Still looking for a piece of property. No takers yet, but I’m confident that its going to happen at some point in the relatively-near future. I like to think a year or less. As such, I’m starting to think that I need to start staging things for the eventual acquisition. My basement, although capacious for most of my needs, is getting a wee bit cluttered since it is currently containing what I feel I need to stay where I am, and containing enough to stockpile the (eventual) alternate location.
Since Im pretty confident (not 100% but definitely north of 85%+) that this acquisition is a real thing, I’m contemplating renting a secure storage unit (or at least as secure as you can get) to pre-position some gear for the eventual move and clear up some space in my current home. I’d never stockpile stuff like ammo, guns, expensive electronics, etc, in a storage units but other things…sleeping bags, barrels of freeze dried pouches, spare epmty fuel and water jugs, hand tools (shovels, axes, etc), etc, might be good candidates for storing away off-site until the new place is mine.
It would be nice to free up some space at the primary location and have a bunch of the secondary-location-gear in one place for easy relocation. The risks, of course, are obvious – storage units, even in fenced and monitored locations, are not the most secure places. Ive a friend who rents a storage unit here in town and the place seems pretty secure – fenced, cameras, gated keycard access, etc. As I said, I wouldnt be comfortablle putting a footlocker of AR-15s there, but the bulky, fairly-low-value, and fairly-low-attractiveness items might be a good choice for that.
Of course I may be getting ahead of myself here. I still havent found something that checks off enough boxes on my ‘want list’ to pull the trigger. And, before you start in with the whole ‘perfect is the enemy of good enough’, I’m smart enough to realize that while Id like to get 100% of what I want (who wouldn’t?), I can probably be happy enough with ‘pretty close’. But..even ‘pretty close’ hasn’t quite surfaced yet.
So..as the world slides into the unknown of potential World War III and/or economic malaise, I’m still looking and still trying to find the bolt hole to run to before it all falls apart too badly.
A common response. I’ve done that several times.
I’d recommend resisting the urge, unless you find some REALLY GOOD deal. Beyond a few easily and inexpensively acquired things (home cleaning supplies, etc) you don’t know what you’ll need, as opposed to want. And a significant portion of what you want will likely be unnecessary. At least it was for me
“Have fun storming the castle.”
Eventually, all the tumblers will click, and you’ll get most of what you want.
Best Wishes.
IMHO you can neither trust fellow storage patrons who see you filling your unit nor employees of the business but I guess based on my experience dealing with schemers and crooks I’m a bit jaded
Oh, I dunno….I hate to always assume the worst out of people but it does save a lot of grief in the long run. I was thinking a unit large enough to back my tarp-covered pickup into and then unload in privacy.
Good idea. Scope the place and figure out when they have slow traffic as well.
Back when I still lived in LA….I worked in West LA (Westwood) and lived in Santa Clarita – a good 35 miles away, over two mountain ranges. Not ideal for a bug-out on foot.
We later moved to Sedona, Az….even worse.
I was much more concerned about a nuclear war then than I am now. What to do?
I rented a couple of storage units – big ones. Set them up with supplies, water, firearms, etc. Even some flats of bagged concrete to build an ad-hoc shelter (stacked bags of concrete are quite dense). One shelter near work, one in the San Fernando Valley about half-way home.
I was worried about theft. One solution was backing in, and hiding as I worked on the shelter. The other trick was getting some crap furniture (sidewalk pickup, Goodwill, etc) and putting it at the front of the unit, pretty well blocking the view if anyone did break in: A lot of junk means nothing valuable, right?
At least I never had to test that out: No break ins. Nor thankfully did we have to test the shelter aspects.
When we moved to Arizona, the plan was to bug out via car, then by air if possible (my wife and I were both pilots). If it wasn’t, some street legal dirt bikes in the shelters. The emergency route (Primary. Alternate, Contingency, Emergency) was to walk it: Walking across the desert required a hella lot of water so a push cart was staged.
Buy a shipping container, load it at home , and then store it a RV storage facility. When you find property, just have the container delivered.
