America is ADDICTED to Self Storage

Americans are truly addicted to buying stuff and these storage lockers have become a fascinating metaphor in the story of how the American dream has failed. So what's happening?
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Script: Courtney Bill
Editor: Sam Askew
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand
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[@justanotter425]

I had a very different experience with self-storage. I became homeless for 2 years and was able to get most of my and my partner's things into storage. When we got into a good rental finally, we were able to unpack everything and are in the process of putting our lives back together now without losing any tools, some of which aren't replaceable. No more storage lockers for us, but we're tremendously glad to have had that resource available when everything else had broken down. Selling everything would not have saved us from homelessness and the re-acquisition cost of everything we put in there would have set us back far further than the cost of the unit for that period of time.

[@Adrastia]

This was also my experience. I became homeless due to circumstances I could not remedy and an unsafe living situation. If it wasn't for that closet sized unit I'd own nothing and not even have any clothing. We aren't the only ones. I've heard other stories of people who were lucky enough to have some kind of income and store what they could. I snuck my dog into a cheap motel that didn't even care (someone else had a dog that barked all the time) and relatives took me in. Those then relatives also lost their home and we were able to afford an apartment together. I am trying to keep all my possessions fitting into one room for further convenience. I don't need many things. It's better to have only what you need. Because storage is expensive.

[@nampyeon635]

I was never homeless, but lived in many small apartments over many years. I was so glad when my wife and I were finally able to buy a house with some space at the age of almost 40, and finally bring my things out of storage and keep them at home with us.

[@Hardworking_Trucker]

While I’m not homeless I had a transition (state to state move) and things have not gone according to plan. If I were to dump all my stuff I’d have nothing to start over with like yourself

[@ProducerJakeyJam]

@justanotter425 how were you able to pay the rent when you lived on the street? My German understanding of homelessness is that you live by the money you get donated by people passing you some cents in the pedestrian zone. You would never make enough money to pay 200$ a month for stuff you don't need. On the other hand mostly migrants without passports live on the streets here because there is social security for everyone who applies

[@bonniegaither3994]

I think that’s an entirely different situation than people who just have so much crap. They can’t park their cars in their garage and they have to go rent a storage unit as well.

[@ttopero]

Another perspective is that we have an “attachment” problem as part of our mental health issues. We no longer have a healthy way of disassociating from things that we acquire so it’s easier to just relocate it instead of process it: out of sight, out of mind!

[@ommanipadmehung3014]

Very true

[@MartijnPennings]

I can relate on a digital level. Google recently sent me messages that my "free" amount of storage data was almost used, so now instead of just deleting old data, I'm paying €2 per month to have a digital storage unit for my decades old e-mails and digital photographs. "Maybe it'll be important to me in the future"....

[@jenniferbates2811]

Exactly

[@ddawe31635]

Out of sight, into the dumpster!

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

Too true

[@richdobbs6595]

Part of the issue is that we don't have a functioning second hand system. The landlord's washing machine broke down - we don't provide washing machines any more. So I had to buy a washing machine for a rental unit. Then she gave me 90 days notice that she wanted to remodel the place rather than doing the maintenance that I had requested. The new place had a washer and dryer. It turns out used appliance stores don't buy used appliance for resale - they process the appliances that are collected when appliances are replaced. I tried to Craiglist, but regardless of how much I dropped the price down I couldn't sell it even though it was barely a year old.

[@user-rc2yf8kt7i]

Places like habitat for humanity would take it.

[@calvinasinhobbes]

Another factor is due to how cheaply appliances are made its just not worth buying something newish if the warranty doesn't transfer over unless its a premium product. I have no issue with (and have) bought used Miele dishwashers and 20 year old washer/dryer set b/c I can repair them myself, parts are mostly available for them and the used cost of the machines make it justifiable. But I would have second thoughts about doing it with anything made in the last 10years

[@joermnyc]

@@calvinasinhobbesit’s not cheap, everything breaks sooner because everything needs a computer in it. Older all mechanical appliances are better for repair. Now it’s, “well the motherboard is shot, and they don’t make this particular one anymore so the whole unit is dead.

[@anonananas940]

I just give things away for free, help a fellow human out!

[@FutureProofTV]

we've thought about this specifically with appliances a lot, we've even considered making a video about it. More and more items are becoming unresellable due to a lack of quality - we appreciate this perspective!

[@jokerman545]

I recently downsized from a 3000sqft house to a 1200 sqft apartment. It was crazy how much absolute garbage I had accumulated in the 2 years I was at the house. Luckily we were able to lean down without a storage unit.

[@user-rc2yf8kt7i]

I live in a 330 sq ft apartment and it forces me to examine each and every item I own and be mindful about buying anything new.

[@piccalillipit9211]

My story is very long and complicated but I left a very full 2,800sq foot apartment and a large retail unit full of stuff with my dog and what I could fit in my car. I was very sick at the time and I decided for my health not to worry about getting my probably €75k of possessions back. It was actually one of my BETTER life choices. Ive lived a very happy life for the last 8 years without ANY of it.

[@oreotookie]

Same. We downsized when moving to a high cost of living area. We donated so MUCH stuff. Still didn’t rent a storage unit, but I don’t blame those that do in that situation.

[@MavonEast]

I recently completed a clean out after my youngest kid moved away. I had 25 years of toys and parts, ancient craft kits and more board games than I knew existed. I donated a dozen trash bags of stuff and threw out ten more. Now there are empty spots instead of overflowing shelves. I love it.😂

[@Zyo117]

I live I'm a 700 square foot apartment and have wayy too much stuff. Including a collection of old TV stuff and model railway stuff... I need an estate to fit my stuff in. For now most of it gets used as display items for the nobody that comes around 😂 if it wasn't obvious already, I'm single and not really planning on changing that 🤣

[@grooviechickie]

They're popular in Australia too. Then again, we're a mini America... A friend stored all her important stuff (photos, things particularly special to her) in her storage shed. Then a major flood happened. 😮 yep, she lost the lot.

[@cathyjoy9214]

They were super big in Australia in the 1980s (the time of over excess). Many then closed down in the 1990s; there's a few still around but not as many as the 80s

[@polarboy5862]

Like everything in Australia though they absolutely take the piss with how much they charge.

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

I lot of my childhood stuff got ruined when moving by water somehow so my important stuff is in watertight containers now.

[@InventorZahran]

I'm pretty sure Australia is geographically larger than the United States, but most popular map projections make it look smaller...

[@cathyjoy9214]

@@InventorZahran, it’s pretty much the same size geographically, but way less people.

[@kibble-net]

Storage Bros hate this one weird trick......... The Backrooms.

[@jolo3118]

Love this comment!

[@jensenraylight8011]

Storage Bros gonna sleep in their Storage unit with this one weird trick

[@chualarbill]

I thought they had some issues with a few bacteria?

[@lunaris69]

alright that was a good one, that made me smile

[@BitchinSpectre]

I play the backrooms soundtrack regularly on the pa speakers at one of my facilities...storage core or [storage] Is a legitimate aesthetic movement! and the backrooms is widely considered to be one of its key influences.

