Self storage became an even more essential service during the recent pandemic, seeing increased demand and a more diversified customer base. This triggered several changes in the ways the service is now provided and utilized, and these benefit the sector going forward.
To negotiate lockdowns and health concerns, people rented storage units to help them move quickly, cope with more crowded homes or manage suspensions of their businesses. Many who had never considered self storage before discovered the benefits, and services evolved rapidly to meet the new demands. Here are seven changes the industry experienced during recent years that continue to be very relevant going forward, for providers and clients alike.
1. The pandemic made self storage more essential for more people
With kitchen tables being employed as offices and children both learning and playing at home, household clutter was often the winner. There were displaced items of furniture and boxes of toys and books that could not always be stored in limited living space. A solution was to put items found around the house which were not used daily into a nearby self storage unit, and for many this habit is still going strong.
2. Businesses have learned about the flexibility of self storage
When businesses had to shutter their physical premises, office furniture, filing cabinets, materials and stock made their way into storage units. Although these items often just languished there during lockdowns, many businesspeople experienced the benefits of self storage for the first time: The facilities’ easy access and high levels of security, plus the flexibility of short-term leases, a wide range of unit sizes and the efficiency of climate-controlled storage, can make the service preferable to renting warehouses.
3. Challenges encouraged adoption of new and more efficient procedures
In response to hygiene concerns, many storage providers implemented operations that reduced face-to-face contact, accelerating existing trends. These changes included online reservations, virtual tours, contact-free payments, increased use of digital locks on doors and gates, mobile apps for managing storage units, and developing un-manned facilities. Yardi Breeze keeps operators up to date with these efficiency-boosting operational changes.
4. Time-saving storage services came to the fore
Both hygiene concerns and restrictions on mobility also boosted interest in valet self storage — also known as “full-service” or “on-demand” storage — whereby the provider collects customers’ items from their homes and delivers them back on request. With busy people now finding that simply messaging their storage facility can be a lot more convenient than actually visiting it, the value of this service extends beyond the lockdown years.
5. Changes to household composition created further demand for storage
Multi-generational living has increased together with house prices, and by 2020, twice the number of 25-34-year-olds lived with their parents than 50 years previously. The pandemic propelled even more people back home, including students from campuses and elders needing care, and many have stayed. With new household members all bringing their stuff, a good solution is still to decide which items could stay and which could be put temporarily into storage.
6. Working from home: what was once required is now often preferred
Employees sent home during lockdowns to work online often found they preferred it that way, able to keep an eye on family members in a familiar environment and with no commute. By 2021, the number of 18-39 year-olds able to telework already exceeded 50% in several states. And the trend is here to stay, often with hybrid schedules offered, so the furniture put into storage to make way for the home office can stay there.
7. Self storage’s customers now trend younger and want to declutter
Earlier this year, a StorageCafe survey found that millennials are equally likely as boomers and almost as likely as Gen Xers to be renting storing units. This was a change from the previous year’s survey when they were only around three quarters as likely as the older groups to use the service. The surveys also discovered a rising tendency for renting storage to declutter living space — the new customers may be keener than the older ones to maximize their living spaces.
Cluttered Room With Home Office
Post pandemic, the self storage industry has a wider customer base — which appears to be getting younger — and increased public appreciation. With the pandemic also boosting adoption of more efficient procedures and extra-convenient services, the storage sector upped its game significantly in a very short time. Issues with restricted living space are not going away, as rising housing prices mean homes often stay crowded. The pandemic-triggered changes have left the self storage sector looking strong in 2023.
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