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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

#81

Post by bluGill »

jcater wrote: post #17
patentatt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've seen the reality TV shows where they auction these things off, even the cherry-picked units for TV are like 1/2 absolute junk that literally goes strait into a dumpster.

Sure, but that's a somewhat self-selecting group of units -- ones that the renters let fall behind and get auctioned off.

In fact that is one solution to the junk problem sometimes recommended: if you are not sure put something in a storage unit, pay rent for a year. Anything you haven't gone back for in a years must not be important so let them clean it out for you. In theory you could clean it our yourself for more value (craigslist/ebay), but you run the risk of trying to justify keeping something.

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

#82

Post by rcr »

komali2 wrote: post #53
tbirrell wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Man this rings so true for me, even as I pull an engineer salary now. Keep moving a car around free parking spaces even though I haven't "used' it in a year, still squirrel away a bunch of useless shit because what if! I still have trouble turning down free food even if it isn't in line with my diet x.x poverty habits just stay with you

I just finally rid myself of boxes worth of old computer parts and cables. But what if I need 7 VGA adapters???

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

#83

Post by dddrh »

mathattack wrote: post #79
dddrh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually the opposite, it's more akin to a SaaS company. I've worked with Owner-Operators of facilities and the ones who do it right are printing money. The smart ones optimize towards revenue per square foot and can pull in upwards of $30,000+ of profit per month. And that can be on a single facility. Typically the smart ones own 2-3 facilities. They buy an underperforming facility and optimize its functions an…

I though REITs focused for the opposite. I wonder if it’s driven by the city? Are the storage units you’re looking at in low cost or high cost areas?

It depends on how the Trust wants to focus its funds. Similar to how a VC fund might focus on enterprise software or B2C. For a reference of Self-Storage REITs, this is a good start(1).

Different markets are definitely hotter than others. Houston, Miami, Austin, Los Angeles are some of the more lucrative markets, but even small markets have strong players. Self-storage is fairly democratic in the markets served. I've visited facilities in rural town that are wildly successful for the owners, as well as small facilities outside of Manhattan Beach.

(1) https://www.reit.com/what-reit/reit-sectors/self-storage-rei...

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

#84

Post by opportune »

Spooky23 wrote: post #64
wolfgang42 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an astonishing amount of money. Is it not possible to have everything packed up and shipped to their current location? Even if paying someone to do this cost $2000 for each unit that would still pay itself back after a year.

My guess is that there are other personal issues at play. I think that there is "heirloom" furniture involved, etc. From articles I've read and conversations that I've had with different folks, I don't think that scenario is uncommon.

A common theme with hoarders is that they'll acknowledge they have too much stuff in general, but when it becomes time to get rid of an individual item, they always have a reason to hold on to it. For my mother, the reason she hoards is 100% due to things being "heirlooms" and every individual item having a story. After her dad died she couldn't throw away any of his old stuff because she grew up with most of it and it reminded her of her parents (who were at that point both deceased). It's a difficult situation because it's quite reasonable to hang on to a large number of old items, just not all of them. But each individual item still seems incredibly important to her

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

#85

Post by tbirrell »

rcr wrote: post #82
komali2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man this rings so true for me, even as I pull an engineer salary now. Keep moving a car around free parking spaces even though I haven't "used' it in a year, still squirrel away a bunch of useless shit because what if! I still have trouble turning down free food even if it isn't in line with my diet x.x poverty habits just stay with you

I just finally rid myself of boxes worth of old computer parts and cables. But what if I need 7 VGA adapters???

Murphy's Law dictates you will need them next week.

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

#86

Post by hathawsh »

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'm think the hobby you're referring to is genealogy. It's actually a very common and useful hobby. :-)

https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/genealogy-second-most-popular-...

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

#87

Post by mjrpes »

cortesoft wrote: post #67
snarf21 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

How would throwing stuff away that is in storage make you happier? I mean, I understand saying it is a waste of money, but if it is in storage and you never look at it or even think about it really, how would it make you happier for it to not be there?

Everyone is different, but it feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders when I get rid of stuff I don't need or can't justify keeping. Marie Kondo wrote a book on this: The Japanese Art of Decluttering.

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Declutter...

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

#88

Post by opportune »

dddrh wrote: post #71
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.

It's actually the opposite, it's more akin to a SaaS company. I've worked with Owner-Operators of facilities and the ones who do it right are printing money. The smart ones optimize towards revenue per square foot and can pull in upwards of $30,000+ of profit per month. And that can be on a single facility. Typically the smart ones own 2-3 facilities. They buy an underperforming facility and optimize its functions an…

I love reading about interesting business models such as this. A similar one I've read about before is vending machines. Apparently a well-run vending machine business (ignoring labor costs) can easily achieve 50-100% ROI per year per machine. The vending machine owners don't usually have to pay for the electricity of the machine and each machine only costs $2-3k. Maintenance/restocking has relatively low labor requirements and the stock itself is so cheap it's almost a negligible cost.

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

#89

Post by pessimizer »

opportune wrote: post #84
Spooky23 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that there are other personal issues at play. I think that there is "heirloom" furniture involved, etc. From articles I've read and conversations that I've had with different folks, I don't think that scenario is uncommon.

A common theme with hoarders is that they'll acknowledge they have too much stuff in general, but when it becomes time to get rid of an individual item, they always have a reason to hold on to it. For my mother, the reason she hoards is 100% due to things being "heirlooms" and every individual item having a story. After her dad died she couldn't throw away any of his old stuff because she grew up with most of it and…

In the case of my grandmother, she'll definitely make up a story behind an item she doesn't recognize (and you happen to.) It's just a simple fear of throwing or giving things away - but so disguised that I couldn't tell until I noticed her clinging onto some of my old things that I had thrown away, and her not knowing that they were originally mine.
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