Congratulations if you’ve been assigned to Naval Air Station Oceana! Virginia Beach is a lovely city with a temperate climate, beautiful beach, and plenty of culture. Getting to the boardwalk or a nice restaurant is easy. Finding the right self-storage unit is a little trickier. Here’s what you need to know about self-storage in the area.
How a Buckley Air Force Base Assignment Affects Your Storage Needs
Virginia Beach is truly a military city. Naval Air Station Oceana has 10,000 military members, 11,000 family members, and 1,700 civilian employees! The total population of the city is about 450,000.
The city has 430 self-storage facilities and 47,850 individual units of varying sizes from 5’x5’s to units for RVs and boats. In short, it’s not difficult to find a unit. The most commonly rented units are 10’x10’ in Virginia Beach, so if you need a 5’x5’ or 5’x10’ you should have no trouble at all finding one.
Housing
At Naval Air Station Oceana, you’ll most likely live in barracks if you’re single. If you’ve come with your family, you’ll most likely live in a military community. Naturally, this will affect your self-storage needs.
Before you relocate to Virginia Beach, make a list of what you plan to bring with you. Determine what you’ll keep in your living space, and what you’ll put in storage. This will help you determine what size storage space you’ll need.
Weather
The climate in Virginia Beach is to be envied. Winters are mild, with temperatures averaging in the low 50s. Summers are hotter and humid, with temperatures reaching the high 80s.
If you are going to have your belongings in storage for just the winter and spring, you probably won’t need climate control. However when the weather gets humid, climate control is important to prevent mold and mildew.
Cost of Units in Denver
While it can take time to find a self-storage unit in Virginia Beach, the prices are reasonable. You should be able to find a 5’x5’ for between $35 and $45 per month.
Other considerations beyond price include the distance you live from the storage facility, how often you will go there, and what you plan to store in it. A low-cost facility near home is best, but sometimes the cheaper facilities are a few miles away. If you know you won’t visit your unit often and can drive there when you need something, having a locker five or six miles from home with a lower price might save you money.
Virginia Beach loves its military members, so remember to ask about military discounts when looking for self-storage. Just remember, when you go to rent a locker, bring your military ID.
Storing Guns
If you have your own personal firearms, you know that they aren’t allowed in barracks and might not be allowed in military housing.
Many self-storage facilities will not allow you to store firearms, either, but some will. None will allow ammunition. So, if you have recreational firearms and need a place to keep them, make sure you’re allowed to keep them in your storage locker before putting them there.
The article
Storing Your Firearms: Safe Options for Gun Storage on the StorageFront website will provide you with plenty of helpful tips. Also, if you live on base, you may be able to register and check in your firearms in an on-base locker.
What To Do When Deployed
As a member of the military, you could get deployed at any time. Fortunately, where self-storage is concerned, the legal system has you covered. Look into
Virginia’s self-storage lien law for more information on how it protects people from having their self-storage spaces auctioned off.
Also the military recognizes that it may be difficult to pay your self-storage bills on time while overseas. Therefore, the armed forces has the
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which ensures that military personnel renting storage get fair treatment. It makes it much more difficult for a facility to put your locker up for auction. Note that a Fort Bragg soldier
fought and won a case when his unit was illegally auctioned off.
