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Five Things that You Should Keep in Storage Instead of in Your Home

Do you have Clutter Creep? It’s a recent phenomenon caused by our ability to easily purchase items we want. With Amazon and other online retailers offering free shipping, getting that item you saw pop up on your Instagram feed is so simple. But this easy purchase process comes with a downside. Clutter. A seven-letter word that might as well be a four-letter word. Your house or apartment is now home to all sorts of things that you use only occasionally, but still need a place to store. Too often those items end up in places such as room corners, cramped closets, overstuffed garages, or the dreaded basement. This clutter starts creeping into your subconscious and gives you anxiety.

But there is a solution. Storage units are the perfect antidote for clutter creep. Here are five things that you should keep in a storage unit rather than your home.

Sporting Equipment

It’s great that you are active and enjoy participating in multiple sports and outdoor pursuits. But many of these activities require a certain amount of equipment, with some of this equipment being very large. Take for instance kayaking or paddleboarding. These items are huge and take up an enormous amount of space. For some people, these items need to be at their fingertips because they’re out on the water a couple of times a week. But if you’re like the rest of us, you go kayaking or paddleboarding maybe once or twice a month. In this case, keeping these items at your storage unit makes a whole lot of sense. When you decide to engage in these activities, just swing by your unit and pick them up before heading out onto the water.

Lawn and Patio Furniture

If you have patio furniture, you want it out there during the nice weather—typically late spring, summer, and early fall. But during the rest of the time, it just sits out there being beaten down by the elements or taking up a giant amount of space in your garage, basement, or crawl space. Instead, when the season is over, load it up and take it over to your storage unit. A drive-up accessible storage unit is perfect for this. Not only will you protect your expensive furniture, but it won’t be an eyesore sitting out there in the winter months.

Seasonal Decorations

Some people really get into decorating their home for each holiday. If this is you, most likely you have boxes and boxes of decorations whether it’s Christmas decorations, Valentine’s Day decorations, Halloween decorations, Easter, etc. A friend of mine has almost her entire garage filled with decorations, so much so that she can’t fit a car in that garage. Solution? A storage unit, of course! Not only will it help make room in your garage, it will also allow you to keep everything neat and orderly. You can buy a shelving unit to put in your storage space along with totes that can organize all your decorations by season.

Clothing

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it’s so easy to buy clothes now. But, if you’re like many of us, your closet is busting at the seams. While Marie Kondo would have you believe that you have to thin out your wardrobe in order to give yourself peace and calm, our suggestion is to put those extra items in a storage unit. This especially applies to items that are either seasonal (winter coats, boots, summer shorts, tank tops), or specialty clothing (ball gowns, suits, ski clothing, etc.) Plus, many storage units are climate-controlled meaning the temperature stays constant year-round, which will help maintain the integrity of your clothing since it won’t be exposed to large temperature and humidity swings that can harm delicate fabrics.

Business Files

business files in storage
Do you have a home-based business? If so, then you most likely have filing cabinets full of important documents. Things like tax records, invoices, accounts payable receipts, etc. While these are incredibly important to your business, chances are you’re not going to need to reference them very often. A business storage unit can keep all these papers. You’ll have access when you need it and it will be out of your way when you don’t.

These are just five categories of things that you can put in your storage unit to declutter your life. Think about what else you have that’s taking up room. I’m sure you can come up with plenty of items. If not, here are 125 things you can put in a storage unit.

About the Author: Derek Hines

About the Author: Derek Hines

Digital Marketing Specialist

Derek is originally from the great state of Wisconsin (go Badgers), but is slowly becoming a Pacific Northwesterner. As part of the Digital Marketing team, he writes extensively on storage, moving and life for West Coast Self-Storage, based in Everett, Washington.