I’m storing the inability to find affordable housing.

Beanie Baby storage until we time the market juuust right. Sell, Mortimer! Sell!

I work at a storage place and last week I found out one of our customers got his unit to store his elderly mother's things but hadnt checked what she packed. When he went back the unit stunk and the boxes were full of random stuff including packages of raw meat. The point of this story? A lot of people are storing random crap

Okay cool so I’m not the only one noticing this

Looking at you Epping.

Storage units must be the easiest way to make money.

It's amazing how much money people pay to store shit they want so much that they can't even make room for it.

My grandmother has spent like $300 a month on a storage unit full of useless crap for about 20 years. I feel like that is the target demographic

The business is really predatory and the buildings are like big grey tumors popping up all over the place

Inherited shit that everyone in the family thought would be valuable. None of it is, and my wife and I have vowed to not do this to our kids.

When I lived in apartments I had to rent one to store my bike, snowboard gear, racks for my truck, and my 17' sea kayak, it sucked because the cost of a year of a unit was equal to buying a new kayak each season. Glad I have a house w/a garage now.

When I would go to get my kayak to go paddling, I'd see people's units open with just tons of shit: particle board furniture, bags and bags of baby clothes, literally garbage.

And yes, I held on to stupid shit too because I had the space in the storage unit, but then I'd have to lug that crap to the next place I lived (and to a new storage unit). Now I'm all about downsizing to the bare essentials, but it's a struggle to get rid of some things because "they're already paid for, and I might use them again some time". I have to tell that voice in my head to fuck off, hahaha.

My husband has one, because I made him get it. He's in construction and was storing tools/scaffolding/ladders at our house. It started out just between jobs, but then piled up over the years. At one point we had about 20 ladders, scaffolding and 4 wheelbarrows of all sizes scattered around our garage, we couldn't even park the cars, so I made him get a storage space.

Give us a “Nothing, but I want to see the results” option?

Young people can't afford homes. And now their entitled boomer parents are tipping over left and right. Where do you put all the crap they insisted you save for the next generation of family that can't afford a home because the rich are getting richer? Storage units.

My first wife was a hoarder; when we separated, I told I’d stop paying for the storage unit. When she said “whatever,” I took a pickup truck and with the help of friends we emptied it. Took 3 trips to empty it. Weirdest thing I can recall tossing was a tall plastic kitchen garbage can, filled with used sneakers.

I live in apartments, and there is absolutely no storage here. So seasonal things (holidays, kids outdoor sports stuff, beach things). Almost everyone I know in my building also has a unit at one or another storage facility. It really sucks, and even more so when they raise the prices all the time. Until I can afford to buy a house though, I don't have another option.

stuff i cant fit in the tiny ass apartment i had to downsize into and is the only thing i can afford in the state anymore

Dover just finished one, now its starting another 3 minutes down the road from the one just built. and 2 other storage facilities 5 minutes from these locations.

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New ones going in at the old farmland that they wanted to do some minor league base ball sports jamboree thingy. This one is a real shame as it was a beautiful landscape, to be turned into some ugliness.

We buy stuff we don't need (petrock). With money we don't have CC. Then we spend more money to store the stuff we don't need. Then we go buy more stuff.

Hey that stuff your relatives leave you is junk, go ahead and throw it away

From the people I know who rent them:

• Big holiday decorations. You know those people with massive lawn displays on Christmas, Halloween, etc.
• Organzations: re-enactors, boy scouts, rennaisance fairs, etc store their larger pieces of equipment and group-owned things.
• Sentimental items. Things they do not use, but can stand paying $80/mo to keep it and never see it, more easily than they can deal with the regret should they accidentally get rid of something important.

most of the storage units at my facility are tradespeople (painters, electricians, etc).

then me, walking my bicycle back to the storage unit. in an apartment because we've failed at buying a house.

That's because of all of the apartments that I'm being built. People don't have basements or attics anymore

I feel bad for the homes across from the Blue Bird storage construction on rte 9 in Dover. It is no doubt going to look like ass. Blocks their view of a nice 100+ acre field. 🙄

They can be handy for if you're moving or in a temporary living situation, but anyone who has things in there long term needs to reassess their priorities.

It’s a running joke between my wife and I. All new construction is a self storage.

“Hey, do you have a TON of plastic garbage and hoarded nonsense in your house? Do you need to stash it somewhere that costs more, so that you can eventually give us your crap when you eventually stop paying? Have we got the place for youuuuuuu!!!!”

People I personally know with storage units are either people between homes, college students, or people who downsized but don't want to give up their crap quite yet.

I know exactly what you mean - I can see one from my home and there are two another mile or two away. In a relatively rural part of Southern NH.

