There are plenty of reasons to Google “storage near me”. If you’re moving house, it can provide a life saving buffer on moving day – putting your bulkiest most inconvenient items into storage means only the moving the bare essentials on the busiest, most stressful day of the moving process. If you’re running a small business, a self-storage unit is a handy and flexible alternative to warehousing space: you can keep your inventory there, and easily move from unit to unit as your needs change throughout the year, over busy periods and slow times. Those are only two examples: if you’re spending time abroad for work, renting out your home, facing divorce or even dealing with bereavement, self-storage is a useful resource.
Unfortunately, it’s a useful resource that isn’t always available. It may be too pricey, it could be that your local storage facilities don’t have the capacity you need when you need it, there may not be a storage facility nearby! Today we’re taking a look at some of the alternatives to self-storage that can help you out when you need it most.
Storage at Home
Many people use self-storage because they don’t have space at home, but if you do, it may make more sense to work with you have than to go elsewhere. If you have a spare room, garage or attic space, look at that before you go seeking a storage firm. Even if it appears full, you might well find you can liberate some space by tidying, repacking boxes efficiently and donating to local charity shops.
This means keeping the things you really care about closer to hand, safe under your own roof, but if the aim of your project is creating space for you to use on other things this isn’t the best option.
Turning to Friends
If you’re in the midst of a storage crisis, try asking friends: you never know what resources they have available until you ask. If you have a friend with space in their garage, attic, under their bed or in their spare room, they may well be able to help you out and if it isn’t cheaper than using self-storage you may be talking to the wrong friend.
This does come with some downsides: it’s not a long term option. You can’t fill your friends house with your possessions for than a couple of weeks without endangering your friendship, so this is only really an option if you need somewhere to keep things between flats, during a move.
Other Storage Companies
Self-storage isn’t the only option. Other storage companies exist that, for example, come and collect your items to be stored and hold them securely in edge-of-town facilities until you’re ready for them. This isn’t a great option if you’re using it for business inventory and need to access storage regularly, but if you’re moving house, or storing things in the long term, it could be the answer to your prayers!
