I have an axe to grind.
Storage.
When we left to go sailing in 2015, we thought we’d be sailing for a couple of years. We are still sailing, and did not anticipate paying into a situationship of long-term storage while traveling.
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Why We Chose Long-Term Storage While Traveling
In the beginning, we downsized dramatically. We rented our house, and locked some of our treasured belongings and practical items in a room in our basement.
Our piano, however, was kept in commercial climate-controlled storage with a piano company.
Our piano is more than a hundred years old. It is an upright piano that still plays as nicely as the day it was made. Rick had it reconditioned in 2014. It is high gloss. If it wasn’t for a single hit from an errant mini hockey stick, the finish would be flawless. It belonged to Rick’s grandparents, and he could not part with it. The piano was originally brought to their farm by horse and wagon.
Moving Our Belongings Into Commercial Storage
In 2019, after sailing for four years around the Caribbean, we visited our house in Canada. We decided to move our basement storage items to a unit on the outskirts of Ottawa.
This made us more nimble to sell our property. It also increased the security on our belongings.
We had provided our tenants with a key to our basement storage unit. This was to allow them access to the room in case of emergency. But, we had not banked on finding a couple of empty liquor bottles in storage that were not there when we left Ottawa.
I called every storage facility within 50 miles of Ottawa. It seemed like storage was in short supply. So, it was exciting to finally find a place that would accept our belongings.
We rented from a locally owned business. We locked in the pricing for two years by paying up front. But within a year, they had sold their small business to a large franchise.
We might have had an inkling about the impending sale of the business when we asked the original owner about their setup. Something seemed amiss as they handed us the keys to our unit and went from very friendly to barely making eye contact as they edged their way past us.
The storage management franchise operation increased the rental fee immediately, but we challenged this, referring them to our prior agreement. As soon as the locked-in period was complete, the rent went up.
The new company was not used to the concept of long-term storage while traveling.
For starters, their online payment system didn’t work. Calling them each month was tedious as we were sometimes at sea where internet access was unreliable.
The tipping point came when we were asked to move our belongings to another unit in their yard within 30 days. They had not put a contingency plan in place for customers who were outside the country, though to their credit, they eventually hired movers to get this sorted.
We received pictures of our gear when the move was done. My first thought was “What a jumble!” followed by “Look at all that extra space!”
Again, we thought our sailing trip would be shorter. That is why we kept practical things like the lawn mower and snow blower. We liked them, they worked, and we did not want to replace them as we thought we’d be returning in a couple of years.
There is no way we would have stored them if we had known we would still be sailing eleven years later. Yet here we are, looking at a photograph of a lawn mower, a snow blower, and a container of oil that we have paid to store for years.
When We Started Questioning What We Were Storing
Storage is a monthly expense to look after furniture that suits a lifestyle I don’t even recognize anymore. We’ve changed. We’re accustomed to living in a small space.
When I see pictures of our gear in storage, I ask myself:
Do I need to sit in a throne in the dining room?
Why is our kitchen table so big?
And, why, after eleven years into our circumnavigation, are we paying to store bicycle panniers and wooly winter socks?
Consolidating Our Storage in Kingston
With Betty in Canada to start university, and Rick accompanying her for her move, it seemed like the perfect time to consolidate the piano storage and the furniture storage and move it all to a smaller storage unit in Kingston.
With this arrangement, Betty would have access to winter gear. She could store her own things in summer. And, we’d have a climate-controlled unit for our piano and everything else, all together.
It sounded so simple. Yet, Rick was not confident that the size would accommodate our belongings. A week before the move he had concerns. The night before his mood was one of outright worry. Yet, he was only in the area for a week, and part of that week was straightening out his Ontario driver’s license. Our storage unit was out beyond where corn grows, well beyond walking distance.
Still, despite his reservations, and with some long-distance and obviously ill-informed encouragement from me in Malaysia, he persisted. His trip with Betty was about to take a stressful curve. Rick met the movers who gathered the piano and the contents of our storage locker.
Destination: Kingston.
Within hours, Rick sent me a note. “We’d be hard-pressed to get everything in a 10′ x 10′. We’re absolutely screwed with a 5′ x 10′.”
The owner of the storage facility was not in. And, for a while it was a scramble to figure out what to do with our stray items. Instead of the single consolidated solution that we’d hoped, we were in a mess.
Fortunately, the storage facility manager arrived. She allowed Rick temporary use of an outside storage container.
We considered selling the furniture, but decided to keep it when Betty said she would like to use it when she has her own place next year.
So, then we tried to loan the furniture. We put ads on Facebook and wrote to a graduate student community. Rick and Betty peppered Kingston with signage.
People expressed interest in the furniture, but the messages we received were not very serious.
Meanwhile, Rick explored other storage facilities for the furniture. He hired movers, which was no small task given the short notice.
The movers took our furniture to another storage unit with yet another storage company, also in Kingston. So, we are still paying for two storage units.
The difference is our gear is close to where Betty is staying at Queen’s University. Betty and her roommate are using the office chairs in their dorm.
How to Research a Commercial Storage Company
If you are considering long-term storage while traveling I assume that reading this blog post is only part of your research.
Likewise, you can expect that the weekly cost of storage is also only part of the rental costs.
Calling ahead to reserve a spot sounds like good planning. However, storage companies will likely want to rent space on a first-come, first-served basis. For them, time and space is money
Read the reviews from previous customers of your storage facility, if possible. And, ask questions.
Questions to Ask Before Renting a Storage Unit
Here are some questions to ask:
- What are the admin charges? Will they waive them?
- Do they require you to have insurance on the unit? In our experience, this has worked like renting a car and then being offered car insurance as an essential add-on.
- Do they have other international customers?
- How do they handle payment? Is it online? Has this method been tested to work with their international customers?
- Lastly, how might they handle moving your gear in your absence? What happens if the business were to close?
Is Long-Term Storage While Traveling Worth It?
We are now sailing in Malaysia, and our belongings are in storage in Canada.
And, yet, I couldn’t give you a straight answer whether storage has been worth it.
Perhaps in one of the photos you saw our lawn mower and snow blower and thought, “Storage for yard gear? What were they thinking?”
My wedding dress is in storage and so is Rick’s piano. We have baby blankets in that unit and a christening dress from the early 1900s. These items carry some serious emotional weight that so far, have defied downsizing.
If you are looking at long-term storage while traveling, there are some questions you will have to answer for yourself — How long might you be gone? And, what’s storage worth to you?