[@philippemarcil2004]

There is a lot of very good usage for self-storage and this video focused a lot on it negative usage without offering a balanced view. I think self-storage is great for: 1) When you are moving around the countries for studying or working and need temporary storage for your furniture. Hence, not surprising that younger generation really like it as they move more often for these reasons. 2) As a warehousing options for small business. Traditional warehousing often have security problems and having your own warehouse is very expensive. Self-storage is hence an excellent option. 3) When you have a small apartment but have hobbies with lot of gears. Try storing your camping and kayaking gear in your 1-bedroom apartment and you will soon realize that maybe you can put it all in a storage and get it out on the week-end instead of having it taking half of your living room or bedroom. I however agree, that for decluttering or downsizing you should instead get rid or, better, sell or recycle that stuff but I wouldn't put that at the feet of consumerism but that at the feet of our human psychology to hoard and keep things around. Finally, if some of the stuff put in storage by downsizing or decluttering eventually get re-used and hence reduce our waste wouldn't that be a good thing? Maybe you can argue that possibly this should be done earlier but there is sometime a mismatch between wanting to get rid of stuff and having someone to give it too/having the time to sell it which is why self-storage can be useful.

[@imadork123]

Going off of number 3, the only time I have considered self-storage was when I needed to store a different set of tires for my car, but I lived in an apartment. You don't want to store outdoor stuff in living space.

[@UnlimitedEmeralds]

We have only used self storage when moving apartments. It is horrible being homeless for a week or two, but at least all my stuff won’t be stolen.

[@angelal8829]

Hard agree! I'm moving into a furnished place in a different city for a year and am planning to store my stuff in that time. If I end up moving back, I don't have to start from scratch in my hometown. If I end up staying there, I have friends/family likely to be in a more stable place next year that could probably benefit some of my furniture and appliances. (of course, I will need to actually go through everything if I end up staying in my new city. But I'm happier trusting myself to do that than getting rid of all my stuff in a stressful purge process now and needing it again next year)

[@epic-concept]

I don't think that video is implying that nobody has ever any real use for a storage locker, but rather that more often than not, people would rather put their stuff in the storage, than get rid of it (whether because they're emotionally attached to it, because they're too lazy to properly dispose of it, or because of the hoarding mentality of "I might need this later"). The 3 points you've outlined, while valid, aren't applicable to the points of the video. They wouldn't apply to a scenario, where a person loads up a storage locker, and rarely if ever visits it again - oftentimes forgetting what they have in the storage locker, and likely even rebuying the same things as they already have, just because they don't remember they have them. Basically, if you have a storage locker with stuff, and you have no need to use some/all of it for extended periods of time, and you can't even remember what's in that locker - it's probably a good case for getting rid of that stuff, and stop paying for the locker. Of course, there are exceptions, but 10% of Americans with storage lockers can't possible all be exceptions :) (yeah, try to tell that to those people....)

[@Emmuzka]

I've heard of people who have rented storage space for piano or drum practice. You'd need a space with a heating / air condition, but then there are no limits on how loud and on what time of day you can play. It's a lot cheaper than renting an actual practice space.

[@pesky716]

Suddenly I want to rent a storage space.

[@grafknives9544]

How about you give me your stuff (I will sell/throw it away)AND you pay me monthly fee. After all - you ain't gonna take stuff out anyway.

[@willocoptor]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@grafknives9544pipe down karen and let people pay for services they want

[@kevinquito7186]

Take my money

[@juiceweezer]

Just one????

[@piccalillipit9211]

Just give it away. You dont need it.

[@runashadow4033]

For my four years of college I shared a storage unit with two friends to store some of our bulkier things we couldn’t take home during breaks. It was really helpful to have because me and one other friend lived out of state. I think these can be used in a helpful way when people just need a temporary place to hold their stuff like if someone is moving or college kids need stuff to be held for break.

[@PASH3227]

AMEN!

[@SemekiIzuio]

Yup also depending where you ate some allow open sales as in they let you put out stuff to sell and let people walk around and see like garage sale

[@VitaKet]

Sure.. but well over half are boomers/genx who just have too much stuff.

[@sarahkinsey5434]

@@SemekiIzuio There is an insane amount of stuff left behind at the end of semester/year. Some colleges will fix it up and resell it.

[@NathanCrouse611]

I did that when I moved home for the Summer. This does make sense for their use. Long term storage for low quality items doesn't though. I stored some pretty useless items for 2.5 years when I moved in with a roommate. By the time I moved my stuff to a house I bought I had spent $2500+ in rent on storing stuff that wasn't worth that. A lot of stuff I ended up getting rid of anyway, and the rest I could have replaced for less than $2500 in total.

[@randalalansmith9883]

You didn't even touch on the idea of storage while living in your car. Gotta be at least 10% of leasers.

[@landenkeller8218]

not even close

[@xXSexyEmoSkittlesXx]

It's more like 50% 😞

[@xXSexyEmoSkittlesXx]

It's more like 50% 😞

[@BrianWaller-qe7gr]

I’m one of them. I use my unit like a garage

[@CaptainBill22]

The chef's kiss here is that abandoned big box stores are the ones being converted to storage units. I get so excited to see work being done on an abandoned store where I live, and of course, it's a storage facility.

[@dieseldragon6756]

We have a similar trend in the UK, but it's normally former bank premesis being turned into Wetherspoons' pubs. Good food, shame about their support for Brexit! 😋 On the bright side though, their pubs aren't 'alf bad if you like a bit of exercise whilst going to the bathroom (Minimum three miles away along a warren of passageways and staircases! 🚽🏃💨🤣)

[@philipward7846]

A Holiday Inn Holidome near me was recently converted into indoor self storage.

[@InventorZahran]

The land those vacant stores stand on would be an ideal place to build affordable mid- to high-density housing. But storage is quicker and cheaper to set up + maintain, so that's what often ends up happening...

[@DigitalDirge]

Yesterday I found out my unit was broken into. The thief picked both locks, and it was inside a locked climate controlled building behind a gate. It happened somewhere between May second and yesterday. Slightly under two months without visiting the unit, but things got busy. All my jewelry is gone, and a fortune in DVD box sets and board games. Dude broke a locked display case to open it, and trashed the place before locking up. If you have a storage unit you haven't visited in a while, it might be worth making a trip. Take photos of everything before you leave so you can show them to your insurance adjuster. Don't keep the receipts for the stuff you store in the same unit as the stuff, and if you can help it, never EVER store heirlooms or items of sentiment in places like this. Hand made gifts from dead loved ones can't be bought back if you can't track down where they were fenced, and even if your insurer gives you a 'fair' monetary compensation, it won't get those pieces of them back. Stay safe everyone. edit: to get ahead of potentially victim blamey comments since this is KZbin, all that important stuff is/was in there because due to a scummy lying landlord, everyone I was living with had to panic-vacate ASAP in spite of us paying our full rent and utilities for the entire pandemic without fail. We went from a 4 bedroom home with a large yard and garage to one of us moving back with his parents, one couch surfing across the states, and the last two of us barely being able to afford a tiny apartment in a slum that doesn't have the space, and is also up a staircase that would make taking a lot of the furniture up nigh impossible. The furniture pieces aren't just Ikea trash; some were built by my late grandfather and I'm unwilling to part with them. The only 'crap' furniture in there is shelving to organize boxes. As for everything else, I probably should just get rid of it rather than hang on to the idea that I'll ever be able to afford to live in a house again.

