Small homes, lots of stuff… No wonder self-storage is thriving.
This article was posted in the Daily Mail Online on 2nd July 2010.
The bearded man seemed strangely familiar as he wheeled a large trolley towards the bank of lifts. We had clearly seen each other before, but I wasn’t sure where.
Then I realised that he was a neighbour, albeit not in the conventional sense. His self-storage unit and mine were on the same floor, just around the corner from each other in a newly-built self storage facility. But we had never spoken, until now.
‘It happens every time,’ he said. ‘I go up to my unit with the intention of throwing stuff out – but I just can’t do it. So I lock up again, go home, and repeat the whole thing a few weeks later. What a performance.’
Oh, I know the problem only too well. Hundreds of thousands of us do much the same thing. This, in part, explains why the self-storage industry has taken off in the past decade, with spectacular results.
They’re everywhere: Self Storage facilities are all over the southeast. And they’re not just to be found in out-of-town industrial estates but bang in the middle of residential communities, with people coming and going 7 days a week.
Here are the figures: in 1995 there were a mere 60 self-storage sites in Britain. By 2000, that number had risen to 187, and today there are no fewer than 800.
The Self Storage Association UK, which represents 150 companies in this burgeoning sector, estimates that 240,000 of us rent a self-storage unit and that increasingly we regard them as spare rooms to help ease the burden on our cluttered homes.
And it’s good business. The industry generates revenues of around £350 million and directly employs almost 3,000 people.
Self-storage companies prosper best when the housing market is thriving. You sell your home but haven’t found anywhere to buy, so you rent a smaller house or flat and bide your time. But you have excess furniture and several boxes of possessions.
So what's the solution? You could get your removal company to store everything, but the snag is that you won’t be able to get access to it until the day you move permanently. And that’s where self-storage comes in. ‘It’s like having a garage or an extra room that just happens to be off the premises, ‘The great bonus is that it gives you flexibility. You can go round any time you want and you can easily change units if you want a bigger or smaller one. You are the person in control.’
All kinds of factors have led to the self-storage boom. The increase in divorce has played a part, as has the trend for downsizing. But it’s also the case that most newly-built houses in the UK are too small and don’t have enough storage space.
A report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built environment last year concluded that 47 percent of those surveyed thought their homes weren’t big enough for all their furniture and 35 percent said their kitchens were too small even to accommodate a toaster.
Some of the other things people get up to in their storage spaces include band practice, keep-fit classes, ballet lessons, and entertaining. Hosting a party in a square box might not sound especially glamorous, but the chances are you won’t annoy the neighbours. And, afterward, you can lock up the mess and go home!
Lok’nStore Self Storage offers the cheapest most secure storage in the industry. For more information call, 0800 587 3322 or visit our website at loknstore.co.uk
Posted in: Storage Miscellany