[ebiester]

I think there are three use cases:

1. You are temporarily moving to a place outside your local area, or to a much smaller place. I was moving around for a year and a half, so I left my furniture and non-valuables in a storage unit until I would be settled again.

2. You live in a small unit in a big city. $100-$150 for an extra 50 square feet a month might be cheaper than the equivalent space and is a great choice for occasionally used items. if it's 4 dollars a square foot for living space or 2 dollars a square foot for storage space, that's a deal.

3. Short term holding: You're moving out of your rental in July, in AirBnbs until September when you've closed on your house.

If you're in a suburban house and don't have enough space, that's a bad reason to have a storage unit.

[irrational]

4. You are a hoarder and have run out of room at home (I knew a hoarder with multiple storage units for this exact reason).

5. You are trying to hide things from your spouse.

[analog31]

6. You're homeless, and have a place to sleep, but not for your stuff. Maybe you have bad credit, an eviction record, whatever. A small amount of cash income is enough to pay the rent on the storage unit.

7. You're storing the tools / materials for a small business.

[s0rce]

I've used them in situation 1, my lease was up in current city and I had a new place in the new city so needed to move but the new job was paying for the move but it wasn't organized yet. I just put everything in storage and left the key with a friend.

For situation 3 I was able to leave stuff with family but I would have paid for storage again. I lived in a few furnished places for a year.

I plan to use it again for situation 2 when my free storage situation ends. My place is tiny and I can just store something in the facility next to my office for cheaper.

They have their place. The argument that people pay more to store something then the value probably applies to all the junk in people's homes/garages. Must be billions in real estate in the bay area storing old junk.

[FinnKuhn]

I could also see seasonal storage for things that you might not want to leave outside for 1-2 months a year.

[paulcole]

I worked with a startup in Seattle that was essentially this. Store your skis/kayak/whatever for a flat fee a month depending on the item. They did door to door delivery/drop off as well.

Pretty sure it’s out of business now. They were owned by a big local storage unit company looking for a new market.

[smugma]

I was driving in the burbs yesterday and saw a giant skeleton… like 13’ tall and the skull being 2’ wide. I said to my friend “where do they store that stuff? I’m guessing their Christmas lawn stuff is just as extreme.”

a lot of people love their holiday decor. Not how much resale you can get on a giant skeleton, but it’s not an easy lift. Seems like a good use case for storage… a few thousand a year to make you happy thinking you’re bringing holiday cheer to neighbors and kids.

[reginald78]

These giant skeletons have become sort of common out in my rural area. I had assumed you could break them down easily into manageable pieces but since half of them seem to end up left out year round I think the answer to "where do they store that stuff?" is nowhere!

At least one house the owner seems to dress the skeleton up with current holiday attire and decorations which is an amusing solution.

[positr0n]

That stuff can easily fit in the attic of most suburban houses I've lived in.

[bigiain]

Lots of Burningman groups and theme camps pay for storage for the 50 weeks a year their camp stuff isn't needed.

[dunham]

For #3 the interstate moving company held our stuff. (We were in an AirBnB for about a month while looking for a house.)

[mycall]

4. Liveaboard who wants to keep some stuff on land just in case a boat sinks.

[FartinMowler]

Wow, that's a somewhat rare edge case. Let me see if I can beat that (hold my beer): 5. Astronauts for Boeing Starliners who are not certain when their return flight will be.

[pmarreck]

I live in a boating town and there's a whole line of houseboats in one of the marinas, the others have plenty of boats that people seem to be living on board. No property taxes and the marinas always have bath/shower (and sometimes laundry) facilities; portable relatively efficient refrigerators now exist that can be either shore or battery powered, etc.

Undoubtedly, some of these rent storage facilities.

[mycall]

Welcome to my world :)