[@dieseldragon6756]

This is a thing people need to be aware of with storage units: They're much more prone to fire/contamination/theft risks than you'd really like to think. In my part of the UK we've had two storage facilities (At Peckham and Weybridge) go up in flames over the past 12-18 months, and you just *don't* know what's being stored/done in the unit next to yours. In the UK at least, there's a fair chance it'll be a grow farm with extremely dodgy wiring...Giving a whole new meaning to _„Up in smoke“_ 🍁🔥😳 tl,dr: *Never EVER Store anything irreplaceable in a storage unit.* Business stock? Yes. Generic household furniture? Yes. Extremely valuable painting created by a distant ancestor? *Definitely NOT!* 👍

[@laurachristianson1688]

Whenever I had to downsize or had an unfortunate life change, I just got rid of all the useless crap…..the three things I kept with veracity were my books, vinyl records, and art stuff (including my paintings). Literally early on when I had to flee an abusive husband I loaded those things into the back of my Pinto and traveled half way across the country. I was free and still had the things that made life worthwhile.

[@bakedpotato1717]

Glad you’re in a safer place now ❤

[@laurachristianson1688]

@@bakedpotato1717 funny as it is I always manage to escape to my Chicago safe places, from the south (definitely not safe for a free thinking person of the female gender)

[@mcnultyssobercompanion6372]

An hour ago I was literally thinking, "I have too many blurays....What the hell am I going to do with all these blurays?" Basically I just need a couple really big book cases. Then I saw the thumbnail for this vid saying we "have too much stuff" and I was like, "this is the video for me." For what it's worth, I will never put my blurays in storage. They stay with me. I love my library of cinema.

[@improvwithlions4173]

I found some sleeves for discs that include room for the boxart, which slips out of the original case very easily. I was able to condense my whole collection into something that fits into a cutesy basket without sacrificing aesthetics this way. The only drawback is that it's difficult to dust.

[@mzcyberbat]

You can put them in thinner cases too

[@mcnultyssobercompanion6372]

@@mzcyberbat That's actually a good idea that might work for my older discs, thanks. Unfortunately/fortunately the vast majority of my collection entails boutique releases from Criterion, Arrow Video, Eureka, Powerhouse Indicator, etc, and those cases contain artwork and booklets that aren't conducive to slim cases. But this might work really well for my older discs.

[@Tau_Zyrillion]

It's nice to see a fellow physical media collector! 😀

[@abhishekray4739]

If you have a physical media collection, why wouldn't you want to display on bookshelves in your living space, if you have space? That's one of the advantages; people visiting your place can get a sense of your taste in movies, and it sparks conversations.

[@sammylawrence227]

It's a symptom of chronic renting. We first got a storage room because our rental didn’t have a spot for our upright piano. Then realized our "smoke free building" wasn't that smoke free, so we ended up keeping anything fragile there. It's not even "piles of stuff never to be seen again," it's things like our well read and loved antique books. Rentals have smoke and pests, the shingles are falling off the roof, the basement leaks, etc etc etc. Also means we can hop rentals without having to move every single item.

[@pixelpondering]

Near my old home there was always construction happening and my small area was building up. I died a little inside every time I realized a new building was yet another self-storage place and not a place that would actually add value to our area.

[@DiogenesOfCa]

They ruin a neighborhood, people need places to walk to.

[@DeeDeeMandark]

I work in a hostel and there are people who just live in a car/hostels and store their stuff in the storage facility

[@BiO811HazarD]

Self storage for me feels like a byproduct of the horrible housing market. Apartments severely lack storage space, and boomers have priced most young people out of being able to buy a home. If I could afford a home in a neighborhood I wouldn’t get shot in, I wouldn’t need self storage.

[@dntfrthreapr]

Same

[@jkibble98]

I listened to a podcast about this very topic recently and they had a great take. People are using self storage as extensions of their home for seasonal things. Affordable housing is clearly a problem but if you can find a smaller place with less built-in storage take all your things like winter clothes, Christmas trees etc to a storage unit instead.

[@KingUnKaged]

Tbh, with housing costs as they are, just cutting out the middle and living in a storage locker is looking more and more enticing

[@jkibble98]

@@KingUnKaged Their walk scores are usually pretty awful though

[@user-rc2yf8kt7i]

The amount paid for storage units exceeds the cost of the items stored. It's always better to reexamine what you own.

[@philippemarcil2004]

@@user-rc2yf8kt7i Even if the amount paid for the storage units exceeds the cost of the items stored it could be preferable to store it rather than throwing it away/recycling it and having to buy a new/used one which would be a worst off for the environment. Alternatively, you can re-sell your stuff and buy used stuff in the future but the transaction costs could be high and hence not worth it - ie buying/selling stuff have an inherent non-zero cost to it.

[@wdpk837]

this is the main thing I use it for. I hate seeing winter things during summer and vice versa

[@hydrophobicbathtowel6816]

Younger people are using storage space for different reasons. Most cant afford a house or even more than a single bedroom and so must use storage to keep their things safe. Boomers have a house, sometimes two, and have filled every spare room, the basment, the garage, and the attic and then get storage space to put more of their shit. Dont shame the younger generation for looking for a way to hold onto. More than a couple boxes of personal belongings

[@therealteal620]

Or even sometimes we just want a pristine living environment. I got all sorts of bits and bobs I can use for repairs/upkeep, or stuff for house guests that rarely come over… but without a garage or basement, why keep it around and clutter up my space?

[@Dug252]

Yeah this feels like this is coming from a privileged position, not everyone is using storage to store their jet skis and Stanley cups from their 5 bedroom mansion, some are just trying to hold on to the little they have from life events like evictions, downsizing, being forced to rent small spaces due to crazy housing prices, etc. Not everyone is happy with owning nothing and being happy

[@Dug252]

Yeah this feels like this is coming from a privileged position, not everyone is using storage to store their jet skis and Stanley cups from their 5 bedroom mansion, some are just trying to hold on to the little they have from life events like evictions, downsizing, being forced to rent small spaces due to crazy housing prices, etc. Not everyone is happy with owning nothing and being happy

[@DuffyGabi]

I’m calling BS on boomers having two more houses that are overflowing so they also need self storage. Everyone I know that is even approaching this age actually wants to simplify. That means get rid of their schitt. By contrast, my three daughters in their 20s have so much schitt. Multiples more than my wife or I ever had at that age. And this leads me to a different point. Amazon and females. STOP BUYING!

[@d.b.cooper1]

I guess this is true. But I also know a lot of people my age who easily live life out of 2 suitcases or can fit everything in the back of small car. Sure it shouldn't have to be this way with the way housing is whereby sparerooms & studios are normalised. But it's also super liberating being able to pack up & leave. I've always found the prices of said storage units to be insane, haven't used them since my uni days. I

[@oreotookie]

I’ve used a storage unit once. Between junior and senior year of college, I stored my dorm stuff in a storage unit. That’s it. My parents have been paying for a self storage unit for YEARS!!! They even built a garage that’s bigger than their house to hold all their extra stuff. I DREAD them passing.

[@davidcox3076]

Like I tell my mom when visiting, "Mom, two words: garage sale."

[@myheroskryptonite]

I can't imagine paying $200 A MONTH for a closet. I would rather throw away all my stuff and live in my car.

[@connorglass1374]

That’s a trend too People living on the road

[@deisychocon7032]

Honestly to be able to even afford this baffles me

[@alan5506]

Must be poor to not be able to afford 200$ a month. But I agree that it's likely a dumb choice most often.

[@Unc3]

Guessing its not that much for the average US person when you put it in the same pile as medical bills and car insurance monthly payments

[@Bunny-ch2ul]

The price depends a lot on where you live. The company I work for has one for has a very large one that costs considerably less than that. There are also degrees of niceness. You can have storage that's basically a bunch of sheds stuck together, up to cold storage for things like furs and designer clothing. ($200 a month for a closet sized unit sounds like either centrally located storage in a dense urban area, or cold storage.)

