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How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

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Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#31

Post by tbirrell »

snarf21 wrote: post #4
chasingthewind wrote: post #2

I try to be pretty slow to criticize people for taking advantage of a service that they find valuable. Calling things in these storage units "junk" is a moral judgement that's repeated a bit early on and then cast off to make room for the more mundane rundown of the market analysis. In the end, there's no way to know the ratio of people getting good value out of this storage to the number of people throwing good mone…

I agree with you and there are short term reasons to put everything in storage. There is another group that just has stuff squirreled away "in case". I personally believe that most people would be happier following a less is more philosophy which can be approached simply by throwing out or selling or donating anything you haven't worn/used in the last year (or two).

Throwing stuff out is hard to do if you are poor or were raised poor. Everything you save now does not have to be bought later. There is a potential use for anything and everything, so you might as well keep it. Granted, at a certain point the cost of the storage facility exceeds the amount saved, but the mindset is still there.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#32

Post by QuarterReptile »

patentatt wrote: post #8
chasingthewind wrote: post #2

I try to be pretty slow to criticize people for taking advantage of a service that they find valuable. Calling things in these storage units "junk" is a moral judgement that's repeated a bit early on and then cast off to make room for the more mundane rundown of the market analysis. In the end, there's no way to know the ratio of people getting good value out of this storage to the number of people throwing good mone…

Sure, what if the rent/mortgage you pay per square foot in your home is greater than the rent for a storage locker down the road? And there are reasonable use cases for medium-long term storage, such as seasonal items. I don't know how many people use them this way, but I can see reasonable uses too.

To add another use case: I know a lot of military people who throw all their stuff in storage when they deploy. Faced with no costs except a storage unit and low-mileage car insurance, a lot of them come back after the better part of a year with a down payment on a house.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#34

Post by sporkenfang »

sbinthree wrote: post #27
xefer wrote: post #21

One thing I've noticed over the years reading old wills and probate records (16th -18th century) is just how few physical possessions even fairly well-off people owned. Estate inventories often list individual coats, shirts, bedding, bowls, tools, etc. I think the material wealth we have today is so incredible we don't even realize how much we've accumulated and could probably do without.

Based on a phase I went through involving getting rid of almost all my possessions, you can get rid of ~50% of your stuff and barely notice. But that last 10-20% is so amazingly critical, you come to appreciate it and the work that must have gone into it more. That said, having things that are useful and last never gets old, just make donating something you do as often as shopping. Also that is a pretty strange but i…

I've had a thing ever since grad school (I lived in a 400 sq. ft. apartment, so it was necessity then) that if I buy a thing, I have to donate something else -- particularly for clothes. It's amazing how much less crap I've accumulated than friends and family of a similar age.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#35

Post by djrogers »

mathattack wrote: post #13

A lot of storage is a real estate play. Buy land in the direction of where cities are growing. Pay your mortgage with storage facilities sitting on top until the land appreciates.

Interesting theory, but I've never seen a storage facility close down and be turned in to other real-estate...

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#36

Post by jiveturkey »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #29
cornholio wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we have all learned from reality-TV, a good quarter of the units are choke-full with anything but junk: you will find sculpted furniture in pristine condition, civil war artifacts, expensive professional equipment and tens of thousands of dollars in rare baseball cards. The industry must be really struggling to provide adequate security.

But they show only the cream of the crop. never gonna air that episode where they found water-logged bundles of newspapers, old Byte magazines in mouse-chewed boxes and a raccoon mummy.

your sarcasm filter is broken

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#37

Post by JoeAltmaier »

jiveturkey wrote: post #36
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they show only the cream of the crop. never gonna air that episode where they found water-logged bundles of newspapers, old Byte magazines in mouse-chewed boxes and a raccoon mummy.

your sarcasm filter is broken

yeah its harder in print to detect. If it had been a tad more over the top I would have got it!

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#40

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

djrogers wrote: post #35
mathattack wrote: post #13

A lot of storage is a real estate play. Buy land in the direction of where cities are growing. Pay your mortgage with storage facilities sitting on top until the land appreciates.

Interesting theory, but I've never seen a storage facility close down and be turned in to other real-estate...

I have. Some of my extended family almost certainly by luck built their storage unit complex right where the state decided to move the highway. The made millions.
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