for the Condo bldg - under the parking structure).

I don't think I've ever been in there with another person (other than DW). I do have to have one of the "guys" open it for me each time which is occasionally a bit of a pain.

Yeah, I was a "safety guy" in my "spare time" at Megacorp. I would "condemn" the storage area, but I've seen a lot worse.