Ridgecrest Self Storage Topics

Using Self Storage for My Small Business

Running a small business out of a strip mall office has its challenges, for sure. Not only do you have the typical challenges of running a small business, but you also have the additional challenge of making your business work in a rather tight space. But, when you're first starting out, it's easier to pay for a smaller space, so it's often worth figuring out how to deal with it instead of upgrading to a larger space.

When I started my business, I was looking for good ways to store all the paperwork that I needed to keep but didn't necessarily need to have in the office. The articles of incorporation and old tax paperwork were a few things I could afford to get out of my office space. I tried a few different options – even taking home some of the paperwork to my home. Nothing worked very well, though, because space was such a premium for both my business and my home.

That's why I finally ended up renting a Ridgecrest Self Storage unit through US Storage Centers. While renting a storage unit just for paperwork may not be the most typical business solution, it's one that works really well for me. Here are just a few reasons:

More Space for Less Money

When I was having so much trouble fitting everything I needed in my office area, I checked out the price of larger office spaces in the area. You wouldn't believe how much more I was going to have to pay for just a few square feet of space! It's really unbelievable that they would ask you to pay that much for a little bit of space!

But when I checked out self storage units, I was pleasantly surprised at the relatively lower prices. US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage was one of the first places I looked, and it was a great value for the space. One of the cool things is that you can pay for as small or as large a space as you need. At first, I just rented a tiny 5x5 unit, but eventually, I moved up a bit so that I could get more stuff in my storage space. It was great to be able to customize my space for the amount of space I needed and the amount of money I was able to spend each month.

The Ridgecrest Self Storage unit I use for my business has always fit nicely into my business's budget and been a great way to keep my paperwork organized while keeping my expenses down.

Good Security

One thing I hadn't thought of with my business paperwork was how I would keep it secure when I had other employees in my business. When I first started out, I wasn't really worried about it because it was just me. But eventually, I knew I would be hiring employees, and there were certain pieces of paperwork that I didn't really want them to be able to access.

When I decided to check out self storage units, one of the first things I thought of was how much easier it would be to keep my business documents secure. One thing I found with the US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage location was the security. In order to get into each unit without setting off an alarm, you have to punch in a special code at the gate. Even if an unauthorized person did get into my storage unit, I would know it if they didn't punch in the gate code first.

Ridgecrest – Storing Furniture for Our Next Baby

Everyone always talks about how expensive it is to have kids, and it's really true. Babies and kids aren't cheap. But the thing is that if you wait until you feel completely financially ready, you'll probably never actually have kids. So last year, my husband and I took the plunge. We had our first baby, and it was a wonderful, challenging, amazing experience. Financially, though, it got to be a bit of a strain. That's why we decided to go ahead and keep many of the big ticket items we bought for our daughter to use with our next baby, who will hopefully be making an appearance in another year or two.

The problem was that when we moved our daughter into a big girl bed and the furniture that came with it, we didn't have space any more for the expensive, nice set of baby furniture we'd bought for her. So, we decided to check out a few storage options, and that's when we came across a Ridgecrest Self Storage location called US Storage Centers.

We wanted to be good with our money, so we checked out a few different Ridgecrest Self Storage locations before settling on US Storage Centers. We weren't looking for rock-bottom prices, but we wanted a place that would give us a good value for our money. We felt like we got that with the US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage location.

One of the reasons we felt this way was that the US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage location had some excellent security measures in place, which made us feel like it was safe to leave our baby furniture there. Also, they were very well built storage units, so we knew our furniture wouldn't get wet or ruined because of problems with the storage unit.

Of course, price did matter somewhat, and the Ridgecrest Self Storage location had great prices and a few good storage unit sizes. Plus, we could make our payments online automatically with the US Storage Centers self storage location, which was great. One less thing to worry about!

Besides all that, the manager of the US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage location provided excellent customer service. He even listened to us talk about what we were putting in the storage unit, exactly, and gave us some great tips to make the furniture storage process even better. His tips probably kept us from coming back to get our furniture in a couple of years only to find that it was completely ruined!

Selling Our Home After Our Baby

By the time my husband and I had a baby, we had already owned two different homes, so we'd done the whole home selling thing before. With just two adults, it was really easy to keep the house clean and clutter free. Boy, is selling a house different after you have a baby who can crawl and get into everything! When we decided it was time to sell the home we're currently in, we knew it would take a miracle to keep it all together for surprise showings! Our miracle came in the unexpected form of a Ridgecrest Self Storage unit by US Storage Centers.

See, the problem with having a baby and trying to sell a house is that they get into everything and they have way too much stuff. I mean, after our baby's first Christmas when he was six months old, you would not believe the number of toys we had all over the house! Of course, half the time he didn't play with any of them, anyway. So when we were ready to sell the house, we knew that we'd need to temporarily get rid of lots of those unplayed-with toys and lots of the odds and ends around the house that our son tended to get into and totally destroy.

We had a friend who had rented a storage unit with US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage before, and they came highly recommended. We had no idea what to expect when it came to self storage, but we were certainly impressed with US Storage Centers. The units were clean and well-lit, and there were cameras everywhere. Also, it was great to be talked through the security system the facility had in place.

Basically, every unit is equipped with an individual alarm that can go off when the unit door is opened. When the renter of the unit punches in his or her code at the front gate to get back to the unit, the alarm for that unit is turned off, and it's turned back on again when the code is punched to get back out of the gate. If someone hasn't punched in the gate code but opens a unit anyway, an alarm goes off. It's really an ingenious system that deters theft on lots of levels.

Once we saw how secure and affordable US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage was going to be, we decided to rent a 10x10 unit there. We had originally been thinking we would get a smaller unit, but our realtor let us know that if we cleaned out the garage, our house would be more likely to sell because so many buyers in the area were looking for a great garage space. Between all the extra junk we had in the garage and our son's toys in the house, that was a lot of stuff!

Storing My Hiking Gear

As an avid hiker, I've gathered up a ton of hiking gear over the years, and my home in Ridgecrest gives me the perfect place to hike in. With Death Valley National Park and Stanislaus National Forest within an easy drive of my home, it's great to be able to hike whenever I want to. The problem, though, is that there isn't really room in my small home to store my hiking gear. It just takes up too much space between my various backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, and stoves – all for different types of hiking trips.

Instead of getting rid of some of my gear, though, I decided it would be a better idea to find an alternative place to store it. That's when I came across US Storage Centers Ridgecrest Self Storage. This professionally managed storage location in Ridgecrest gave me everything I needed to be confident about storing my hiking gear there.

For one thing, the Ridgecrest Self Storage location had great security. I had a small fortune's worth of hiking gear to store, and I wanted to make sure it was going to be safe. I like the fact that the Ridgecrest Self Storage location has features like gated access and individually alarmed units. Plus, there's almost always a manager on site, so I felt really comfortable leaving my hiking gear there.

I also got to pick my own lock for my unit, so I could choose a really sturdy combination lock. I picked a combination lock instead of a lock with a key because I wanted to make sure I wouldn't lose the key. Plus, a combination lock meant I could give my best friend the combination and my gate code so she could get into my unit to borrow hiking gear without my having to be there, as well. That was really convenient!

Another reason I chose this Ridgecrest Self Storage location was that I could access my unit when I needed to. With some storage places, you can only get into your storage unit during limited hours, but this storage place had longer gate hours, so I could get into my storage unit whenever I needed to. Since I often left early and returned late for day hikes, this was really important to me. I needed to be able to pick up and drop of my hiking gear whenever I wanted to – not when it was convenient to someone else's schedule.