From time to time, everyone finds themselves in need of some extra storage space. After all, we live in a society oriented towards consumerism. In other words – we buy a lot of stuff. And if that stuff lasts us a while, it tends to create clutter. Obviously, the first solution would be to get rid of excess items through donating, recycling, or simply throwing them away. But in reality, things aren’t that simple. There are many possessions that you simply can’t or won’t get rid of, but you still have no room for at home. In that situation, renting a storage unit, be it inside a storage facility or an on site storage container is an obvious solution. However, that brings us to an entirely different issue – these can be expensive for your personal budget. Don’t worry, though – we’ll give you a couple of excellent tips on ways to save money on storage expenses right here!
Choose What You Store
Okay, so there are definitely a lot of reasons why millions of US citizens use external storage for their items; in a huge number of cases, these are expenses that are definitely justified, even if you’re on a tight budget. After all, if you have items that require climate-controlled storage, for instance; you can’t exactly keep them in your garage. In that situation, you certainly need to spend some money on storage; but that doesn’t mean you can’t save money on storage expenses.
And the first rule of doing that is – don’t store absolutely everything. While you probably have some bulky items that you can’t keep in your home; the last thing you want is for the storage unit that you rent to become a garbage bin that you’re paying for. Let’s be realistic; you’ve probably got plenty of trinkets that don’t have much sentimental or real worth. Don’t waste your storage space on this. And if you carefully curate the kind of items you’re putting into storage; you’ll save a lot of space, and thus, money.
Track Discounts
You should know that the world of storage is a fairly competitive one; the industry is filled with all kinds of companies that are looking to attract the most attention from potential customers. Considering that, it’s no wonder that industry leaders like Zippy Shell Louisiana constantly offer attractive prices and all kinds of promotions in order to draw consumers. If you want to save money on storage expenses, our advice would be to look for promotions online. Also, when you’re negotiating with potential storage providers; depending on what kind of services you need, there may be some wiggle room that you can exploit to ask for a discount.
Go Through All The Options
While the need to save money on storage expenses is understandable – you don’t want to go overboard in your frugality either. If you’re going to be storing glass and other breakable items, or something that’s easily perishable; you need to make sure that you’ve got a storage unit that can fulfill your needs. With that in mind, we recommend taking the time to go through all available options for storage in your area. Obviously, the Internet is an excellent source of information in this regard; chances are that any self-respecting storage operation in your area will advertise on the Internet as well. Once you’ve got a list of all the respectable facilities nearby, compare all of the storage service packages that they offer you; in the sense of price and size. There are additional factors to consider as well – like facility security, ease of access, etc.
Careful Packing
Naturally, the ways you can save money on storage expenses differ depending on what you’re going to store, and the timespan of storage as well. For instance – if you’re going to place a lot of smaller items in storage, chances are that you’re going to pack them in various boxes instead of just dumping them in the storage unit. Herein lies another way to cut down on storage costs. Before you even rent a storage unit, pack everything up as tightly as possible. If you use every inch of free space in those boxes, you’ll find that you actually need a lot less storage space than you previously thought. That way, you might be able to place everything that you envisioned in a smaller storage unit.
Bulky Items
Of course, apart from the hundreds of small trinkets that you’re going to need storage space for; you might also require storage ideas for large items. And if you’ve got a lot of bulky things that you can’t really place in your home or garage; we suggest considering every possible alternative before using the space in your storage unit for those. For example, do you have any friends or family members who have bigger homes with more space? They might be willing to let you keep the item at their house. Explore every storage avenue before letting the big stuff affect the cost of your storage space.
Sharing Space
At the end of the day, there’s always the possibility that you might not have enough things to justify paying for an entire storage unit; but you still need some extra space. At that point, consider banding together with other people that you know; individuals who might also need some extra space. You could share the price for a single storage unit, and divide the space inside fairly. If both parties don’t require too much space, this shouldn’t be a problem.