[@TovaPaul]

This video neglects two main drivers of self-storage growth - businesses using them self-storage as their entire business footprint eliminating their use of commercial space, and the rise of condo living. An organization I work for has 4 XL storage lockers storing all of our seasonal operational equipment as we lack any other physical footprint to keep it in. Our storage company even has our PO box, and in discussions with their staff, the majority of their rentals are commercial, not personal use. My dad's bestie owns an aviation services specialty company that he runs entirely from a storage locker (transport regulations prevent him running it from his basement). And he isn't alone - the entire floor of his storage locker building comes alive at 9 am when all the other lockers also open with a bunch of folks working their own hustles out of their lockers. They've become a little community, much like going to the office. And then there's the problem with condos. They've become comically small, often now 500 sq ft or less, at truly staggering prices. Saying we all have too much stuff is a cop-out and blaming the individual when the needs of investors for small, Airbnb-able urban micro-box condos were prioritized in the market for years over building liveable units. Many new condo buildings don't include a storage locker on property whereas older units often did, and those older units also featured amenities like broom closets and linen closets that the micro boxes lack. Airbnb investors don't need closets or storage beyond a few rolls of toilet paper. People using a condo as their primary residence need space for winter boots and pantry staples (the kitchens of these tiny units were designed for an Uber Eats lifestyle) and yeah, a handful of Christmas decorations. Do we have too much stuff as a society? Sure. But it is pretty poor form in a cost of living crisis to suggest that someone who can only find or afford a 500 sq ft space for 2 people should downsize to only own 500 sq ft worth of stuff arbitrarily. In a condo that size, no, I wouldn't be able to store my ski gear, or bicycle, or paddleboard. Does that mean I should give up those activities and limit my hobbies to a reading a Kindle just because it fits in a small apartment? Renting a storage unit is a hell of a lot cheaper than renting a bigger apartment these days. And a lot of those Millennials renting these units are doing so because they cannot find or afford suitable housing that meets their needs (never mind those who are struggling to live with children in a small apartment). If we want to minimize the use of self storage for personal use, we need to focus on buiding housing that meets the needs of residents. Because humans do, as much as we hate to admit it, need SOME storage space for SOME of our stuff we actually use.

[@jrochest4642]

This is ABSOLUTELY the right comment.

[@soozempen814]

This is the perfect response, thank you! I have had a storage unit for almost 20 years and it's one of the 5x5 units. Since you can store much more vertically, it's actually really spacious. And after all this time I'm only paying $144 a month and I'm in an urban area of LA. It holds my suitcases, some camping gear and all my holiday decorations. It's not stuff I have forgotten or don't use, it's just my things that don't fit into my one bedroom apartment that has limited storage (no pantry in my galley kitchen). I would be spending waaayyyy more than an extra $144 month for a 2 bedroom, so this is a very economical solution for me, and others in our situation.

[@PASH3227]

There also aren't enough stores for repairing and reselling furniture clothes and other goods. In this video there was a unit with firewood, demonstrating we don't have adequate waste wood management in our cities.

[@victoriabarclay3556]

exactly. small businesses use self storage a lot. after 30 + years at the same unit, because of the pandemic, we had to move everything to our garage (lots of clever placing and changes in biz). the cost was too high.

[@bvoyelr]

For personal stuff, don't rent the storage unit, rent the recreational equipment. How often do you ski, realistically? You can't just rent the gear at the resort? There are bike rental places everywhere. Paddle boarding is a little more complicated, but there's a kayak/paddle board rental company in my area that will meet me at the launch site to do business. It's a little more complicated, but you're very likely saving quite a bit of money. Storage units tend to cost like 2-4 thousand dollars pear year. Paying $50 for a kayak here and $70 for a bike there doesn't seem all that onerous in comparison.

[@joepiekl]

A lot of people are buying crap they don't need, but I also think it's a symptom of a society where younger people are increasingly having to rent for longer. You might have to put stuff in storage between places, or you might get to a new place and realise that some of your stuff doesn't fit, but you don't want to throw it away because you imagine when you get your own place, you'll eventually use it.

[@chasemorace4916]

Every time I see a small plot of trees being mowed down to build storage units a piece of my soul dies

[@red_writer]

This happened just down the road from my childhood home not many years ago. Huge patch of woods, but as soon as the property owner died, it was sold and decimated for a storage facility T_T I'm just glad I don't have to drive by it anymore.

[@chasemorace4916]

@@red_writer nothing ruins visiting your hometown like seeing those pop up all over

[@KittySnicker]

Same. Not even a store or restaurant. Just this boring shit.

[@d.b.cooper1]

No doubt some 'hustle bro' who saw a thing on instagram/tiktok and got inspired. Usually the worst people too, same thing is happening with the new era of landlords seeking passive income. Somehow worse than the traditional investors, elderly couple etc.

[@TheKyleLazarus]

It's a product of: the lack of housing, affordability, downsizing to apartments, floorplan shrinkflation, taking on roommates - things that make self-storage.... you know, needed. And yes, it's a for profit business model.

[@jUQMtDmf]

No it's not. My country and many others are dealing with the same issues and we don't have a lot of storages. You americans just consume too much trash. I also doubt that these storages are located in dense cities. Seems more like a suburban thing, but that's just my assumption.

[@Zexx4]

​@@jUQMtDmf "assumptions makes an ass out of you and me"

[@YurinanAcquiline]

Too much consumption. Americans have too many items.

[@MK-of7qw]

yes. we have too much shit.

[@Suchatool98]

As someone who works in the construction industry in an information-gathering aspect. Another reason why storage facility construction is on the rise is because it’s easy to approve. That is, smaller, “mom-pop” outfits tend to have less construction needs to them, 1-5m vs 25-50m for other commercial uses, thus municipalities will approve them quicker than most commercial/light industrial uses because it's almost guaranteed that the tax revenue will be consistent. Especially if it's on land that is not well suited for typical commercial uses or not zoned for light industry.

[@sandraleung7218]

The same thing is happening in Hong Kong, which is crazy given how crowded our city already is! It makes our housing disparity even more jarring - consumerism-borne clutter enjoying better residence than coffin house renters... ._.

[@iamcarl4591]

Ay my fellow Hong Konger Yeah, those Americans have a garage and basement for storage. Not to mention the pure size of their houses. I bet they can't imagine we have to rent a "迷你倉" to store supplies, hobby items, etc.

[@Zexx4]

​@@iamcarl4591 what garage? What basement? Most of us are living in apartments now, nobody can afford a house, especially with any house being bought up by corporations as soon as they hit the market in most areas

[@iamcarl4591]

@@Zexx4 I may be biased. From the American I know personally, the majority of them live in houses. Even if they live in an apartment, the size of the flat would be at least 700 square/ft. In comparison to Hong Kong's avg 350 square/ft and sometimes way less.

