Slightly off topic but about 30 years ago late wife and I downsized from an ordinary 3BR tract house with the other bedrooms used as an office and a dedicated guest room to a small 2BR condo. When we did that we still needed a WFH office so we made zero provisions for guests staying over. We reasoned that we could put any guests up at a nearby very nice hotel totally at our expense for about a dozen nights a year for less money than buying a larger place and having a guest room sit unused and gathering dust all but 12 days a year. And even if we had 24 days of guests, the incremental expense would not be material.
Same concept as your wise use of storage, just different details.
When I moved from Chicago to KY, I kept my stuff in storage for over a year until I picked out and refurbished a house. In Chicago, I had a tiny one for car and motorcycle parts, and that was the typical bad decision. By the time I sold off things like wheels and bodykits from previous vehicles, I’d spent more on storage than I got for them.
We are in the process of putting one our homes on the market. As such, we needed to pull some furniture, knick knacks, clutter out of the house to get ready for showings. So, this past week, I just rented a 10x15 unit in a climate controlled storage facility for $200 per month. Plan is for the house to go on the market in the next couple of weeks. If it sells quickly, I’ll need another unit or two to move all of the furniture and household goods into, until we buy another home.
I believe that offsite storage should be a temporary solution. If you don’t have room in your home for your things…then you have too much stuff. As much as I hate moving, the one benefit is that causes you to evaluate your belongings and get rid of things you don’t need.
I have a big home, so yeah, if i can’t fit it here, I’m probably not going to use it. But a nice climate controlled unit can be cheaper than moving to a larger home.
(When i had a storage unit, i shopped for one that was climate controlled, well ventilated, and had no mildewy odors. That was well worth paying for.)
Yes. We’ve kept a storage unit for at least 20 years now.
Our RV.
40’ x 12’ x 16’, covered w electric service (open on the front, no climate control)
$185/month.
At some point we’ll age out of RV-ing. We bought our first camper in 1981, now on our 7th and probably last one. When we get too old for it we’ll sell and drop the storage bay.