Wednesday, January 17, 2007

What's In Your Storage?

"In fact, there's been so much self-storage built in the US now that--I'm not kidding--every single person in the country could stand together inside self-storage units..."
- from a May 2005 NPR story on the self-storage industry
My storage facility is cooler than any storage facility I've used before. In addition to e-mailing me invoice reminders so that I don't forget and end up paying late fees, the owner seems to be treating his location as a social networking opportunity for his renters as much as a place for us to keep our stuff.

In an email I received today, he announced May's upcoming tenant appreciation cookout. Also, in what appears to be the kind of event that could potentially lessen tenants' needs for storage - although I'm sure that it won't - he is scheduling for April the 1st annual tenant yard sale (
"Open your storage door and sell your stuff!"). Essentially, one could sell everything and no longer have the need for the storage unit. However, if he has good turnout for this idea, I envision lots of people essentially trading stuff they've stored and forgotten about for other stuff that they will immediately store and forget about.

And the monthly checks will continue to come in. Some with late fees attached.

1 comment:

Rhiannon said...

imagine, someday, if he could like up with other storage units, and create a nationwide bartering network...oh, the possibilities for useless junk transfer...