How to decide if you should use storage

A lot of people are getting ready to move this time of year. My family is one of those who are busily packing up. We're also a family who gets no say in where we live or the size house we move into. It's provided through my husband's job. We live where we're told.

Overall it's not a bad system. It certainly saves you the problem of finding a home. I've already written about how Gouffon Moving and Storage is our favorite local movers to use. What I have not written about is storage facilities.

One year, we moved into a very tiny home. It had room for about half of our belongings. We were moving to another state at the time and knew we were moving back in a couple of years. Getting rid of our belongings made no sense so we found a place to store it with people that we knew. Had we moved to someplace like San Francisco Storage would have been harder to find.

What to do with belongings isn't just for people who are moving. RV owners who travel may have household items that they want to hang onto.

Friends of ours who are moving are faced with the dilemma of what to keep and where. This post is about how we decided what would be stored.

Are the items too big to move?

Once upon a time I owned a gorgeous eight seat oak dining table. It turned out to be too big to

carry around from move to move. It had a veneer top so storing it wasn't practical. We decided instead to sell the oak table to a church instead of putting it into storage.

Can it withstand storage?
Veneer furniture and pianos can't take the temperature extremes of storage. Plan on the items to be cold in winter, hot in summer and slightly damp during the rainy season.

Are the items too fragile to move?

I once owned a half round china cabinet with curved glass. It was beautiful but fragile. Veneer on the back had started to curl. Selling it was painful but less so than seeing the glass break during the move.

Cost.

How much would it cost you to replace a couch or other item that you want to put into storage? Over the long run storing may cost more than buying the items later.

Do you have driveway space?
Boats and other travel vehicles or RVs may be too large to park in your driveway. Storage for these may be your only option.

After looking our items over we had several items that needed to go into storage. The rest of our decision was based on cost, security and location.