Moving can be an incredibly stressful experience. It requires hours of preparation, assessing the size of the space you’re heading to, and deciding what will go where once you arrive in your new space. On top of this, you have the emotional weight of letting go and moving on.
Sometimes, moving also can entail downsizing your belongings. But what if you’re not ready to let go of your grandfather’s favorite arm chair, or the dollhouse you want to give to your niece in six years when she’s old enough to appreciate it?
If you’re stumped as to what you should be doing with the stuff you just can’t bear to part with but have no place for in your new home, then self-storage may be just the right option for you. Chris Poholek of Space Max Storage, a self-storage company in Atlanta, offers recommendations for what to look for when you’re considering where to house your belongings that are in danger of becoming homeless.
First and foremost, Poholek recommends that you seek out a climate-controlled facility. Not only should the temperature be controlled, but you want your keepsakes to be living in a humidity-controlled environment, especially in a humid climate like Atlanta. For example, not only does Space Max Storage have thermostats on their HVAC units, but they also have humidstats. The humidity should be kept below 50% humidity with a temperature of 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer. There should be no exposure to the elements. This is a far cry from the older storage options, where it was 120 degrees in a unit on a hot summer day and rain would come in under the door.
Some facilities have different standards for what it means to “control” the temperature and moisture content. Make sure to ask all the questions you need to ask in order to ensure that the environment is operating at a high standard.
Poholek also recommends confirming how safe your belongings will be in the place you’re leaving them. You want a facility that is very serious about security as a priority. It’s not only important to have the right number of employees on-staff, but also, a variety of security cameras. Poholek’s team consists of three employees for when the facility is open from 8AM to 7PM, six days per week, and four hours on Sunday. Once you sign the contract and become a Space Max Storage tenant, you can access your belongings from 6AM to 10PM, seven days a week.
The security system is dependent upon a code that you pick. You put it in at the front door and again at the loading area. Then you have to put your code in to enter the storage area. This leads you to a second set of doors, another door at the storage unit, and if you’re on an upper floor of the building, then there’s a code for the elevator. You can only get to the floor where your storage unit is located, and then you have your own locks for your specific unit.
Temperature and humidity control and security are the keys to success at Space Max Storage, and they should be your priorities too when weighing your self-storage options. So don’t let your grandfather’s arm chair go from antique to moldy artifact in one balmy summer. Instead, choose the right storage facility and rest assured that your prized possessions will indeed be kept safe.