Westbrook Self Storage Topics

Self Storage for My Business Documents

Running a home business has always been a fun endeavor for me, and I really love what I do. What I do not love, however, is dealing with all the paperwork that's involved with running a home business. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with documents that I don't need to have on hand all the time. There are just so many of them, and they take up a lot of my valuable space. That's why I started looking into off site storage solutions for my business documents a few months ago, when I finally came across US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage.

I was looking at different Westbrook Self Storage options because I figured a storage unit would probably be the most affordable way to deal with business documents that I needed to get out of my home office. I looked at several different options before I settled on US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage, and there are several reasons I decided to choose this particular facility. Here are just a few of them:

Location

While I wasn't going to choose a self storage location based on where it was located solely, it was important to me that I find someplace within a short drive of my home. I don't want to have to drive thirty minutes to access my self storage unit, especially when it's packed with potentially important business files that I may need to access at a moment's notice once in a while. The US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location is convenient to my home office, which is really nice.

Unit Sizes

Another thing I like about the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location is that they have relatively small unit sizes. One unit is just the size of your average reach in closet, and it's the perfect option for storing a file cabinet full of a few files that my business doesn't need all the time. Other places only had larger units, where I would end up paying extra for space I didn't really need in the long run. The small unit was definitely one factor that drew me to this particular Westbrook Self Storage location.

Prices

Besides the size of the unit, the price was also great. Plus, the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location offers some great deals for first time renters and for business renters who want long term storage options. Right now, I just have a month to month lease to see how keeping these business files off site works for me, but eventually, I'll probably set up a long term lease if it continues to work out like I think it's going to.

Westbrook – Selling Handmade Furniture

I've loved to build furniture ever since I built my wife a dining room table for our first anniversary. We still have that table, and I've never stopped building furniture. Now, I use my carpentry as a side business, and it's a great way to earn a little extra money for my family while practicing a hobby I love. The problem is that I often build furniture more quickly than I can sell it, and I need a place to keep my extra inventory.

That's why I went searching and found the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location. The location is perfect – very convenient for me to get to whether I'm at home or at work. The place also has some very reasonable prices. I don't make a fortune selling my furniture, so that was a really important piece of the puzzle to me. The other thing that made me decide on the Westbrook Self Storage location was that they had excellent customer service.

I knew all about building furniture, but I didn't know a thing about storing it safely until the manager of the Westbrook Self Storage location gave me some great tips on how to store my furniture so that it would stay in excellent shape. Here are the tips that I use to this day to make sure that my handmade wooden furniture stays in great shape between my garage and the buyer's home:

Keep it off the floor: In my garage, I keep the furniture on plastic sheeting to protect it from moisture than can condense on the floor. Of course, the same thing can happen in the storage unit. Instead of just relying on plastic covering for long-term storage, though, I actually created a false floor out of spare wood and then covered it in plastic. That way, the furniture is up off the floor and has room to air out when things get a little humid in my Westbrook Self Storage unit.

Cover it with cotton: I cover each individual piece of furniture with cotton so that the stain doesn't get dusty. I use cotton rather than plastic because cotton is breathable. Plastic will trap moisture next to the furniture, which can cause mold and rotting. Cotton breathes, though, so the furniture can air out when it's humid out.

Leave some room: Leaving room between pieces of furniture serves much the same purpose – it allows furniture to have some room to air out, which protects against mildew and rotting.

Oil the metal: A few of the pieces I build have metal incorporated into the design or at least have metal hinges. Metal can rust pretty easily when it is in a humid environment. I always make sure to use metal rust protectant on the metal before I put it into storage so that rust doesn't become a problem.

Splitting Storage for the Summers

My roommate at the University of New England and I have a lot of stuff. I mean, our small apartment is completely packed to the brim. Between all of our kitchen stuff, our desks, or bed sets, and all the odds and ends we need to make our lives here at the University of New England more comfortable, there's just a lot of stuff to deal with. It's not a problem because our place is large enough for it – if we stay at least somewhat organized – but it can be a hassle in the summers.

