Storage needs for city dwellers may be different than the needs of a typical suburban family. In a city, you are often going to find mini storage facilities when you look for a self storage location.
These mini storage facilities are largely the same as other storage facilities, but they focus on the smaller storage units and have few larger storage spaces.
Storage rental in a city may be higher than it would be in a smaller town, but space is also at a premium. The typical resident of a large city, such as New York or San Francisco, will likely have fewer personal belongings (on average) than a typical suburban dweller.
The need for storage in a large city is often the result of changing apartments or needing to move apartments, but not being able to coordinate the move-in and move-out days perfectly. Additionally, city dwellers are often very limited in the space they have available to them in their apartments, and a storage unit comes in handy to give them extra space to store out of season clothing, sporting equipment, or recreational equipment that takes up too much space in their apartments.
Families with children may simply give away or discard clothing and furniture or equipment as the children move from infant to toddler and then to child, but some want to save these items for future children, nieces or nephews or for charity, and they will rent a mini storage unit for that purpose.
Advantages to Storage Units
In a city, there is a high likelihood that a mini storage will be completely enclosed in a building, meaning that all the units will be in a climate control situation. This is a real advantage, particularly in the bitter winters of the northeast and Midwest, where many of the country’s largest cities are located.
Extreme temperature changes and humidity variations can be very hard on many kinds of materials. Fine wood furniture or leather furniture, photographs and books, furs and other delicate clothing, electronics and computers, and important business papers are all susceptible to problems caused by climate variations.
The gentle, indirect heating and cooling in a climate controlled storage unit prevents humidity buildup, infestations of insects and rodents, keeps mold and mildew at bay, and limits warping, cracking and splitting in furniture and other possessions.
Another advantage of mini storage in the city is that the storage areas are monitored constantly. The possessions in the storage may be safer than those in your apartment. Sometimes the companies that run the storage business may also run rental offices or provide WiFi and phone access in their spaces, giving you other benefits on top of rental space.
Services
Self storage in a city may offer a variety of different services not found at other storage businesses. For example, many offer a free concierge service with expert movers who can come to an apartment and make a quick and accurate estimate about how much ‘stuff’ you have and how much space you’ll need to store it.
They can make recommendations for long-term storage if you are going out of the country or need to store your things without accessing them for more than a few weeks.
A concierge often also provides packing and transporting services for those who want to pay extra for that benefit, while few suburban self storage units provide that option. Some companies also provide boxes and packing supplies, sometimes at a reduced charge.
A feature that is similar to any other self storage business is that many city-based mini storage companies provide a vehicle to move items to storage. In the city, however, the vehicle is likely to be a minivan rather than a 18′ truck.
City mini storage may charge to move in, but there are many businesses that waive the move-in charge. The units in a city are generally indoors, with a standard size door and standard locks and keys. This is different from suburban self storage, where units often have garage-style doors large enough to accommodate a moving truck, and padlocks rather than door locks.
A city self storage may offer wine storage – as well as portable storage and drive up storage – along with their indoor, climate control storage units.
Vehicle Storage
Those who own large vehicles in a city will certainly need a place to put them. RV storage and boat storage comes at a premium in the city, and those who need vehicle storage may have to bid at a parking garage or other parking facility, since very few self storage businesses in cities are able to offer the space for vehicle storage.
