They say the only constant thing in life is change. Like most cliches, it’s one of those phrases that doesn’t really mean anything until you experience it firsthand. Often it arrives in the form of something that’s worth celebrating like a new job or an engagement. Other times it feels less like a Facebook life event and more like a tragedy. Either way, whether it’s a wedding or a funeral, relocating to a new city or moving back in with your parents, major life changes don’t just come with emotional baggage. They come with actual baggage. Here are five extremely major and extremely common situations that can all be made easier with the help of something unexpected: self storage.
1. Moving
If you’re preparing for a big move, it might feel like your only options are hiring a moving company, renting a moving truck or stuffing everything into your car and pretending like you don’t need to be able to see your blind spot. Basically, you’re being forced to choose between expensive and stressful. But there’s actually another way to get your stuff where it needs to go.
Mobile storage is often cheaper and always easier. With mobile storage, your storage unit is brought to you and you have as much time as you’d like to fill it, after which it’s brought to your new home or kept at the facility until you’re ready for it. No bribing your friend with a pickup truck required.
2. Getting Through a Breakup
Your heart may be broken, but it will get better. In the meantime take advantage of a month-to-month lease (the industry standard) on a storage unit to store all of your ex’s stuff or all of that stuff you’ve acquired together that you’re not sure what to do with. Whether you end up selling it, recycling it, or lighting it on fire (preferably not inside of your storage unit) is up to you. The most important thing is that you won’t have to look at it every day. And because storage facilities offer those aforementioned month-to-month leases, when it’s time to break up with your unit, you’ll be the one doing the dumping.
3. Shacking Up
Moving in with your significant other is exciting. What’s not so exciting is finding out that your soulmate has hideous taste in furniture. It’s a classic scenario. You want to hang up that butterfly picture but your partner thinks it’s too girly. You both have surprisingly strong opinions about whose mug collection is better. Instead of fighting over it, get a storage unit. Your mother may have always told you that relationships are a compromise, but we respectfully disagree. Get what you both want by filling your apartment with stuff you both like and keeping the rest of it somewhere else.
4. Financial Hardship
It happens to all of us at some point. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you were saddled with the bills from some unexpected medical emergency or the legal fees from an expensive divorce. Financial hardship might make you think that you can’t afford storage, but
you actually can. When money problems arise, the biggest bill is often the one that pays for the roof over your head. If your budget has got you considering moving to a smaller place, getting a roommate or moving back in with your parents and you’re not sure what to do with all of your stuff, storage can help. Talk to your facility manager about your situation and see what kind of specials and payment plans are available. Facility managers are used to seeing people who are going through major life changes. You’ll be surprised by how sympathetic they might be.
5. Having Kids
You built your entire young professional life around acquiring cool furniture for your place. Gone are the rickety futons and couches that came from the sidewalk. You’ve invested in real stuff, like the beautiful statement vase on your antique coffee table, that hand-crafted rug and sheets with a thread count so high they should be illegal. But now you’re ready to be a parent, and all of that beautiful stuff is going to get destroyed by your little bundle of joy. You don’t have to give it away or sell it and you certainly don’t have to hope and pray that your newborn baby will miraculously have the manners of an English lord either. Read our tips on storing items like
antiques and
art (Hint: Don’t forget to insure them.) and keep them safe until your kids are officially done with their cover-everything-in-peanut-butter phase.
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