The summer after our freshman year, we went home, hauling all of our stuff behind us. I mean, what were we planning to do with all that stuff for the summer? Luckily, I had a space in my parents' garage where I could put it until the next school year, but my roommate wasn't so lucky. She had to find a place in her hometown bedroom to put everything. She said it was really just a complete disaster.

So this year, we decided to take a different route. We looked into Westbrook Self Storage locations near the University of New England. Sure, it was going to cost a bit of money to get a Westbrook Self Storage unit for the summer, but it would save us a whole lot of hassle. Even I would have to keep my junk in my bedroom this summer, since my little brother got a car and rights to the extra garage space! Yikes!

We looked at several different storage places before we opted for one Westbrook Self Storage location by a company called US Storage Centers. The Westbrook Self Storage location had everything we were looking for: security, cleanliness, and good prices.

We'd heard some horror stories from other University of New England students who had left their stuff in storage for the summer. One person's unit got broken into, only he didn't find out about it until he actually got back to school and tried to go clean the unit out! Another person had water damage to half of her apartment furniture, and another had problems with rodent infestations. Gross! So, we knew we needed a place that was both secure and clean.

That was the first thing we noticed about the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location. It was super clean when we first drove in, and when we toured the units, everything was water-damage free and very clean and tidy. That was a huge bonus for us, for sure.

Also, though, the Westbrook Self Storage location was great because it had an awesome security system. The manager took us through how it operated. To get into the area with the storage units, you have to punch in a gate code that is tied to your unit. When you punch in the gate code, you turn off the individual unit alarm. But if someone goes in without punching in the gate code, the alarm on your unit goes off, alerting the manager that there is a problem. Pretty slick, huh?

Why Use Storage in Westbrook, Maine?

Westbrook, Maine is a town in the southwest corner of the state of Maine, right in the midst of New England. The town used to be called after Saccarappa Falls, but was eventually named after Colonel Thomas Westbrook, who was a commander during the Dummer's War. The town is home to about 16,000 people, many of whom live in a family unit. Many people in Westbrook use a Westbrook Self Storage unit, and there are many reasons that they might choose to use a US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage unit.

Population Facts

About 30% of those who live in Westbrook have children under the age of eighteen living with them. Lots of families use Westbrook Self Storage to house their children's outgrown clothes and hand me downs, to get ready for babies, or to simply store sports gear for their children in the off-seasons. Many other families in Westbrook who don't have children can use storage for extra garage space or even to store their own sports equipment.

Businesses

Westbrook functions as a suburb of Portland, so many people work in the larger city and commute from Westbrook each day. However, Westbrook is home to many developing businesses, as well as some large corporations like IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. Many businesses use Westbrook Self Storage to keep their old files safe and out of the way, and some businesses – such as lawn care and construction businesses – may operate primarily out of a Westbrook Self Storage unit in order to avoid the costs of keeping a warehouse of their own.

Recreation

One of the main reasons that many of Westbrook's residents use Westbrook Self Storage is to store their sporting goods equipment. There are plenty of options for fun in Westbrook, including the Bicentennial Park and Skate Park, Riverbank Park, Westbrook River Walk, Cornelia Warren Memorial Trail, Westbrook River Trail, Rocky Hill, Warren Little League Complex, Lincoln Street Skating Rink, East Bridge Street Ballfields, Warren League Grounds, Warren Pool, and Davan Pool.

The Day My Garage Was Too Small

I'm an organized person by nature. I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place, as the saying goes. That means that my entire home, including my garage. Has always been super organized. I mean, every once in a while things get out of order if I have to work a lot and don't really have time to stay on top of it. (I'm telling you: getting organized is one thing, but staying organized is a whole different animal!)

Anyway, being organized usually means I have plenty of space in my home and garage. I mean, you can always fit more stuff into a space when it's organized, right? So I've never had to really worry about running out of room in my garage or house until this time last year when I took up woodworking as a hobby.

