| By :
Mark Etinger
My parents, God bless 'em, recently decided, since they'd been empty-nesters for nearly two decades now (and have no desire or the youthful ability to reproduce again), that they would switch residences to someplace smaller. As thrilled as I was to help my parents move, the biggest obstacle we had to deal with was storing away all of their memorable belongings that we wanted to keep, but wouldn't fit in their new residence. I say it was the biggest obstacle, because as I quickly discovered, self-storage is not as simple as packing a bag for a trip. I loaded up my truck. I took my parents stuff to the best climate controlled storage I could find. And I began to unload. I mean, how hard could it be? I'm a smart guy. I put my pants on myself every morning, one leg at a time, just like anybody else. This wasn't rocket science; this was just the self storage units with the highest recommendations. Oh how wrong I was. So, now I offer you some tips and bits of advice I learned during my climate controlled storage experience: The important thing to do is plan ahead. And that includes the way you're going to store everything in your unit. I thought I could just show up, throw it all in, re-arrange if I needed the extra space, and be on my way. Not so. It's important to create a center aisle (or series of aisles, depending on how much stuff you have) to allow for easy access to any of your items. I learned this lesson when two weeks after storing everything, my mom asked me where her wedding album was (Why she decided to store that rather than keep it at her new place, I have no idea). Luckily, the album was tucked safely at the top of the "photo album" box. Unluckily, it was stuck behind an armoire, a desk chair, and an old baby carriage. DON'T trap your items. Keep a center aisle. Also, make sure to label all your boxes. You'll swear you're going to remember, but trust me, you won't. I wouldn't have even labeled the boxes, but luckily my mom has a strong, undiagnosed case of OCD. Take apart all of your furniture. This includes removing chair legs, dissembling bed frames, etc. Wrap mattresses in bags, but avoid plastic covers if your storage unit isn't climate controlled. And just like with the boxes, be sure to label EVERYTHING. If you have any valuable china, crystal, or important glassware, wrap each item individually and put them in a storage box with individual dividers (a padded layer on the top doesn't hurt either). And do I have to say it again, LABEL LABEL LABEL!!! And finally… and this is one I would have never in a thousand years considered, stack all books and photo albums flat and NOT VERTICALLY, so to protect the spine and contents from being bent and damaged. Remember when I mentioned trying to reach my mothers wedding album? Let's just say when I finally got to it, the condition it was in was clearly the worst part of my climate controlled storage experience.
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