We buy contents of storage units

[Syn D]

Just an fyi to anyone thinking about doing this, there is another down side to it ~ we just cleaned out a unit that apparently came from a house that let their animals um have the indoors as their potty ..

[Booklover]

Ugh! I never thought of that-only the good side of things. I have been in homes where they have too many pets in the house with too little ventilation, (and cleaning is non-existant). I can take a lot, but have had to leave those homes asap. Makes me feel very ill.
Strange that that bothers me, but I could work in a smelly paper mill.

[Syn D]

Ugh! I never thought of that-only the good side of things. I have been in homes where they have too many pets in the house with too little ventilation, (and cleaning is non-existant). I can take a lot, but have had to leave those homes asap. Makes me feel very ill.
Strange that that bothers me, but I could work in a smelly paper mill.

I was literally gagging, very close to getting sick when he pulled the couch out of the unit, took bout 30 minutes to get rid of the feeling.. bad smells are my weakness, mostly strong bad smell, light ones don't affect me much..

One thing some people do is ~ When they're moving, they rent a unit for 1 month so they have somewhere to put the stuff they don't want (good shape or bad shape), then don't pay after that, at least that how it seems here..

[peanut]

Some of those units are rented by people in considerable upheaval in their life and having mental health difficulties, and hence difficulties holding jobs and getting money to pay for the rental. And having a hard time paying rent for a place to unpack all their stuff. This happened to my mom. If it hadn't been for my sisters, her stuff would have been sold off too. My one sister paid her fees and the other sister put all her stuff in her barn in storage there. What a mess though! Mom was so paranoid my sister had 'stolen' her stuff! Dsis was trying to save it!

[Syn D]

Well, I think in this case (the stinky unit) their priorities were just messed up.. There was also a lot of drug paraphernalia in the unit ~ bongs, pipes, residue, etc... Which is the second unit we have found this kind of stuff out of these 6 units.

My sister lost a unit once, it had all her kids stuff in it.. Buying her booze was more important to her than the stuff in the unit.. She never read the notice (so no one knew in time), but also never paid after the first month..

We've done this enough to know why some got the units.. One month paid only = units opened and mostly throw away stuff.. two units have been full of left over yard sale stuff, all priced and signs in unit. We only have small thrift stores here and they will only take a limited amount of items at a time.. The dump is also to far for a lot to get to.. Small storage units are pretty cheap here..

I'm not saying that some aren't lost due to hardship, but here we know for a fact a lot were not lost for that reason.

We don't go in to this looking for large profit off someones misfortune, we aim to break even anything above that goes on needed things, plus we do it to help the owners, they need them cleared out a.s.a.p., but don't want to hassle with it themselves, that's why we don't pay a lot for the units. If we don't want the unit, they pay us gas to clear it out.. This time there was 2 units we didn't want (stinky one was one of them), but we just did a bulk price on 6, instead of price per unit.

There is one unit that we might be getting soon and this person is well known and is definitely not in hardship, he has no excuse at all for not paying, but is months behind..

Sorry if us doing this bothers anyone, but if you knew the owners like we do, you'd know they'd work with anyone on the bill if they needed it.. She waits on an average 7 to 10 months after past due before she sells the unit (not the 90 days almost all other companies do), in hopes they can clear up their bill, so they can get their stuff back.. She notifies them periodically and informs them that she will work with them to get it paid off.. We bought one unit that was over 12 month past due..

[bumplett]

I can't imagine that it would bother anyone that you guys buy units ~ I think it's great ~ as well as hard work -

where do you store stuff until you can sell it?

keep up the good work!!

[Syn D]

I can't imagine that it would bother anyone that you guys buy units ~ I think it's great ~ as well as hard work -

where do you store stuff until you can sell it?

keep up the good work!!

Thank You!!

Yes, very hard work, a lot more for hubby than me tho'.

Right now it is in our carport under tarps, we still have one unit to empty. We will be having a yard sale next weekend and what doesn't sale will be spread out between the thrift stores here.. We are now half way to breaking even, come this Monday we should completely have all our money back (all mostly off just one unit and sold to hubbys employees).. So, the money made from the yard sale will be put away to help us get to our daughters wedding in April.

We don't have the money for the units just lying around, it is usually ment for something else, like the money we used to buy these units was money we were saving for propane, which we don't need for a few months, but we knew we'd get it back fast as we have every other time..

[Ponderer]

I just want to clarify that I do not fault those that buy the units and I understand the market for it. I just think it is important to be honest enough to acknowledge both sides of the coin. Whether anyone likes acknowledging it or not....many of the units are lost from those that really do care and are in extreme circumstances...even if it is easier to think they are all just irresponsible losers. That is not always the case and we all know that.

[peanut]

Didn't mean my post to come across as a criticism...just an elaboration on different circumstances for using storage.

Frankly, I think you are doing a good thing to take all this stuff off the storage unit owner's hands. Why should they get stuck storing stuff for free? Especially when they can rent for money! The fact is, they need to earn a living too! If Mom hadn't told us or gone back for her stuff, I would hope someone like you would come along and go through it and pick out the good from the bad and see it gets used appropriately.

[Syn D]

Thank You!!

It was actually a rude comment I got from elsewhere.. I don't usually bother with rude comments, but I try on FV to understand others and I thought bout that rude comment and thought It might bother someone over here..

We understand about misfortune and have been there many of times, but we can't let that control us.. We also respect the renters of the lost units, we have never told anyone the names of the renters.. We live in a town where at least one person we talk to might know that person, so we have never mentions any names, a lot of last name connections here.. It's not my job to expose any ones misfortunes/habits..

[momof42003]

My aunt actually let her storage unit go with my uncles flag in it. Had we known she was behind, we would have gladdly paid it for her. Agrivating to say the least!!!