How safe are storage units?

[Magickndm]

I've had a good and a bad experience with storage places.
First time I used one I got a climate controlled one, everything was fine, my stuff was in there for about 6 months.
Second time was my husband's stuff, he was moving here to FL from MN, so got a unit to put his stuff in there (not climate controlled). It got broken into and pretty much cleared out. He did have insurance, so everything was covered. His place also needed a code to get in, so the burglers decided to just drive through a fence to get in.
If you have to choose one, I think the climate controlled ones are safer since it's harder to get in and usually better lit at night. Not to mention it's a lot better on all your items.

 

[ChristmasElf]

A friend of mine recently moved into a new house. While it was getting built she put all of her stuff in one of those PODS (including a baby grand). The house was only suppose to take 3 months but ended up taking 10 months. When the delivered the PODS and they went to unpack everything there was soot all over everything. After much research and headaches -she found out that the diesel from the trucks in the buidings would get inside the PODS. She had to throw away all furniture and get all the clothes dry cleaned. She has a ton of stuff that she had to throw away. She has about $15,000 in damages and is fighting to get the money from them - not sure if she will. She would take them to small claims court but that is only good up to $7000. Apparantly, this has happened to others (she found out). If they know this happens they should be shrink wrapping the PODS. What a mess. So, be careful in whatever you decide.

I have to comment on this as someone that currently has a PODS sitting in the driveway waiting to be picked up in the morning. When we saw a lot of people in the neighborhood using the PODS to either re model or move, we decided to ask a couple of them what their experience was like with them before we called and rented them as well. Everyone had nothing but good comments about the convenience of having to not load a truck and haul it off to a storage place. You do put your own lock on each unit (we ended up renting 4) they are 8X16 but you can get different sizes. They come and will drop them off to you 1 at a time or 3 at a time if you have the room in your driveway for them all at the same time. You load at your convenience and then they will come back and get it and store it in their warehouse until you need it back. There is additional insurance you can buy to safeguard your belongings (the cost varies, but $154 in insurance will buy you $80K in coverage)
We just unloaded 2 so far and have not had any soot or dirt inside the unit when we re-opened them.

As far as a storage place goes, I would drive around and ask to tour each place before I rented there. Most of the storage places have a couple that lives on site and you will have NO problems. You can also buy insurance if your homeowners doesn't already cover you for storage. The extra insurance through the storage place is fairly cheap though at about $8-10 per month is all.

 

[LadyyRedd]

I had 99% of my personal belongings in a non climate controlled storage unit for 3 years and had absolutely no problems. It was 24 hour gate access and there was someone who lived onsite. You put your own lock on it. It was an outside unit and withstood all of the harsh weather of the MD/DC area for three years. I didn't even have all my stuff in plastic containers, some were in cardboard boxes, and it was all fine. I even had boxes of candles in there and nothing happened to them. No creatures got into the unit and nobody broke in. Guess I got lucky!

Kimya

 

[CEDmom]

We had stuff in storage for about 6 months while our house was being built. It wasn't everything we own but a lot of it was irreplaceable. Honestly, it was as safe as having it in our house. The unit was climate controlled and inside a building. You needed a passcode to get through the gate and then another one to get into the building. It was also close-circuit monitored. I just don't see how anyone could have broken in there any easier than breaking into our house.

My brother also had his stuff in the same storage place for 5 years while he worked in Europe and never had a problem.