Salt Lake City, UT: Top Things to Know About Storage
Winter is a Busy Time for Storage Facilities
Unlike other cities that go into hibernation when it snows, Salt Lake City embraces its winter wonderland and all of the national and international visitors that come with it. One of Salt Lake City’s biggest attractions is its slopes. Ever since the 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City has become known as one of the best skiing venues in the U.S. Every year, the city hosts multiple ski competitions, two big ones in particular. Nordic Ski Racing has become a huge event in the city, and the Utah Nordic Alliance hosts over 20 races every season. These events are national and international, drawing people from all over the world. Utah Ski Mountaineering also hosts different ski competitions in area, attracting more of a crowd.
Needless to say, storage facilities are generally packed before and during the winter because of these competitions. With people from all over the world flying in on a yearly basis, storage units get filled up pretty quickly. Competitors can opt to keep their gear in units temporarily or year round if they know they’ll be coming back in the next couple of months. It is also common for boats and RVs to be stored during the months leading up to ski season, which farther complicates things. Salt Lake City’s 77 storage facilities can easily accommodate most of their clientele, but if you’re close to the slopes and need to store things this winter, be sure to find a unit before they’re taken up by the people participating in and attending these races.
Skis Aren’t the Only Things that Need to be Stored
Downtown Salt Lake City also hosts a bi-weekly farmers market throughout the year. About 50 vendors attend the events, which means storage facilities in the area are under a lot of pressure. These vendors put their things in storage facilities in the heart of downtown so that setting up their booths every other week doesn't entail wasting money on renting a moving truck. They also store things that are sensitive to temperature, especially the last few days before the event, so they prefer storing in climate controlled units. Summer months in Salt Lake City can get pretty hot (about 100 degrees at times), so if you’re going to spend money on a storage unit, might as well spend the little extra to ensure the quality of the items you will be selling is up to par with what’s expected of them.
The Military and Storage
Salt Lake City is home to three major military bases, all of which have pretty large military and civilian populations. Let’s start with the Tooele Army Depot Base. This base is located about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and covers 23,610 acres of desert land. The purpose of this base is to do explosive performance testing, testing robotics, and providing logistical support. The base spans a large amount of land, so you would think that its inhabitants don’t have much of a need for storage, but they do. This base has 902 storage igloos on site that span 2,483,000 square feet, but all of that storage space is for ammunition and weapons and is unavailable to the military personnel and civilian employees on the base. The people living on the base need to find nearby storage facilities for their personal storage needs.
The Hill Air Force Base is another base just 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. Including all active military personnel, civilians, contractors, and reservists, there are a total of 23,700 people living on the base (No wonder it's the Air Force’s third largest base!). Yet again, there is no storage space available for residents of the base, and most people tend to store in storage facilities at the outskirts of the base or more towards Salt Lake City. If you’re in the city, you’ll be competing with more than just college students for storage space.
Dangers of Not Using a Storage Facility in Salt Lake City
Although we all like to keep our belongings where we can see them, in a place like Salt Lake City, it might actually be safer to keep your things in a storage facility. We don’t mean to scare you, but the truth is the truth. Salt Lake City is only safer than one percent of cities in the U.S., and it’s known for a high annual property crime rate. If you’re keeping things at home that you don’t need on a daily, or even weekly basis, it might be safer to keep your things in a storage facility. Storage facilities take a lot of measures to ensure the safety of their tenants’ belongings, including things like 24-hour video surveillance, on site managers, computerized gates, and security alarms on individual storage units. For people who travel a lot, it also helps to have someone watching your things for you when you’re out of town.
If you’re looking to store things that you generally keep outdoors, like your boat or your RV, your things will also be protected from the weather. Salt Lake City’s extreme summer heat, fall and spring storms, and winter snowfalls can cause damage to your belongings, so it may be safer to keep those things indoors.