The lifespan of even freeze dried food, let alone dehydrated food or even buckets with mylar bags of beans and rice, degrades rapidly at extreme temperatures. I don’t know how hot a basic shipping container would get in a Montana summer. A friend of ours initially used one to contain overflow storage while building/finishing a small ‘bugout/weekend’ place in Texas, and the summer temps ruined a lot of costly food.
This is an utterly vital thing to keep in mind.
Chances are a storage locker will never be looted. But “The Sun shines also on the wicked” and that applies to one’s supplies too. Heat, humidity, insect/rodent pests… All these can and will degrade stored supplies — and they’re far more likely than a burglar to deprive one of their supplies.
What is an “empty water jug”? Never heard of one.
Watch “The Ugliest House in America”. It gives you some ideas of what to watch out for. There was a hideous one on 30 acres recently.
“I’ve always assumed the worst in my fellow man;
Over the last 80 years, I’ve seldom been wrong.
Cheers
I agree, but I like to think that, while everyone is capable of being a complete douchebag, there are people for whom that isnt their default setting. In the Jewish faith theres a belief that there are 36 righteous good people on the earth at any given moment, and it is because of these 36 that god doesnt wipe the whole lot of us off the planet and start over. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadikim_Nistarim) I kind of like that idea…in a world full of..well..people like me…there’s at least a couple dozen genuinely good people out there that keep the idea alive that maybe we arent all complete jerks.
But, yeah, you save a lot of time just assuming everyone is.
Aside from all the “security” coverage provided by the storage facility, is there any type of insurance provided or available? Or maybe your homeowners insurance covers your stuff in the storage facility?
Moving your preps in some ways is like buying a gun safe – there are A LOT of additional people ya have to trust as soon as ya buy it – now ya have to trust the guys at the store or online business where ya bought the safe, the delivery people, the neighbors who see you moving it into your home, any tradespeople (plumbers, electricians, etc) that come into your house, etc.
I like it, but if you’re uncomfortable with this – ““I’ve always assumed the worst in my fellow man” – try this – “Trust, but verify”.
I’ve had storage units burgled twice now. Same facility, different units. The third break in was caught immediately and nothing was taken. The insurance that most places require you to carry will pay for anything missing.
The first time, I had declined the insurance. The second, I had it.
The first time, an organized gang parked a stolen truck across the end of the “cul de sac” the my unit was in, cut locks, and raided all the units. They then put their own locks on the units so the theft wouldn’t be discovered right away. Storage manager said this type of theft is common.
The second time, the thieves cut the lock and pulled about 6 black and yellow storage bins out in minutes while the onsite manager was at lunch. She found the breakin when she got back.
The time nothing was stolen, it was another patron of the storage facility, going from unit to unit and cutting locks. This was not a super genius.
The first two were in a gated facility with cameras and access codes but walk up access to the units. The aborted theft was on the second floor of an indoor facility.
FWIW, adding the unit to my commercial insurance cost the same as using the insurance the facility offers.
There are risks to everything in life.
n
Sad to hear but not unexpected. A lot depends on where you live, I would think. I would never have trusted a storage unit when we lived in the ‘burbs, but have one in a nearby small town here in the Ozarks. Even after selling and sorting and dumping things, we had way too much ‘stuff’ going from brick mcmansion to wood cabin. And our stand-alone garage is not rodent-proof and climate controlled (it’s on the list, like a lot of other things, when funds are available).
This storage place has the gate and cameras, etc., is climate controlled, and we use a heavy duty shrouded padlock. Thus far no real issues other than water leakage to one unit during some local flooding. We had everything in plastic bins on metal shelves and wooden pallets off the concrete floors, and were able to combine everything into one unit with no harm done. It’s not ideal, but we don’t worry overmuch about theft out here, and lord willing will one day have a full basement – but until then the storage unit is a necessity.
Saw this on Rawles’ website:
A fan of SurvivalBlog is one of the organizers of a real estate raffle for a 32-acre parcel of waterfront land in northwest Montana that looks quite retreat-worthy. I generally shy away from raffles and any sort of games of chance. But because this raffle will benefit a good cause (an animal shelter in that part of Montana), and because the property would be quite suitable for building a retreat, I decided to give this fundraiser some publicity in SurvivalBlog. The raffle ends on July 31, 2025. For details, see: DreamPropertyRaffle.org.