Moving
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You have stuff and need somewhere to stash it. Maybe you are staging or remodeling your home or are moving to a new one. Maybe you’re combining, dividing or downsizing your household because of marriage, divorce or an empty nest. You may need to leave your residence between college semesters, between jobs or because of a natural disaster. You may have accumulated too many belongings on your own or inherited a loved one’s. Perhaps you have a thriving eBay business.
And so, if yours is like nearly one-tenth of U.S. households, you turn to self-storage, aka mini storage. Before you make the commitment, read this three-part series to find out how to get the right off-site storage for your needs and how to protect yourself and your things. After all, if they’re worth storing in the first place, you wouldn’t want to lose your treasures without any recourse or see them auctioned off on Storage Wars.
The First Step
Before you even start contacting storage facilities, be honest with yourself about why you are holding on to the stuff and what it’s worth. Does it bring you joy, in the words of decluttering guru Marie Kondo, pictured? Or are you delaying a bunch of emotional decisions that you have no reason to believe will get easier with time? Would you rather have your things or the money you’re going to spend on storage and insurance? Will your heirs want the items and, if so, could you pass them on sooner rather than later?
Give serious consideration to possible alternatives to off-site storage. Can you donate things to charity in exchange for a tax write-off? Can you scan any photos or toss any documents? Would it make sense to buy a backyard shed?
Types of Storage
The next step is to consider the kinds of storage available.
Full-service move-and-store companies
In the U.S., the business of moving and storing household goods began with Bekins Co., founded in 1891 in ...
Victoria Villeneuve
February 9th, 2018