Written by Haylee Swinford
Okay, so you’ve decided to store. Or maybe you’re just thinking about it, looking into all your options. Maybe you’ve been using self-storage for a while, but you’re wondering if the type of storage you’ve chosen in the past is really the best for you. Drive-up, climate-controlled, dust-controlled…they vary in price and in purpose. Climate-controlled sounds great, but do the items you’re storing really need that extra protection? Drive-up units are really convenient, and are often available in more sizes, but do the things you’re storing need a little extra care in the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter?
Often times, people store the overflow from their home. They have extra furniture, old clothes, piles of boxes full of inherited décor, an old foosball table they “had room for” in college, antique bargains that don’t have a place in their home, old photographs, high school memoirs, even magazines and decades-old paperwork. The list goes on. The items you’re deciding to store will make all the difference in what kind of unit you choose to rent.
Climate Controlled
With climate-controlled self-storage, you’ll find the highest level of protection many facilities offer. These units are indoors and are maintained with a heater or a/c throughout the year to ensure a steady temperature. You not only have protection from heat and cold, but also extra protection from other types of weather (rain storms or dust storms), as well as pests. These units are great if you’re storing photographs, leather furniture or electronics. These units would be the equivalent of, say, storing your things in a spare closet.
Dust-Controlled
If you choose the middle tier of protection, you’re choosing a storage unit that is indoors, so you still get that extra protection from water and dust, but the temperature in these units is not maintained. In the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter, any temperature-sensitive items wouldn’t be too thrilled to be stored here. However, if the items you’re storing could feasibly be kept in your garage during the most extreme temperatures of the year, they’ll be fine to be in one of these units. You could keep many antiques in this environment, books, upholstered furniture, mattresses, etc.
Drive-Up
These are your typical storage units. They face the exterior of the building and are really convenient for load and unloading since you can shimmy your vehicle right up to the door. They are often available in the most sizes and for the lowest prices. They will adequately protect your stuff from the elements to about the same degree as a garage will. If you’re looking to store typical household décor, old toys, clothes, yard or construction equipment, wooden furniture, and other non-sensitive things.
Every type of unit has its use. If all you need to store are some Christmas decorations, tubs of your kids’ old clothes and an end table, you probably don’t need to shell out the extra money for a climate-controlled unit since your stuff will be perfectly safe in a drive-up. But if you have some boxes of old pictures or a nice leather wing-back chair, you might want to consider going with a fancier unit.
Make sure your choice fits your storage needs. And if you ever have any questions about what kind of unit would be best for you, you can always ask the staff at your facility. They’re there to help you.
Happy storing!
Haylee Swinford is the lead writer and social media manager for DreamTaxi Media and Lubbock Self Storage. For more from her pen, visit her blog at hayleejalyn.com
