I'm looking to rent some storage. Advice?

A local rental storage unit sounds like the best bet in your situation. It’s fairly easy these days to check prices and ratings online. Once you narrow down the choices, ask questions and read the contract before signing. If it is close enough, go check on your belongings and the site on a regular basis, like once a month in case new ‘tenant’ moves in or after a storm.

You can get a report on renting storage units in Oceanside, California. Probably the same advice applies everywhere.

I like to keep my valuable stuff near me. The stuff that’s not valuable, I get rid of.

Make sure to find out how long the unit will be kept for you if you happen to miss a payment. Some places will sell or auction off your unit after a certain amount of time. Look for cleanliness and honesty. You don’t want to take home bugs or not get back what you left to begin with!

How long do you need to rent it for? Would a Pod work for you?

Don’t do it. Get rid of the stuff. You have lived this long without it so you probably don’t need it unless you feel like throwing money away.

I rented one when trying to sell my house for what I thought would be just a couple of months…13 months later I had payed more in rent than the stuff was worth!

@Grant6: Keep nothing that won’t pass muster on The Antiques Road Show. You can become a prisoner of your stuff, if you aren’t careful.

A few beautiful and useful possessions trump mountains of “stuff.”

@Cruiser I agree. That’s why I am wondering about a POD. We did the same as you, and I wish we’d have rented a dumpster and a truck. The dumpster to pitch things, the truck to quickly drive the rest to charity.

I’ve sold a bunch of unnecessary but monetarily valuable items on eBay.

@SpatzieLover The worst part was after the move, I ended up giving away a big part of what was stored especially the swimming pool as my association does not allow above ground pools! :(

@Cruiser We also had many items that were no longer applicable to our situation. Items for country acreage really have no place in a ‘burb. We also had a ridiculous amount of “other relatives” stuff from when they moved or passed away. Most of which we sold or donated.

@SpatzieLover I took advantage of blistering fast action of Freecycle.org where you post online what you want to get rid of and 10 minutes at most I had takers…often 3–4. Put it out by the curb and it was gone in no time flat.

@Cruiser I freecycle too ;) Great minds, my friend. We picked free-cycled to get a small bike for our son’s best friend so she’d have one at our house. I now look back at the days we “stored” stuff as a bleak time. I’ve moved on.

@SpatzieLover I love freecycle and I kid you not we just picked up a baby grand piano from a church that was giving it away! It sounds and plays beautifully and looks fabulous in my living room!

Awesome. I see whole baby nursery sets get listed and think “I wish I had known about this prior to having a child!” We have given an older, smaller snowblower and various yard equipment we no longer had a use for. It’s a great place to meet like minded people, too.

We’re totally getting slapped at some point here. @6rant6 has this in general. ;)

I think part of your problem is you don’t know if it’s worth anything . Storing it is just another way to put that off.

@kerryberry If it’s small enough to sell on ebay, then look at the going prices there. It’ll give you an idea of the value. When you do a search for say a vase look at the left side and check “completed listings”...you’ll see what vases did or didn’t sell for.

When I moved in with my boyfriend, from a four bedroom house to a small beach shack, I rented a garage from the people next door. It worked quite well.

Get insurance on anything you put into storage. My storage bin was robbed and a friend had his roof leak. Both of us had insurance because its required in our state, but it covered our losses.