[@Zexx4]

​​​​@@iamcarl4591 understandable, but to give you some context, there are more available homes than there are homeless ppl, everyone COULD have a house but it's not profitable, literally all of my family and friends either live in an apartment pr live with their parents because the average home is $500k USD for a meth house,you have to put work into making them livable again (aka even more money). I'm one of the luckier ones, I have to share a 700 sq/ft apartment so only about 350 sq/ft is mine, I also don't use a storage lot because there isn't any reason to buy anything

[@iamcarl4591]

@@Zexx4 I see, thanks for widening my view. I can somewhat relate to the situation on your side of the world. In Hong Kong, if you have 300k HKD per month (which is considered pretty decent already). You can't afford a 400 sq/ft unless you don't spend on anything, including necessity, for 60+ years. Most families in Hong Kong (most likely with 4 people), shared a rented 400-500 square/ft apartment(and I'm being generous with the numbers here) due to the housing prices being one of the highest in the entire world. With that, I think you can understand why, we still feel basically anywhere else has an easier life.

[@maryhildreth754]

The only people I know who use them are people who have had to either move back home with parents or lose their house or apartment and have to quickly find somewhere to put most of their stuff while they sleep on someone's couch and look for another place. We have used one before when we moved out of state.

[@jrochest4642]

We are living in smaller and smaller spaces, on more and more temporary terms. People pushed into homelessness -- couch surfing, car living -- put everything into a storage unit. People downsizing or moving between spaces or cities put everything into a storage unit. People taking temporary jobs or travelling overseas put everything in a storage unit. I lost my parents over the last decade, and I've recently retired. I'm moving from one city (one I hate but lived in because of my job) to another (where I want to live). I haven't sold my old house and can't buy another until I do, so I have two storage units, one in each city, and I'm waiting to downsize until I know what I'm going to be living in permanently. Sure, I could throw out my grandmother's furniture or all my family photos, but I don't want to, sue me.

[@misplacedpoetry9687]

The only experiance ive had with storage units was when someone i think got evicted and had no were to go so we came and helped move everything out of their apartment into a storage unit. I think the place they were renting was really not that much bigger than the storage unit. Everything they owned fit inside that storage unit. I know its anecdotal but sometimes storage units can be help to people

[@VWJR86]

So we sold our house 2 years ago and moved into an RV, we started with a storage unit to keep a few things. We ended up making room and grabbing a storage shed for our lot, and emptying the storage unit. Unfortunately the campground we stay at changed rules, and it's cheaper to have a 5x10 storage unit, than it is to pay to keep the shed on our lot. It also helps considering how much space you actually have in 400sqft of living space. We go at least once a week to either get stuff out, or put stuff in.

[@ebrothen]

It gets quite shocking when you compare the per sq ft cost of a storage unit vs the cost of a median apartment. I recently did this for a storage place in Minneapolis out of curiosity - storage is more expensive. So maybe people should get a two bedroom apartment and rent out that second bedroom to friends as storage space.

[@Dirty3oy]

Bro. Can’t rent a room. Can rent a storage 5x10. For cheaper than my car payment. Living in my car with a storage place is so cheap.

[@thijstombedes5582]

It's sad but this is a very smart move... Work like crazy for a while and you build up your buffer, then get out of this situation

[@johncitizen5377]

I had a storage unit for a couple of weeks during my divorce. There's a hierarchy of storage units. People with premium locations such as those on the ground floor seem to hang out at their storage unit. It's sort of like a marina or something.

[@nicoomycousin]

If attachment to objects is sentimental evidence that things happened to us and our lives mattered, then my desire to throw everything I own away is evidence that I don't want to remember the things that happened to me and my life doesn't matter.

[@matthewmagda4971]

A self storage unit would cost $100-200, whereas an apartment with the appropriate square footage and closets would double my rent.

[@d.b.cooper1]

A closet space would double your rent? I'd say anything that was similar to a big apartment like place is like $500 pm, at which point you're better off having that space in your apartment to live in

[@matcha725]

millennial who has a small storage unit here. I'm a small business owner and share a small house with 2 other people, its more economical to store my products at a storage unit rather than live with it in the negative space at home 😭 its actually not too bad if you compare it with rent prices in bc and having to pay for that bigger space for myself, or having to rent a separate office space. definitely related to the size of homes people can afford to live in these days, especially younger people.

[@pib2050]

Hi guys, greetings from Warsaw (Poland)! You made my day! At the beginning of the video there is a short part with the shopping mall. It is Blue City in... you guessed it, Warsaw, a postcomunism country that for many years had nothing to do with consumerism. 😊 Have a good one.

[@Jack-ni2qs]

I think the video is conflating hoarding with the actual problem of less homeowners feeding a shortage of storage.

[@trygveevensen171]

Just discovered that these are so much cheaper where I live in Norway. A large closet (1,5m²/16ft²) is $40. A medium (6m²/64ft²) is 95$. And a container (14m²/150ft²) is 180$.

[@andrewvc1527]

As someone who had to get a storage unit for about 6 months, this feels like you’ve missed the mark, Levi. I had to get a storage unit because I was moving across the country for a temporary job, to place that was already furnished. Not only could I not have physically brought my stuff there, I wouldn’t have had anywhere to put it once I got there. So, I got a storage unit to keep things like my bed, dresser, desk, dishes, and whatnot. Stuff that, when I no longer was in a temporary situation, I would need and would be very expensive to replace. You specifically cite instability as a reason for why people get storage units. But then it seems like you’re almost holding that instability against people because they had to get a storage unit. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people who have storage units right now are like I was; people who’s living situation changed enough or became unstable enough that they had to put their own in storage, knowing they’ll need it later and not having the money to do that. And if you’re paying more than $100 for self storage, you’re overpaying. My storage unit cost $30/month, for a 5x10. For 6 months, that $360. Had I needed to rebuy everything in my unit because I got rid of it to avoid storage, it would have been multiple hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to replace it all.

[@davidmccourt6139]

Yeah, this one felt pretty out-of-touch.

[@kombuchas4684]

Only 30?! I think in my area they go for like 250 a month 😢

[@MavonEast]

A lot of old houses don't have closets because they used to be taxed. I dedicated a spare room to storage because I have no basement or attic and no closets. But the house itself is huge. I turned another room into a walk in closet simply out of necessity. I can absolutely see how people living in certain areas may need a small unit for holiday stuff, household extras or tools.

[@BatchelderPatrick]

I live in a storage unit. $200 a month with free electricity that powers heating and cooling. Bus stop out front, bathrooms everywhere and shower with hot tub at the rec' center. What's to worry about ? LOTS of discretionary $$ left over and in the bank!!

[@SemekiIzuio]

Isnt that illegal tho 🤔 I mean if they find out ofc

[@AlexHider]

That’s not legal

[@KevinValdes]

I used self storage a few months after starting my business. It had grown enough where I couldn't feasibly store everything in my house, but not enough where I could justify spending $2k+ a month on a proper warehouse, and was fine paying $200 or so a month for it. Then the business kept growing, and had to rent another storage unit, then another one, then another one, and before I knew it I was renting five different storage units, paying like $1,000 a month, all in the same building, but across different floors. I said this is ridiculous, got tired of running between storage units all day long, having to open and close them every time (can't leave them open unattended, people could steal something), taking the elevator up and down 50 times a day, then at the end of the day, loading everything in my car and taking it to UPS. A few months after I rented my first unit I said enough and a proper warehouse with a daily UPS pickup. As a business owner, I now look at things differently. At one point I had two warehouses from the growth, and one day realized I could consolidate everything into one warehouse by getting rid of stuff that doesn't move quickly. In essence, I was paying around $3,500 a month for a second warehouse to store ~$70,000 in merchandise that I would be lucky to get rid of in 3 years. I did the math and saw I was going to end up paying over $125k to store $70k worth of stuff that may never even sell out. This is stupid. I loaded everything in the truck, took it to the dump, threw away all of the stuff that didn't move, told the landlord I'm not renewing the lease on that warehouse, and that was it. If something starts to sit for too long, get rid of it. Cut the price, if that doesn't work, throw it away. No more dead stock. This translates to personal too. I know dozens of people that are paying $200 a month to store say $5k worth of stuff, and have not even been to their storage unit in years. They would have saved money literally throwing it away and just buying it brand new again when needed. Not to mention stuff like low quality furniture may not even survive the trip out of the storage unit to another location, so why even keep it?