Neighbors of mine just cleaned out one of theirs. Two years after moving. They were just lazy and didn't mind paying god knows how much when they had a barn they could move their junk into. Honestly, some people don't know how to get rid of stuff - or to simply not buy things they barely or never use.

Some things you cannot place in an unheated barn - and if you run a business, inventory can pile up. So storage spaces make sense. But the vast majority of people I know who have storage spaces never really do much more than just fill them and forget. The rest of us have barns that get filled with just tons of junk.

Up North a lot of people are in Condos or something similar. I love my condo but hate not being able to have a garage. So the storage unit has all the off season toys: Bike, bikes, kayaks, winter/summer tires, bike racks, summer yard furniture. Its pretty common up north to like the low maintenance and low taxes of a condo but need someplace to keep your outdoors stuff.

One can only assume they’re full of guns, ammunition, and sex dolls in the shape of guns and ammunition.

I’m surprised we don’t have self-storage units that are designed to store all of your self-storage units in.

My dad's and architect and the number of self storage units being built is astounding. We have theorized that it's 2 things, boomers had a shit ton of stuff and are dying / downsizing. When the younger generation is inheriting the things, they live mostly in smaller rental units ( home ownership is waayyyy down) so there's nowhere to put the things. It's all across the country too, so it's a massive shift of just stuff people can't fit. This is why I only buy from the used market these days, everything's so cheap!

My apartment has very little storage, so I mostly keep seasonal items in a storage unit. Holiday decorations, snow tires, off season clothes, etc.

Also, my apartment before this was bigger so I have a few household items that I don't have space for now but keep in storage so I don't have to re-buy them in the future when/if I move.

Storage facility owner here, think of it as an extension of your home, that’s how a lot of folks use units. Side note, there’s a ton of development (as you mentioned) and people not doing their homework. In one of our towns alone there are 3/4 new facilities going in, the town most definitely cannot support that number of units. Reached out to the new developers, they didn’t do feasibility studies and had no idea other people were building. You’ll see people getting burned overbuilding soon.

When I listed my house for sale last year I rented a storage unit to clear the house a little for showing. My house sold super fast and I had to find a place to live so I wound up in a tiny condo and I still have the storage unit full of stuff. I've been attempting to buy another house for 18 months now but thanks to this market I haven't been successful yet. Kills me to pay the money for the storage unit every month though...

I used a storage unit for approximately one year - I quickly left an apartment/housemate situation due one of the housemates devolving into lunacy. I ended up renting a single room in someone's house, and things like hand tools, car parts, and kayaks and such that had lived in my own storage section had to go into storage. Additionally, things like the couch and tables and such that I owned that were in common areas had to go into storage as well. The storage unit situation lasted about a year until I bought a fixer-upper of my own.

Ive noticed that here in massachusetts aswell, its gotta be a bit of A and B but also, folks are losing their housing or are at risk of losing it and some.people are capitalizing on the seemingly inevitable need to store stuff for lots of people

There seems to be a fair amount of trailer parks/mobile homes where people might need extra storage.

I am storing dozens of dead hookers

The one time we used a storage unit was when we were bought a new house (this was almost 20 years ago). We had to be out of our old place a couple of days before we could get into the new one.

My BIL used to have a paid storage unit. He kept seasonal stuff in there (when the lawn mower goes in the Christmas tree comes out, kinda thing.) I think some sports equipment and maybe small furniture. His house doesn't have an attic and the whole basement is his tech equipment and toys, they have multiple cars and they needed the barn for the horses and their equipment, so.... gotta rotate the leftovers to only that which is necessary.

So I’ve used storage units a few times. For the purposes of having less stuff in a house while it’s listed for sale, storing stuff while in temporary living places between homes and once while I was traveling for work for an extended period.

It is funny that every time I’ve done this I let the people at the storage unit place how long I need it they always say some version of “yeah right that’s what they always say” and then imply they expect I’ll be renting it for the rest of my life.

I moved from one house to another. Only had a unit between moves for a month. I see a lot of people who own condos, mh or have apartments that store their seasonal or other things in them. My brother and gf have a few since they are between moves as well.

Self storage places like check cashing places is a good sign the communities are going tits up.

According to my research of watching storage wars, bins and bags full of crap that apparently sells for retail price at consignment stores, with the occasional priceless artifacts

Can one inherit a dead body really lifelike mannequin?

Storage units appeal to every type of customer. Lower middle and upper class. At the end of the day people like their shit..and sometimes it’s an easier option then storing at your own property. Being someone who has built and worked at a few facilities you’d be surprised what a lot of people are putting in their units.