I'm not a huge hobbyist, but I'd done some woodworking in the past and really enjoyed it. My wife was encouraging me to really go for it because she knew it would help relieve some stress or whatever. So, we went out one day and dropped a couple grand from the bonus I'd just gotten on tons of woodworking tools and equipment. I could fit everything into our two-car garage right? Wrong!

I spent an entire weekend organizing, reorganizing, arranging, and rearranging that danged garage, and I still couldn't find enough room to keep all the stuff that was already there alongside my new woodworking supplies. I was seriously at a loss, as I'd never had this problem before. I was about to just give up the idea of woodworking and take all that stuff back when my wife came up with another idea: find a Westbrook Self Storage unit for the other random stuff we didn't need very often.

At first, I didn't really like the idea. I mean, we'd already spent a ton of money to make this woodworking thing happen for me, and I didn't really want to spend any more every month just to have more garage space. But, she insisted we at least check it out.

So the next weekend – after spending the week with everything literally just crammed into the garage and driving me crazy – we looked at a few Westbrook Self Storage options. That's when we came across the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location. It was so affordable that I decided to drop my argument and just go with it.

The manager at the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location was real nice, and he explained everything from the high-tech security system to the discount on the first couple of months' worth of rent. I mean, with the deal we were getting on monthly storage, I wished I had thought of getting a storage unit sooner. We didn't really need one until now, but who couldn't use a little extra space in the garage?

At first, we thought we'd get the smallest unit available, but then we decided to go one size up from that for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it would be easier to get stuff into and out of. Also, my wife decided that if we were going to pay for storage, we were going to use it to clear out some extra space in the closets in the house, too, instead of just in the garage. Fine my me, since the next size up didn't cost all that much more.

Staging Our House with Storage

Whoever said selling a home is easy must have been crazy. Selling a home, especially in a market like this one, is incredibly difficult. But, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Fortunately for me, I have a great realtor who has had some awesome suggestions to help me sell my home more easily. Besides hosting an open house and stuff like that, she suggested I take some time to really stage my home to make it look as picture perfect as possible.

Let me tell you, my home is normally far from picture perfect. I'm not a slob, by any means, but I believe in living comfortably. This means mismatched picture frames and furniture that is old but sturdy and comfy. It means, in short, that my home doesn't look anything like a magazine.

So when my realtor suggested staging my home, I decided to talk to a professional stager. Sure, it's more expensive, but it's cheaper to rent the stager's furniture and décor than it is to buy all new stuff for my home – stuff that I'll like less than what I already have, anyway! The stager suggested basically starting from scratch, and she suggested that I put pretty much everything I owned that didn't have a practical use into a Westbrook Self Storage unit.

Obviously, I needed to find a good deal on a Westbrook Self Storage unit, and I needed to find one fast. I had just a couple of months before I was moving across the country, so I needed to do everything possible to get rid of that house. My stager recommended US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage as a great option for me.

When I went to this Westbrook Self Storage location, I was immediately impressed. The facilities were clean and well-lit, and there were cameras everywhere. Since I was going to be leaving pretty much everything I owned in this storage unit, I really needed to feel secure. Not only did the whole place seem pretty secure, though, but I also found that the individual unit security is tight.

Storing Our Ski Gear

When you live in the New England area, wintertime always means skiing and snowboarding. Heck, the school around here usually have an extra winter break around February because so many families want to take a family ski trip! Well, my wife and I are both from this area, and we've both been skiing since we were kids. When we got together, we couldn't wait to take our kids skiing!

The problem is that when you ski as a family, you end up with a whole bunch of gear that you only use for a couple of months out of the year. Even in New England we can't ski year-round! Between my wife's skis and my own, our boys' snowboards, our girls' skis, and all our ski clothing, we've got a ton of stuff to take with us on a trip. But we're serious about our skiing, so we can't just rent junky equipment from the ski resort!

