Are you planning an extended spring break or a months-long warm-weather road trip vacation? Will you need to move out of your home? If your lease ends when your getaway starts, take a look at what you need to know about your storage options.
Why Should You Choose To Use A Rental Unit?
Your lease is over and you're ready to leave for weeks or months. Your travel plans include a car, RV, truck, or van. This means you can only bring clothing and a few select household items with you on your road trip. While you could donate or sell everything you can't fit into your vacation-ready vehicle, this strategy will require you to buy new furniture, knick-knacks, and everything else you need after your trip ends.
Self storage units also provide a safe place to keep everything from your bedroom furniture set to your dishware and small kitchen appliances when you travel. You won't need to worry about damage, theft, or vandalism while you drive across the state or the country. This can give you peace of mind and may reduce stress.
Which Rental Unit Is the Best Choice For Your Needs?
There's no universal or standard answer to this question. An extended road trip combined with the end of your house or apartment lease will require you to rent a unit that is large enough to accommodate everything that fits into your former home. Measure the size (including height, depth, and width) of your items. Add these numbers to get a general estimate of what size unit you will need.
You may want to stack some items to save space and reduce storage-related costs. But you need to consider how this approach will affect your belongings. Light boxes of linens, pillows, clothing, or other similar-weighted boxes for storage can sit on top of your heavy dresser or plastic bins of textbooks—while heavier items could damage anything underneath.
Along with the size of the unit, you will also need to decide if you need specialty add-ons, such as extra security/video monitoring or climate controls. Delicate or temperature and humidity-sensitive items such as leather furniture, leather clothing, wooden furniture, electronics, and musical instruments may require a climate-controlled rental.
What Type of Lease Should You Look For?
Do you only plan to use the self storage unit while you're on the road? If you will rent or buy a new home immediately after your trip, look for a storage facility that offers short-term or monthly rentals. But if you may need to store everything while you search for a new apartment, take another vacation, or plan to stay with friends/family, a longer term (such as one year) is an option to explore.
