The Central City U-Lock Blog

The Storage Misadventures of our Staff Writer D.C.

If you are lucky enough to to live in a large house that has an attic, basement or crawl spaces, it is indeed appealing to use these areas as storage spaces.  However, I am about to tell you two cautionary little tales that happened to our staff writer D.C. while he was trying to store things in these sorts of areas. I am not saying that these experiences are commonplace, but since he witnessed them first hand, they are certainly some things to watch out for.

1. Rats

About four years ago, D.C.’s house was overcome by an infestation of rats and mice.  D.C.  had heard little sounds in the walls and saw evidence of rats here and there, but by the time he got around to calling the exterminators, it was way too late.  Apparently, the rats had already been living and breeding in the attic and ceiling spaces for months. D.C. was crushed when he worked his way to the back of the attic to grab his late grandfather’s suit to wear to a friend’s wedding and found it half devoured on the hanger! Rodents can destroy clothing and paper items at an alarming rate, D.C.  found out that day. Basically, they have to constantly chew on things to keep their teeth sharp.   Boxes, books, old records, and apparently suits, are all perfect tooth-sharpening fodder for those little guys.

2. Wet Storage

About two years before the rat incident, D.C. had a power outage that lasted a day and a half. This would not have been that big of a deal to him, but he lived in an old house that used an electronic sump-pump in the basement to flush out the water that occasionally appears there during the rainy season. And, you guessed it: it rained the whole time the power was out. The basement flooded and he lost a lot of  items that he had recently moved out of an extra room. Some of it, he managed to save by drying it out (papers and slides and such). Ironically, he almost burned the house down by hastily trying to dry the soaked items over the heater in his living room (don’t ask). Which brings me to the third thing that can claim the valuable items you might be trying to store, but for which I have luckily no humorous D.C. story with which to exemplify:

3. Fires

If you are trying to store valuable items, such as back-ups of computer data or old, irreplaceable and seldom-seen memorabilia, it makes sense to store these items separate from all the other items that you use everyday in your house. I personally store my computer back-ups and rarely-used but yet valuable items separately from my house at Central City U-Lock. Therefore, if the unthinkable were to happen and there was a fire in my house, I know that these items will survive.

So, all I am saying by relaying these absolutely true (I swear it!) stories to you, is that sometimes it can be wise to store items away from your home in order to better your chances of their survival. Here at Central City U-Lock (your storage Surrey leaders, btw), our self storage spaces will keep your items safe from animals and the elements. So, instead of having all of your belongings in one place and having to worry about remembering to monitor their safety yourself, why not place your belongings someplace truly “out of sight, out of mind?”

To Every Season, Turn, Turn, Turn…

Most people will tell you that if you have a lot of extra stuff lying around, you should get it out of the way by either storing it or selling it. Being that I work for a self-storage company, you are probably thinking that I am about to spend the rest of this blog entry championing the former. However, your needs may go beyond renting a self storage unit. Therefore, I say, why not do both?

Just like the Byrds’ lyrics I referenced in the title above say, there is a season for everything. If you are one of those people who buy and sell a lot of items on websites like Craig’s List or Ebay, you know that you ending up losing money if you don’t sell your items at the right time. For example, if you try to auction off your artificial Christmas tree in the month of July, you will find that you don’t quite get the results you would have gotten if you posted it up in September or November. Like so much in life, when it comes to getting the most value out of the possessions you have, timing is indeed everything.

Another timing issue to keep in mind when selling your items is to aim for months when you know people will be in front of their computers. The fact of the matter is that people are not looking for stuff to buy on Ebay or Craig’s List as much during the busy, active summer months. Additionally, I have heard of people getting an average of as much as 30 percent less yield on the things they sell during that time, versus the winter months. That can really add up, especially if you have a lot of items that you want to sell. So, ironically, you could find it easier to sell that boat in the fall or early spring than in the heart of the summer when people are more apt to actually use that item.

In case this seems somewhat confusing; I’ll just tell you that sometimes it can indeed be. I’m not telling you to sell your boat at Christmas time. Perhaps you could get more for that hypothetical aforementioned boat during the summer than in the heart of winter when no one in their right minds is thinking of going boating. On the other hand, it might be better to fine-tune the timing of when it goes up for sale to be right before the summer, as opposed to during it. There are obviously many factors at work here, and every item is different. Basically, you just have to study-up and play the odds.

So, in conclusion, in order to get the most out of your items to be sold or auctioned off, one must keep in mind the importance of timing. Instead of just rushing out to sell that extra parts-car or power-drill immediately, conceptualize the best time to sell it, and, if it is not the present time, why not (you guessed it) put it in to self-storage? This way, the power of timing will be in your hands and all that extra stuff will be immediately moved out of your way, allowing you all the space you need. Even better, you wont have to sell your snowplow for 70 percent of it’s potential value in June!