What Do People Store In Self Storage Units?

Convenient & Practical

Added to that there is and a general upward trend in the awareness of self storage as an option, particularly when life events such divorce, a death in the family or moving house mean that you simply don’t have the space for all your stuff. The survey also points out that 41% of self storage customers are repeat customers, underlining the fact that once people experience the convenience, simplicity and practicality of self storage for one set of circumstances, they often come back for more.

Commercial Storage

Although the majority of self storage clients come from the domestic sector, commercial customers are also coming to realize the value of self storage. According to the survey, 19% of business users operate in the retail sector, with 14% being involved in professional services, 9% in construction and building and 7% in wholesale. One of the most notable features of this section of the survey is the fact that IT now makes up 5% of the business user custom for self storage, up from a historic level of 1%-2%.

What many of these businesses have in common – and other sectors making some use of self storage include transport, media and entertainment, and the not-for-profit/charity sector – is the fact that most of them tend to be smaller enterprises, with 84% having less than 10 employees and 63% 1-3 employees. The degree to which small businesses are turning to self storage – and the sheer range of sectors in which these businesses operate – underlines the affordability of self storage when compared to options such as extending premises or utilising more warehouse space, and the flexibility it provides. The average length of contract that small business customers intend to take out when accessing self storage, peaks at more than 24 months for over 50% of customers, contrasting with the highest percentage of domestic users (21%) stating they only intend to use storage for 0-3 months. What this disparity underlines is that small businesses see self storage as a long-term, or perhaps even permanent ,solution to problems such as storing stock, keeping expensive equipment safe when not in use and providing their employees with a central, easily reached hub from which to access that equipment.

All of which brings us to a consideration of what exactly it is that people tend to keep in self storage. There are some fairly obvious items included in the list below, but we’ve also managed to find examples of some of the stranger things that have turned up in self storage units over the years, from a stash of human organs (no, that isn’t a misprint) to a comic book worth $2 million that had been stolen from the actor Nicholas Cage.

Furniture

The fact that furniture is one of the most popular items for domestic users to put into storage is really no surprise. Moving from one residence to another is still the most popular reason for making use of self storage, and can prompt customers to use self storage for a number of reasons. The first of these is that the moving process is made infinitely less stressful if you opt to gradually move items from your current home into self storage and then gradually shift them on to your new home, as opposed to the traditional method of piling the entire contents of a house into the back of a large van on moving day. Additionally, people moving house might be attempting to sell their existing house, and putting lots of clutter (or ‘treasured personal belongings’ to use a gentler description) into storage will help them to get their existing home into a buyer friendly condition (i.e. as empty as possible).

Customers might also need to shift furniture into self storage because they start working from home and need to turn a previously spare bedroom into an office, or because they are between residences and need to keep their belongings safe until they move into a new home.

Clothing

It may not be everyone’s idea of a walk in wardrobe, but putting at least some of your clothing into self storage is a solution that many younger people in particular are turning to. To a large degree, this choice is driven by the fact that the age at which people purchase their first home is now, according to the Halifax building society, 30 (33 in London). What this means is that up until that age people are likely to be living at home with their parents or renting. If they are living at home then space is naturally going to be at a premium, but the renting option has become increasingly expensive in the UK. According to figures compiled by the property website Rightmove, the average advertised rent in various parts of the UK had risen in the 12 months up to October 2022 by the following amounts:

• London – 16.1%
• Newbury in Berkshire – 22.2%
• Manchester – 20.5%
• Cardiff – 19.6%
• Edinburgh – 18%
• Birmingham – 17.6%

What this means is that younger people renting while they wait to get a foothold on the property ladder are likely to have to sacrifice living space for location or availability, and find themselves with more clothing than they have wardrobe space. Enter self storage as a solution that can keep their winter wardrobe safe and sound during summer, and vice versa.

Sports Equipment

Few things are more seasonal than sports, and when they’re not playing the likes of football or cricket or going horse riding, many people find they haven’t got room to store all the gear they need. If you’ve got a garage, for instance, then you might want to actually be able to keep your car safely stowed away there, rather than having it stuffed to the ceiling with the likes of shin pads, saddles, bats, balls, rackets, helmets and running shoes or football boots. Self-storage enables people to put their toys away until it’s time to start playing again.

Vehicles

Speaking of putting things in the garage, many people find that they’ve got vehicles- over and above the family run-around – that they don’t have the room for in the garage or on the drive. Some people, for example, might own a jet-ski, a speedboat or even a humble canoe, all of which are likely to take up more room than is easily available. The security offered by self storage is ideal for someone wanting to keep their expensive vehicles safe, as is the fact that many units are climate controlled and will keep the expensive piece of machinery in the best possible condition.

Seasonal Items 

There are some items they you only need for certain parts of the year. We’re thinking primarily of Christmas decorations – often including at least one artificial tree measuring more than six foot – but other things which don’t get used 12 months of the year could include expensive garden furniture which you want to protect during the wetter and colder months or even a hot tub which you dismantle and put away when the weather turns chilly. There’s only so much tinsel you can hide up in the loft or under a spare bed, and so self storage can provide the ideal solution for items which you simply don’t need all year round.

Collectibles

You know how it goes – you start off treating yourself to a couple of vinyl records, or a magazine you’re interested in. One thing leads to another and you gradually build a collection and before you know it, an entire room of your house is crammed with boxes full of rare LP’s, collectible first editions or Star Wars memorabilia. The other big problem, aside from the sheer space taken up, is the fact that collections of this kind can often represent many years’ worth of investment and be worth a reasonable amount of money. Self-storage means that your treasure is no longer getting under everyone’s feet, but is kept secure and safe until you finally decide to put in that call to Sotheby’s.

And another thing….

So far, so predictable, you might think, but there are probably as many different things put away in storage units as there are people paying for storage. We promised you a few more unusual examples of the items which have turned up in storage units over the years and we’re not about to break that promise, so we’ll start with the tale of a comic book that turned out to be worth more than $2 million.

The comic book in question belonged to Nicholas Cage, and was a pristine copy of Action Comics No 1, featuring the first-ever appearance of Superman. The comic was stolen from Cage’s Hollywood home in the year 2000 and was presumed to be permanently missing until it turned up again in April 2011, when an unidentified individual purchased the contents of a storage locker in Southern Calfornia, and found the still pristine comic book amongst his acquisitions. Cage managed to get hold of the comic book again, and at a subsequent online auction it fetched a record breaking $2,161,000.

Not all stories of strange things found in storage units have the same kind of happy ending Nicholas Cage enjoyed, however, as the story of what was found in a storage unit in Pensacola, Florida demonstrates. If you’ve got a weak stomach then you might want to look away now, because when the unit was opened in 2012 – after a former medical examiner called Dr Michael Berkland had stopped paying his rent - it was found to contain, amongst other things, 10 human brains and samples of organs such as hearts and lungs taken from more than 100 different people. We did warn you it wasn’t for the squeamish…..

Other unusual storage items over the years have included a grandmother’s body, a ‘submarine car’ driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me and a human leg. The tale of the human leg was turned into a film, so you might want to watch that after you've booked your storage unit!