Everything I inherited is back home because I can’t afford to pay to ship it out here. I’m in an apartment here and have basically no storage. If it weren’t for my car’s big trunk, I’d have to keep my snow tires in storage. I’d assume it was mostly column b, but it really depends on where the person came from.

When covid hit, people left NY and CT and moved north. All the self storage is full of their shit and since all self storage is full people are building more.

I remember driving by a billboard for a storage place named "Grandma's Attic". My colleague said "Why don't they call it what it actually is?" - "Shit you don't need!" ;-)

While rents have gone up, space in new newly built apartments has seemingly gone down. If you want to keep anything beyond a spare set of clothes, I can see a need for a storage unit.

If this was a warmer climate, I'd say it was being used as housing, as in Snow Crash.

More than just storage units, towns like Salem, Windham, Londonderry, Derry, Raymond, Epping, are building like crazy. Shit is stupid expensive everywhere and people (like me) moved or are moving to NH from MA, NY, NJ, RI, CT, because NH is awesome, has no state income tax, sales tax, etc. I sold my house in MA, bought a new house in NH, but needed a storage unit because my old house closed three weeks before my new house was ready to move in. Lots of people have transitioned to working remote, so cities are emptying out combined with people selling expensive large homes and downsizing to smaller houses and condos. Bottom line, with a massive influx of people coming to NH from other states, more storage places is a no brainer.

George Carlin had the most prescient thoughts on Stuff.

Mostly shit I don't want anymore but can't throw away.

My sibling rents one. They were living out of an RV for the summer and are now renting a room. They have some inherited things, but it’s mostly stuff they’ve bought. I think seasonal clothes and stuff. Some furniture. When they find a more stable place to live they’ll give up the unit. I don’t pay for storage, myself. No need personally.

Can't afford a storage shed.

Storing dead relatives.lol

Ammo for the out of staters

We don't use self-storage but I try to clean the place out regularly. I have about six computers to sell so that should free up some space. I'm also going to get a shelving system from Home Depot which should create about 18 square feet of floor space.

Formula: if you don't use it in five years, get rid of it.

It seems you're imagining them full of someone's hoarding overflow, obviously egged on by reality shows. Honestly, pretty judgmental and uncharitable. I'm pretty sure the more common use case is related to moving, life transitions, and housing insecurity.

Where do you put your stuff when you can only afford to rent a 2br apartment, between 4 adults? A storage unit.

Where do you put your stuff in the summer as a college student? A storage unit.

Where do you put your stuff when an entire city moves out on 8/31 and moves in on 9/1? A storage unit.

Where do you put your aging relative's belongings when they are suddenly unable to care for themselves and need to move into assisted living? A storage unit. What, you don't seriously believe their kids have a house, do you? In this economy?! Who can afford a mortgage and elder care? It takes time to sort through all that stuff. In the meantime, storage units.

For a more scientific answer, ask the clerk that works there, what the average customer's using them for. Probably all kinds of reasons. The housing insecurity aspect is particularly apparent when you sign up for one, though. A lot of emphasis is placed on how living in the units is forbidden, and how many homeless people this company has had to evict from the facility... It's really quite bleak. Towns have no problem permitting climate-controlled houses for our stuff, but fuck people, am I right? They won't even let them have a tent. You will own nothing and be happy.

As for me, I've only ever had a storage unit for a few months at a time. I kinda doubt there's that many people out there, keeping the same unit for years and years.

1. Watch "Santa Clarita Diet"
2. Watch "Dead to Me"
3. If I lose my housing I will be living out of my car and all of my belongings will have to go into storage. One unit will have the "need it later" stuff and one will have the "Need it daily" stuff. I will not be able to afford the rent prices that exist today.

Not me, but I have a large house and a 3 car garage and I feel cramped. Maybe soon?

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My relatives store what I would consider random junk. From what I hear most self storage places are usually pretty full up too.

Probably stuff that a wife has threatened to throw out and the husband put into storage in order to save it from her ire.

It's not junk, its stuff that you may need someday or stuff that will be collectible and worth a lot of money.

The storage unit by my place is used as a workshop rental thing. People store like wood and big tools and stuff and then use it to make things as well. Maybe because of the lack of garages?

Low maintenance, recurring income investment. Especially as people move outwards away from big cities.

I’d just sell all of my shit for sure but I’ve talked to a few people that have moved all over the place and still had “sentimental” stuff in other states/across the country.

It’s a pretty smart investment, I believe location is key. ( obviously ) the higher population or a growing population the better. Low maintenance for any business is sought after

More people can't afford to live indoors, but still have stuff they want to keep.

Their political opinions

Poor gonna do what poor gonna do