When you need to find a place to store some of your personal property, renting a self-storage unit is one good option to consider. Knowing your requirements before you start looking is essential and can help you as you look at the available storage facilities available in your area. 

Location of the Storage Unit

Often people will look for a storage unit without considering how often they may need to access the items in storage. If you have things that you don't use daily but you still need to be able to get to, it is crucial that the storage unit is close enough for you to get to without too much trouble. 

You may need to pay a little more to have your storage unit close by, but if that is important to you, it may be worth the difference in the price you pay. While it may not be worth twenty or thirty dollars more a month, it could be worth five or ten dollars more. 

Access To The Unit

Determining the amount of access you need for your storage unit is another important consideration. For some people, the time of day they need access is not an issue. Still, if you need to be able to enter the facility with very short notice or after hours, a storage facility that allows you access at any time may be high on your list of priorities. 

Accessing your unit late at night can be dangerous if you are using an outside storage unit, but a storage facility that offers units that are inside a building provides additional security and lighting so that you feel safe even if you need to retrieve something from the unit late at night or early in the morning. Most of these facilities require a code to access the building and have cameras throughout the facility to monitor the property during non-business hours.

Size of the Unit

While this may seem like a given, it is common for people to rent the smallest storage unit they can and stuff it full of their belongings. If you are not going to open the unit until you are ready to unload it, that might be fine, but if you are going to access it regularly, it is often better to get a storage unit large enough to move around in. 

Organize the contents so you can find them quickly and allow enough space in the unit so that you do not need to pull boxes out and set them aside while you are looking for things in the unit. Sometimes that means spending a little more money, but if the storage unit is well organized and easy to access, it can save a lot of time retrieving things, and that may make the additional cost worth it.