[@coinbuyer-8605]

That's a good story! Sounds like you have been successful in business. Well done! To your final point, my father had a friend. She was in between houses. Stored her used furniture in a storage unit. Years passed. By the time she got a place to live and got around to getting her stuff out of storage, she said the amount of money she spent on the storage unit could have bought her NEW furniture, and here she was stuck with her old furniture which wasn't particularly valuable nor sentimental and had aged and depreciated while in storage.

[@Bunny-ch2ul]

This one feels a little tone deaf. A lot of people using storage are low income people who bounce from apartment to apartment, or who just can't afford a place large enough to store all of their things. This video seems kind of like shaming people who don't have enough space to store things they use every year, but not necessarily every day. In the grand scheme of things, filling a storage unit full of stuff seems a lot better than filling an entire basement full of stuff. The comments about the stuff being worth less than the rent was also a bit simplistic. Yes, if you're going by monetary value, that's true. That doesn't mean it's not worth saving for someone. Grandma's prize china cabinet might only sell for a few hundred dollars on Craigslist, but that doesn't mean someone would want to sell it for that. Realistically, most peoples' prized heirlooms are only worth a couple hundred dollars at best. A lot of people use storage for "someday" items. "Someday I'll have a real home, and I can put great aunt Susan's dining room set in a real dining room for family dinners again." Do middle class people stuff storage units full of exercise equipment they'll never use again, or clothing that's four sizes too small for them? Yes. Storage units are also a very necessary service for a lot of poor people too though.

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

Levi did mention people use storage cause of problems like poverty and instability too. But he wanted to talk about the problems with storage too. Like how expensive it can get.

[@Joce123]

My son uses a storage unit ..earns $200,000 a year.. In Minneapolis the TV rating service called the Nielsen ratings offices out of a storage facility... People who are moving because they sold their house and it will be a while before they get into their new house. are typically people with money... You cannot say that people who use storage facilities are low-income without balancing the businesses who use the space for inventory.

[@QP154]

I moved around the world for the first 7 years of my career, Japan, Texas, Boston, Hawaii, Virginia, Florida. All of those are different climates, different housing styles, and different markets. I don’t have a storage unit because I bought too much shit, I have a storage unit because I don’t have space for the stuff I don’t have time to sell.

[@youtubeuser1052]

Nope, I'm watching this because KZbin recommended it and I wondered why. I have never rented a storage unit, but I think the obvious answer is that people are being packed in like rats. When I bought my first home, my top priorities were that it had to have a garage and a basement. But a lot of people are living in tiny little boxes with no place to store anything without it being right in the middle of their living space.

[@Nohc]

Visiting my rapidly expanding island hometown is insane, they can only expand so much and so much space is already taken by storage unit facilities (and still building more)

[@crystalreidinger9969]

We were displaced by an airbnb, and had to live with family. We only had enough space to live in a single room until we found an affordable apartment, and did not want to have to buy everything all over again. A storage unit was very practical for this.

[@Trainguyrom]

I recently helped a friend who's between apartments move stuff from one storage unit to another and it was wild looking at the number and size of the units. Easily 200+ units in a town that has a population of 2000ish

[@SarahDeshay]

As someone who has been buying and reselling storage units for over 25 years, supporting a family of six for the past eleven years, I can tell you that some units sell for as much as $10,000 although rare I have seen them in person. If you want to buy a decent quality unit of 100 square feet or more you would most times need to spend at least $1,000. It takes a lot of infrastructure as well as a lot of labor to profit on a regular basis but it can be very profitable if done well. We have found many unusual items from a “B-Bionic” prosthetic hand, to a 23 piece gold coin collection, to mounds of jailhouse letters (all read the same with different dates and names), a piece of a neuclear reactor shield, many vintage photographs, a beautiful baby grand player piano, and the list goes on and on. Along with the treasure comes tons of trash, we dispose of six yards of garbage three times a week. It’s been a fun game where everyday is “Christmas” as we never know what we will find in the next box.

[@sawyerbass4661]

My mom has payed an average of $350/month for storage for about 11 years; 45,000 dollars. It is trash. Most of it has mouse feces and piss on it. she can only name a few items there. Some of it is baby clothes even though all us kids will absolutely not have children. There are a lot of books from her parents she's never read, on and on and on.

[@user-rc2yf8kt7i]

Imagine if she'd put that $45,000 into an investment account and earned interest on it.

[@sawyerbass4661]

@@user-rc2yf8kt7i Yeah, I thought the same thing. She has literally zero retirement savings and she's 80 now. So she's literally living off of SS, and has section 8, but is very very close to compromising that by refusing to move out of a place where her lease is currently about 6 months expired. Some people are just too unreasonable to help. I could give her money and it wouldn't matter. I could help her get rid of things and she'd still only part with 10 things out of thousands. It's just not my responsibility anymore

[@sunflowercynthia9519]

The number of people I know who use their garages as storage closets is insane...

[@ScantyMantis989]

So my GF and I are renting a 5x10 unit at Uhaul for $109 in the Tampa, FL area. We lived in an apartment for 4 years before deciding we wanted to make more money to start a family. We have quit our jobs and currently 8 weeks into a school/training for that sweet trucker lifestyle. We'll be team driving and trucking all across the USA 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙. Long story short, We had a hard time letting go of stuff. I want to say the storage unit was necessary cause, well... a semi-truck is pretty small, and we can't just bring everything. But we obviously can't just throw out or sell 90% of our stuff. However, like you said, people do be having 1 to 2 storage units full of junk! And some people are unfortunate and have to kind of live out of them. Like that's their house, but they sleep in their car somewhere else. Its sad, but that's what they can afford.

[@austinrtyler]

I recently had to put all of my belongings in self storage due to some unexpected housing issues, so I suddenly became hyper-aware of self storage facilities. These things are everywhere. Like clusters of them every few intersections.

[@mallow4715]

sometimes people get evicted and have to put their stuff in self storage when they're homeless

[@RowleyFan2]

Yeah when I was in my 20s I got a small storage space, it was "only" $40 a month, but after a few years I realized that I ended up paying more just to keep my junk around, and it would've been cheaper if I just hadn't had that much junk to begin with. I'm lucky enough that I got some wealthy relatives that are allowing me to store it in their home storage for now, while I slowly sell as much as I can bear to part with as possible.

[@Elvewizzy.]

There was a new storage unit that just got built near me. People use those spaces to store tools (Contractors) a car to work on it there. Theres even a group of young guys who rented out 3 next to each other to tune and tinker with scooters. Then you have people who use those garages to practice an instrument. I've personally only used these for when I was moving and in between homes. Took a lot of the pressure off the move and gave us more time to find a home.

[@kgilliagorilla2761]

I work for a small estate sales company outside Chicago. People (especially well off people) have way too much stuff. We can never sell it all. Pennies on the dollar. The collectables are practically worthless. Clothes, and more clothes. Cookware bought at Kohl’s never used. Harbor Freight tools everywhere. Folks buy at garage sales and fill their garage. It’s insane. We rarely find “ the big money “. Consumerism is in full gear.

