As the capital of California, Sacramento sees the occasional flurry of uniformed men and women from various branches of the military on a regular basis. While it’s a far cry from San Diego which can actually be called a military town, Sacramento’s military presence does in fact exist. If you can count yourself among the military men and women living in Sacramento or stationed near it, here’s a brief lesson in how you can use storage to make your life easier.
Your Military Life, Your Storage Needs
On the business end of things, popular military related jobs in and around Sacramento include the
California Military Department and
Sacramento Military Entrance Processing Station. Both require typical office type duties and don’t offer any housing. You could work a human resources job or an accounting job for the California Military Department, neither of which would put you in a position where you would likely see deployment or extensive travel time for work. If you work for the Sacramento Entrance Processing Station, you’ll spend your days enlisting men and women into the military and then you’ll go home to your apartment or house. Pretty traditional stuff. Your storage needs will be pretty much the same as the needs of a civilian. You’ll be looking for a long term storage to use as an extra closet or the occasional short term storage unit to use in between moves around town. Sacramento has 291 storage facilities, so you’ll easily find what you need. Even if you’re not active duty, you might still qualify for discounts, so when in doubt, ask.
As far as actual military bases with housing,
Beale Air Force Base is the closest installation to the city of Sacramento. It’s 50 miles north of town on a somewhat remote patch of cattle land (population counts often jokingly include 1,000 cows). Located in Yuba County, this base exists to train, improve and occasionally deploy airmen, who are a mix of reservists and active duty troops. There are 4,500 active duty members, 949 reservists, 832 civilians on base plus quite a few spouses, dependents and veterans. As one of these folks, your storage needs will reflect your housing and how often you travel or how likely you are to be deployed. Housing at Beale is privatized through
Balfour Beatty Communities and is spread across five neighborhoods (though lower ranks should expect to live in barracks). If you can’t get the home you want right away through this program, take advantage of a month-to-month lease at a storage facility. You can store in Sacramento if you’re there on a regular basis or obviously if you’ve chosen to live there, but if you’re on the base and you find the 50 mile drive to be too much, look for storage in
Olivehurst. There are 21 facilities in town, all of which offer great features if you’re a military transplant.
Erie Road Self Storage rents trucks, which is perfect if you’re moving into privatized housing and you’re looking to get some furniture out of your unit and
Storage Pro allows you to set up online bill pay, so if you find yourself on the go, you can pay for storage from anywhere.
Some Considerations
When choosing a storage unit, you should request quotes and tour facilities with three things in mind. First, ask yourself if you like the location. Second, ask yourself if you like the price. And last, ask yourself if you like the amenities. Great amenities for you will allow you to store items without having your busy life interrupted. Besides the online bill pay component that we already mentioned, there are a few other things you’ll want to look for. The first is great
security. A facility that has 24 hour cameras, a well-lit property and gated access is a great start. A facility with on-site management and/or a security patrol is even better. Another feature to keep an eye out for is
climate control. In Sacramento, this is only necessary if you’re storing items like electronics or irreplaceable family heirlooms for long periods of time. If you’re simply storing extra clothing or extra furniture briefly, you might be able to forgo this feature, but if you’re facing deployment or you just can’t see yourself making the time to visit your facility on a weekly basis, it will certainly give you peace of mind.
