Storing your Belongings while on the Road

[JudyandJim]

After three years of spending 4 to 5 months in our MH, we are ready to go fulltime. Since we already live in a snowbird community, and our family is here, we will continue to be here during winter months. So, we have taken an annual space at a nice senior/snowbird RV resort. We have been test driving several of these parks in the area during the past three years, and have settled on Paradise RV Resort in Sun City, which is a lot of fun from Nov - April.

Now I am in the process of finalizing our downsizing. I got rid of lots of stuff a year ago when we sold our home. Now, after a year of living in an apartment (and lots of time in the MH) there is still plenty to get rid of. I have put everything we need in the MH, and it is ready for our summer travels. Now I am sorting everything else into 3 categories. 1 - things we need in the MH when return home in the Fall and settle into or space at Paradise, where we will add a storage shed. 2 - stuff we just can't part with, and want after we tire of fulltiming, which we will put in an air conditioned storage unit (hot, hot summers here). And, 3 - stuff we are donating to charity (or our family).

We will eventually buy a park model to put on our space at Paradise, or a small condo.. but not for a couple of years.

So, we are surrounded by boxes and counting down the days to June 1st. This will be a great, new experience. I spend a lot of time in the MH, but Jim has only spent vacations and weekends in it. Living full time, while he counts down to retirement next year, should be an "adventure"..

[cubman]

When Elaine and I decided to go full time we
rented a big storage unit and put all of
our furniture and belongings in it. It was not
heated but dry. After the first year of Fulltiming we went to the storage unit and unloaded all of the furniture, bed, Apliances,
etc. We then went through all of the other
things we acqured over the years and got rid of
a lot of stuff. The furniture and appliances were easy. We were able to donate them to a
wonderful Adult Foster Care home. We rented a
smaller unit that kept our keepsakes and things
like my country western record collection and
my wife's collection of Animal salt and pepper
shakers. She also had quite a music box collection. We figure if we ever move back into a Apartment or home we will just re acquire what we need. Its amazing what you find you really don't need. Take care

[JudyandJim]

Yes, I agree about finding out what we don't need. When we downsized last year, we got rid of many things I thought I could never part with... now, a year later, I don't even remember what they were. Now it is down to getting rid of a few more things that have been in boxes in this apartment for the past year and we have never missed them. Only precious things will go to storage, plus a bit of furniture that we will want in our "after fulltiming" home.

Keep it simple..

[Wallaby Dan]

Know what you mean. We have been copying old VHS movies to DVD and scanning our older photos to CD-Rom. We have removed several 'books' that way and daughter can have the pictures and the albums.
We still have magazines that we have been giving to the VA hospital and the local hospital as well.
Deb is giving several pieces to her daughter, so that will make most of the shed unneeded,But That still leaves us with about 1/2 the shed still full of stuff. I had a big Hobby that I had saved in several boxes and on top of that the tools of the trade so to speak along with it.The problem is where to give it too? I have called schools and all kinds of different places but nothing yet. I am also going to write some letters to the different company's that supplied the parts and kits etc.Maybe they will have a idea of a place for the models. If you click the link on my post it will take you to our home page and there are some pictures of our hobby and some flights they have had. I love the space program and wanted to be a astronaut but that was not to be[so far]. Anyway there is about 60 different models and most are scratch built. I also have a bunch of plastic and wood pieces and plans for 'future projects' that also would go. I have three 'launch pads' and a couple of 'launch controllers'. There is also Star Trek models too! There all packed in foam pop-corn and waiting for someone to claim them,so to speak. I don't just want to 'throw away' the stuff as there is most likely collectors pieces in there.So I am waiting and paying rent till I can find a home for all those goodies.

[MakinSmoke]

Instead of renting storage space or building a storage building, we are thinking about buying a cargo or "race" trailer in which to store our "stuff". That way it could be moved when necessary. We have relatives who would allow us to park the storage trailer on their property.
Anyone doing that and are there any downsides to doing so?

[paz]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MakinSmoke:
Instead of renting storage space or building a storage building, we are thinking about buying a cargo or "race" trailer in which to store our "stuff". That way it could be moved when necessary. We have relatives who would allow us to park the storage trailer on their property.
Anyone doing that and are there any downsides to doing so? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The biggest downside I see to any storage that is not climate controlled is excessive heat in summer and the possibility of condensation inside in winter. It depends on what you will be storing, but excessive heat can dry out wood furniture and cause it to crack. Condensation can form when warmer, more humid air infiltrates into the storage unit, then the outside temperature falls. Condensation can cause mildew, rusting of metal components, warping of wood, etc.

[Clay L]

We have been full timing for four and one half years and all of our stuff from a 3600 square foot home has been in storage in NH in non-climate controlled units.

Last summer we went back to get rid of enough stuff to get rid of one unit - a 5 x 10 and make enough room in the 10 x 30 to be able to enter it.

I lost 7 wool suits due to moths. Other than that everything was fine. We sold the refrigerator - we hooked it up to make sure it worked properly first.
The furniture was dusty - should have used plastic drop cloths over it - but was otherwise okay.
We got rid of quite a bit of the furniture and all of the appliances except the dryer.

We intended to get rid of more stuff than we did, but did achieve our two goals.

If we continue to full time long enough, the decision to keep some of the stuff we kept could turn out to be a bad decision. The accumulated storage fees could be more than the value of the stuff.
If that happens then we will accept it and go on. It's pretty hard to predict the future.

[Matt Cassels]

When we retired 6 years ago and sold the house in Wyoming to go fulltiming we sold off most of the big stuff and just kept enough to furnish a small place when we got off the road.
Each year we would visit our stuff in storage and pay for another year. After 5 years of doing this and not even starting to think about getting off the road we decided that pretty soon we would have paid more for storage than the stuff was worth. We told our kids that were going to get rid of our stuff in storage and if they wanted it come and get it, all of it. They did and disposed of some of it and kept some of it. We can now go and visit our stuff and enjoy seeing it. After all they were going to get stuck with it anyway after we were gone