[@IanDresarie]

I legit think these are a great solution. even if you don't over-buy, you'll amass some things you want to keep but probably won't use, like childhood toys you're saving for your own kids, documents you're legally required to keep 10 years or seasonal items. with most of us unable to afford a home and proper basements being limited to smaller apartment buildings this is kinda the best solution. I'm strongly considering paying the rent so i can clear out our basement and have a dedicated workshop space.

[@sinequis1199]

As someone that worked in the storage industry for 18 years, this is spot on. The majority of renters are residential tenants that can't let go of the past. My experience has led me to believe that our American culture has become a packrat culture. The other thing that I felt was left out is a lot more people will be renting apartments rather than buying homes based on our economic climate. A lot of these apartments have limited storage space forcing renters to have a need for storage. Self storage would not be as big as it has become if we were a minimalist culture with commercial space being a logical choice for the industry

[@josepheridu3322]

Sometimes we inherit stuff that belongs to family and we cannot dispose of. Sometimes we move to cheaper smaller apartments, or as you mentioned, we re-use that space. Buying storage makes perfect sense in more contexts that sometimes we have stuff that we don't need but that does not mean that stuff is unimportant.

[@bistander]

Yes store it and leave it to the next generation that also don't want it

[@josepheridu3322]

@@bistander that is a problem too, but not necessarily exclusive to self storage.

[@jpe1]

A friend of mine put a car (a blue 1967 MGB convertible) into storage when he started college, in 1987. After graduation he got a job in Philadelphia, so had no place to park, nor need for, his car, so he left it in storage. It’s still there, still in storage since 1987! He’s paid nearly $150,000 on storage fees to keep a car that was worth maybe $25,000 in 1987, and probably only $20,000 today (or perhaps less, since it’s not been maintained for all these years). Total insanity to my way of thinking!

[@babyballer3105]

Such a interesting video! Here in Norway is pretty common that in all apartment buildings there is a type of basement with storage rooms. So every apartment has one storage room each (it comes with the apartment, so no extra charge). From what I’ve seen this doesn’t seem very common in the US. However, we do have a few storage space companies popping up here and there.

[@popowerst4712]

My grandmother is/was homeless for many years and had stored the last of her belongings in a storage unit "so she could retrieve them when she got a new place." Color me surprised when I learned that part of the reason she couldn't make rent is because she was losing over $300 a month just to have a barely lit room with no climate control just to keep her stuff. Madness.

[@himikotoga4270]

My dad spent thousands of dollars on storage units to hold his collectibles. We told him to sell some, he didn't, and it lost almost all value. He's now keeping it cause he thinks it's going to go back up in value (it isn't).

[@HappyCrackers]

Does he even like them personally? Or is it all for “profit”

[@himikotoga4270]

@HappyCrackers man it's kinda disgraceful 😕 it's like 2,000 naughty magazines and there were like 40 boxes. He refuses to sell stuff and he could literally have his dream car if parted with some of his stuff. Like I know you have hobbies of collecting model planes but you don't need 20 vintage monopoly games, like he's never played monopoly ever.

[@nolarobert]

My wife just commented to me yesterday as we drove around our county (outside Huntsville, AL) that she was surprised by the number of self-storage facilities including several new ones. I know there are legitimate reasons for using self-storage but it amazes me how these facilities have proliferated. We used self-storage when we moved out of a house into an apartment. I was surprised at how expensive it was to rent a storage unit. You are correct on how these facilities jack up their prices every year as they bet that you won't move your stuff to another facility. I was thrilled when we bought a house and emptied out the storage unit. I hope I never have the need to use a storage unit again.

[@angelal8829]

Okay but the hardline mentality outlines in this video can get super wasteful fast. Pretty much everyone I know who has used a storage facility uses them uses them in scenarios like "I'm moving somewhere far away for six months and would like to own kitchen supplies and furniture when I get back" or "a hurricane destroyed my roof and this stuff is currently salvageable, but it won't be if we leave it in the house to get rained on while we wait for the roof to get fixed." Telling people in points of transition to sell all their stuff and then get new stuff once they're in a stable place and can once again have stuff like a couch and a blender feels disingenuous and obviously creates a lot more waste. And I'm sure it's a smaller proportion of people using storage units in points of transition, but that's also in part because by definition if you're using a storage unit for like 2-12 months, that's gonna take up space over time than someone dumping their stuff for ten years. (And also, this video provides no information about those kinds of use cases so it's hard to have a conversation about them in this context) Can these units feed straight hoarder tendencies? Sure. But tbh, most of the hoarders in my life are older and could afford houses to put all that stuff (and tend to have concurrent mental health issues that lead to hoarding, which are not addressed here at all.) And the hardline stance that this video and comments section takes obfuscates a lot of the nuance that allows these conversations to actually happen in good faith. There's a big difference between *storage units are way overused* and *storage units are an inherent evil that is a sole product of overconsumption* which is kind of the framing here. That black and white framing limits our ability to have actual conversations and housing instability and mental health and all of the things that actually cause people to use storage units.

[@FastSS02]

My cousin has owned a self storage place for probably 30 years now. He used to have a tire shop next to it but sold that off as he had problems keeping employees. Now he just runs the self storage place himself. It's in a rural area quite a ways outside of any city. He has a big waiting list for units to open up. If people don't pay, he goes through the unit, keeps what he wants and sends the rest to an auction company and gets the money from the stuff that sells. There's a new last year self storage place in a town near me that looks to be very cheap just metal buildings that I'm not even sure they put cement down. There's one that has been there for years that just recently quadrupled the size of the units they had. The biggest downside is trying to find a good price on property to put storage units on.

[@anonymousdogg1559]

I’m thankful my parents never enjoyed burning money at a storage locker or anything like that. In fact I’m currently saving to buy a 1.5 mile/2.4 km lot to open a car storage lot for men that don’t want to sell their project cars and their families are nagging them to get rid of them on their driveways. I have a good feeling about it, because if they stopped paying then I could just sell their car as they would forfeit them.

[@tansangirlie]

I live in Japan and it may not come as a surprise that storage rooms are quite practical here, since homes are so small. There's a lot of second hand sale too, but I think people do store a lot of seasonal items or sports equipment etc in storage units. No idea what happens if these are left behind though 😂

[@Astr0b0y8]

Totally the place to raid post apocalypse. Old furniture and retro clothes for every wasteland wanderer's needs

[@TheModernInvestor]

If the system lies to you and tells you that you have to buy things to be happy... well, eventually when you have so much happiness, you have to put it somewhere before you can buy even more happiness. And we wonder why people cant afford their rent anymore.

[@tnast]

All these places to store things, but I can't find a place I'm allowed to store and work on my car and tools 😭

[@Otsuko]

Self storage was a godsend to me during a hurricane (instability) because being able to throw all I owned into a unit for a shirt while was the only option when everyone is living in apartments and such. But unlike the usuals, I used it for maybe 2-3 months until I did have a place to stay. So while it does suck for the people who don't have the ability to store things in the house (seasonal items, large equipment, boats/seadoos), it is much more secure than leaving it out in the open or being taken in a home invasion/robbery. It should never be a permanent place to hoard.

[@AnadiaShark]

some of the younger people renting self storage are people moving back in with their parents and not having space for double furniture.

[@jenniferri7735]

i'm watching this because i'm a proud minimalist who could fit everything i own into an SUV and people who are the complete opposite of me are both fascinating and terrifying.

