# What’s the Deal With All These Self-Storage Centers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844 "2003-12-18T20:45:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/21 "2004-01-01T21:35:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohnBckWLD \* > \*\* > To paraphrase Tolkien, If more of us valued food, cheer and song instead of hoarding useless crap, it would be a merrier world with more landfills. > > \*\* slightly more than a nitpick: wouldn’t “… it would be a merrier world with ‘fewer’ landfills.” be a bit closer in meaning to Tolkein’s intent? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/22 "2004-01-01T23:13:46Z")
We put stuff in a self-storage when we had our house on the market. Realtors want to show houses that look like the ones in magazines. We had a lot of stuff (books and such) that expressed our personality but didn’t look much like a magazine layout. Also, apparently it really helps the marketability of a house to keep it from looking cluttered. ---
**Author:** ![LadyMack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@LadyMack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadyMack)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/23 "2004-01-01T23:28:09Z")
The perfect place to store an Ex that you offed, and packed into a barrel. Unless you forget to pay the bill. George Carlin’s take comes to mind. Stuff. Buy more stuff. Get a bigger place for stuff. Sell stuff. Buy more stuff. Rent a storage space if you haven’t got room for your stuff. I bought a (new) brass bed and mattress from a guy that uses 3 storage bays as an outlet store. As said, less overhead. We rent one for (I think) fifty bucks a month. Since our present small house is a rental, we don’t have the option to build any storage of our own. We had combined 2 households, but I’m not sure that is a good enough reason, since the contents are just shifted around and looked at once in awhile. Our newest pact is to go through all this ‘stuff’ before we move to our own place, and throw away or sell about half of it. _sigh_ We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![rostfrei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@rostfrei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rostfrei)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/24 "2004-01-02T00:18:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cheddarsnax \* > \*\*Is it legal to live in one of these self-storage centers? \*\* I’ve often wondered the same thing. But, all of the storage places around here lock up at around 6pm. You couldn’t get in or out. That curfew is way to early for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/25 "2004-01-02T01:41:44Z")
In Neal Stephenson’s _Snow Crash_\*, the protagonist lives in one. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/26 "2004-01-02T02:03:24Z")
Now that I think about it, if one were considering living in a self-storage garage, the legality of it would likely not be of great concern. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/27 "2004-01-02T23:03:16Z")
Need someplace to hide the bodies ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844/28 "2004-01-03T00:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*_In Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash_, the protagonist lives in one. 🙂 \*\* I think you mean the Protagonist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-deal-with-all-these-self-storage-centers/219844.md?page=1)