At first, all the equipment wasn't a problem because it was just the two of us. As the kids got older and started to get their own gear, though, it became kind of an issue. Where the heck were we going to keep it all? We were seriously out of room in the garage and all the closets in the house.

That's when we finally decided to get a Westbrook Self Storage unit for our family ski gear. Sure, we'd have to pay for someplace to keep it, and we'd pay year-round, but, in the long run, it seemed like a better option than trying to cram it all in some corner of the house to drive us crazy and possibly get broken. Plus, do you know how much ski and snowboard rental costs at the ski resorts? We felt like we were getting a better bargain on a Westbrook Self Storage unit because it would let us keep our own ski and snowboarding gear without losing our minds!

We looked around for a while before we decided on a Westbrook Self Storage location. Security was one of our top concerns, for sure. We needed to make sure that our thousands of dollars' worth of ski and snowboarding gear wasn't going to go mysteriously missing because we chose a Westbrook Self Storage location with less than ideal security. We also needed to be able to access our ski gear frequently during the skiing months and usually at odd hours.

Luckily for us, we came across the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location. It was close to home, which was convenient, and it had everything we were looking for in a Westbrook Self Storage location.

For one thing, the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location has great security. You need a gate code to get in, and each unit has an individual alarm. That means the manager knows as soon as someone tries to get into a unit without first punching the private gate code in. US Storage Centers also let us choose our own lock for the self storage unit, which was also vastly helpful. That meant we could choose a very thick lock that would be next to impossible to cut through with a simple pair of bolt cutters. We felt like our ski and snowboarding gear was going to be safe at that storage location.

As for getting into our Westbrook Self Storage unit, that was easy. We got our own gate code when we signed a contract, and we could use it during extended gate hours to get into our storage unit. That meant if we left for a one-day ski trip, we could pick our stuff up on the way there and drop it back off on the way home. Piece of cake.

Of course, the decent prices didn't hurt too much either. We'd checked around on different Westbrook Self Storage location prices, and the US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage location had some of the best prices in town. Plus, they were running a special at the time we rented from them that saved us even more money. The month to month contract was helpful too because it meant if we ever moved or something, we wouldn't have to shell out more cash to break our lease. We just let the manager know, paid the fee for the last month we occupied the unit, and cleared out.

Planning Ahead for Our Baby

I'm a planner by nature. I always have a five year plan and ten year goals and New Years' Resolutions – the whole bit. So when I found out I was pregnant six months ago, I started planning for the new baby right away. She was actually a bit of a surprise, which through me into a tizzy because normally, I would have had practically her whole first three years planned out before we were even pregnant!

At any rate, you can't plan for everything. I get that. But, you can plan for some things – like the arrival of a baby.

The problem was that I wanted to plan by going ahead and getting the things I knew we would need for a baby, but we didn't have any place to put them. Our one-bedroom apartment didn't leave room for a nursery, so I couldn't store anything for the baby ahead of time. As soon as we found out we were pregnant, we notified our apartment complex manager to let him know we'd be moving into a townhome when our lease was up. The problem was that by the time the lease would be up, I'd already be eight months pregnant!

I couldn't wait until eight months pregnant to buy the nursery set and the clothes and the diapers and everything else – especially because I needed to bargain shop and save as much money as I could on stuff like that! So, my husband and I decided that we would need to get a Westbrook Self Storage unit so that we could get everything together before we moved into our new apartment. That way, when we moved, we'd just have to paint the nursery and get everything all set up.

We looked at a couple of different Westbrook Self Storage locations before we came across US Storage Centers Westbrook Self Storage. It was a little different in that it was super clean and secure, and it was very easy to access. I could get into our storage unit there pretty much whenever I wanted – which meant that when I hit up a garage sale on a Saturday, I could run my finds straight over to the storage unit without having to bring them home first. Plus, they had some great unit sizes, with the smallest size being just perfect for what we needed – just a little extra space for the baby's stuff.