[@jrochest4642]

You don't own a bed?

[@jenniferri7735]

@@jrochest4642 mattress goes on the roof and the metal frame folds into a unit maybe 4ft by 2ft.

[@patrickmclean8617]

Some people have hobbies that involve some amount of things, this is especially true when those hobbies are things like sports. While sometimes you can rent stuff every time you want to use it, that generally gets more expensive than just buying your own (even paying for storage is often cheaper than renting). Sometimes you can't rent the equipment, so it's either buy it or just not have that hobby. Then there are home basics like kitchen equipment and tools for doing your own repairs. Minimalism at that level often means spending a lot more money on paying others to do things for you rather than doing it yourself due to lack of equipment.

[@jenniferri7735]

@@patrickmclean8617 okay…? that’s all fine, but the majority of this video was discussion of people who own a bunch of stuff that they never use, shove it all into a storage unit, and don’t think about it anymore WHILE throwing money away every month on the rental. that’s just plain stupid. those are the folks i’m talking about.

[@Amy-yh8kf]

I checked Public Storage's website and it says it's only $100/month for the small storage & $244/month for the medium storage option in nyc....where do you live!?

[@chow-chihuang4903]

The prices he quoted are for a Vancouver, BC, Canada site, so the prices are in Canadian dollars. 175 CAD is roughly 125 USD.

[@JosephByrne]

11:32 that's it exactly. I rented a unit for six months when I moved into a smaller flat. After six months I either sold or junked the contents and the money I made just about covered the cost of the unit. It did buy me time I guess. When friends talk about putting furniture into storage while they move overseas I urge them to properly assess its value because within a few months the cost of storage will be more than the items and the costs continue to accumulate indefinitely.

[@robert.sec2]

I think that your take on the explosion of this industry coming down to consumerism is a little too optimistic. Does the explain the higher growth among younger people, who have less money to spend? Consumerism is part of the picture, but another part is economic *in*mobility-- millenials and gen z aren't able to buy houses. They're finding rent less and less affordable. And they hope, someday, to move out from their parents' and actually get their own place, or at least to find a tiny space with a roommate that they can share. People grew up in a house, and assumed they would eventually be able to live in one of their own. People graduate college, and start putting together things for their lives-- but a version of their life that exists in their head. Storage Waste is partially a consumerism problem, but it's also a housing problem.

[@dave3657]

For some people it’s just an attachment to ‘stuff’. I have a friend who got married many years ago, they used his furniture and stored hers in the basement. (It would be the same if he rented a storage unit.) But they still have her furniture, they just can’t sell anything. They are on the verge of having to rent a storage unit.

[@TwinPhoenix666]

I gotta stop by my storage unit, guys. I'll be right back! 😂

[@philly799]

There's a place near me where they cleared a small forest to build storage units. Once the trees were gone, the first big windstorm laid waste to an entire neighborhood because there weren't any trees to block the wind. It took months for many people to get their homes repaired, and during that time, many of them rented storage units for their stuff. It would be funny if it wasn't so terrible.

[@Noksus]

Honestly a lot of the problems americans seem to have stem from having too much money. People need services like rocket money to even know what subscriptions they currently have. Like, how can you not know? How are people so out of touch with their own lives?

[@dollarstorevodka]

its not even that they make too much money. theyre just buying shit to fill the void their lives leave

[@briandeschene8424]

So your closing statement explains why I haven’t fallen into this trap. I’ve never had the delusion that I personally mattered. I don’t have self destructive or depressive tendencies - just the opposite. People say I seem always upbeat. I just always realized my time “here” was transitory and enjoy my experiences with people and places but not with the acquisition of stuff.

[@Petrolhead11]

"God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives, we've been all raised by television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we're slowly learning that fact. and we're very very pissed off.”

[@ToriHiragana]

Actually we don't want to be millionaires or rockstars, we want to own our own homes and have a child or two... But we won't And we're really pissed off

[@lobstermash]

I stored the entire contents of my house for a month and moved into a short-term rental when I had renovations done - new kitchen, floors refinished and interior painted throughout. It would have been nearly impossible to try and live in the house while the work was done. I daresay a lot of other people might do this. I should add that the storage company came to the house and packed everything into containers, brought it back and put everything away in the house when the work was finished. It wasn't expensive.

[@wrask]

I don’t even own that much stuff; I could probably strategically fit all of it into one of those closet-sized units. Still, I almost got a storage unit when I thought I wouldn’t be able to find an affordable place to live. I have a feeling a lot of those millennial renters are technically homeless.

[@beanamonster]

I used to promise myself I would never pay for storage. I hate... *stuff* Then I got married, planned on moving across the country, and in 2020 got an RV. "It's fine," I thought, "we won't need storage that long. We won't be those people renting a unit until we die." Then the move got pushed back, I changed occupations a couple times... Fast forward to the current year. The storage facility has been bought and sold a couple times and rent has doubled. We finally have a place to live now and cleared out our unit last month but I have spent around $6,000 storing mostly useless stuff.

[@mnaeseth24]

Me idea of declutter it’s posting it for sale on marketplace if it dosnt sell it goes to trash! 9/10 times it sells 😅

[@ceilingsoldier]

Self-storage is the only alternative for anyone stuck living in small apartment unable to store anything anywhere. I'm planning to move everything non-essential into a 16x8 storage unit and then swap stuff around whenever I need it. It'll cost $1600 a year but compared to the rent of a larger place it's a bargain.

[@thewhitewolf58]

Self storage is paying money to keep a memory that is so useless that it is not even worth being kept in your house. Just remember that. Feel like this was built for organized hoarders, were nothing is garbage, but instead a memory that is painful to get rid of. Also reminds me of seeing a woman going through a dumpster of trash items that were thown out and she tried to claim half of the items by saying she would fix them.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

On one hand I agree, once something is put into storage, be it a garage, an attic or a rented location you are unlikely to ever use the thing again. That said the alternative is to just throw everything old away, even if you or some one you know might get use if it later, especially with long lasting items like furniture. Most items not saved would just end up in landfills.

[@DrRugerMan]

My town alone has close to 40 its insanity

[@turtleanton6539]

And its all shit. The things stored in there cost less then the rent.

[@JohnHausser]

Did they store the mummy for you ?

[@FutureProofTV]

this many people can't be needing this much extra space, right? 🙃

[@sinequis1199]

Self storage saw it's most profitable market during COVID as well as the opportunity to launch online rentals. It's worse period was in 2008 when customers started remembering they had their stuff in storage in which they either moved out, downsized or let their contents go up for auction

[@k31than]

Addiction to Self Storage is not the problem, but rather it's the symptom of the problem. And the problem is consumerism (over-consumption), which also leads to hoarding.

[@bvoyelr]

Regarding corporations, that's just a reaction to the supply chain disruptions we've experienced over the past several years. They'd rather have too much stuff so they can draw on it in emergencies than just run out of stock. It's a recognition that the on demand supply chain has vulnerabilities that companies have to hedge against. Which seems completely rational to me.

[@BlessedThursday-1901]

This doesn't pertain to me. Buy what you need. Sell what you don't.

[@FutureProofTV]

exactly.

[@nathanfranck5822]

My personal campaign with my wife is to try and establish that if we buy something we should be using it right away, and that its okay to leave things at the store, since Stores STORE things for you, for free! Missing a 25% off sale is nothing compared to forgetting something you bought on sale exists 6 months after buying without once using it....