When your home or office has reached its absolute limit, a personal storage unit can dramatically reduce useless clutter. Most families have found that leaving a number of bulky or seasonal items at a secure facility can help keep their homes clean and spacious. Some of the top items to store are furniture, seasonal clothes, holiday decorations, and collections. For all the solutions these units provide, there are some items better left at home or at the office.
Storage units are often run on a contractual basis, but if a renter lapses on their bills, the unit may go up for auction. This is why it is a particularly poor idea to store any confidential or personal information in an offsite facility. If something happens and you fail to pay on time, your personal financial statements, tax records, or bills could end up in the hands of anybody. Also, if the unit is being used by a business, the potential information could include the private information of any number of clients or employees. Despite all this, you could store simple non-confidential files at an off-site location. Safe items would be status reports, printed graphics for presentations, and any other mundane forms or memos.
Don’t put food in a storage unit. With very few exceptions, this rule should never be broken, and most facilities include a prohibition against doing so in your rental agreement. Food rots and attracts a legion of creatures that infest and destroy not just your own unit, but potentially an entire lot. Perhaps you think canned food is a safe bet, but even that should be avoided. Despite what you may have heard, canned food does go bad, and a percentage of it will begin to grow toxic bacteria. The cans eventually burst, which leads to not only pests but a potential bio-hazard. An exception to this rule would be wine and other spirits, if it is a temperature controlled environment. Properly stored wine and spirits can last essentially forever if they remain unopened.
While everything has some kind of value, high-priced items or collectibles should remain at home. It can be tempting to clean out the clutter of a collector’s room by putting everything in storage, but the potential for major losses is also present. When shrinking a collection to better accommodate a new living situation, it is a far better option to sell your items than to utilize a long term storage unit. While most facilities are safe and secure, there is always the chance of a fire, flood, or robbery. Your insurance would cover these items at home, but it may not compensate for your valuables at an offsite location. However, a unit can be helpful in the short time while buyers are lined up and deals are made.
Keeping your home or office clean is important for living a less stressed and clutter-free life, but it’s always important to learn before you act. Make smart decisions when it comes to your possessions and avoid all of these potentially negative situations.
