We get asked a lot about how to insure privately stored goods, so we’ve provided her some information about covering your stuff, and the crux of the Insurance question is at the end of the post.  You can also find more information on our Self Storage Insurance page.

Owner Arranged Insurance

One method of having your goods insured is by having the Space Owner arrange storage through their home insurance policy…some home policies may cover other people storing their things. If it doesn’t though, you could ask the home owner to see if they can extend their policy to cover stuff stored at their house by someone else.

Whether you as a SpaceRenter pays extra extra for this insurance cover or the SpaceOwner does is between you and the Owner. Talk to the SpaceOwner about this, as it is in their interest for your goods to be properly covered too.

Seeker Arranged Insurance

You may also be able to arrange a policy yourself though a reputable insurer. That means you can arrange cover for your items (which the insurer will ask the value of) and pay an agreed rate. In a full security facility, this rate is around $1 per month per $1,500 of value, but expect more if you organise it yourself. Call around to find the best deal.

Insured Value ?

Perhaps The BIGGEST question though that you need to ask yourself here is “What value do my goods really have?” I mean valuables items are obviously valuable, and I would certainly want to leave my irreplaceable things like family heirlooms and photos, gold, antiques etc in full security situation, but the option that private storage provides is to leave the OTHER stuff, beds, sofas, bookshelves, old clothes that you’d prefer not to throw away, etc etc into storage that is significantly cheaper than the storage facility rate.

This stuff is bulky and cumbersome, and wouldn’t be worth selling but you prefer to keep it rather than going to the trouble of buying it again at some stage. Storing this bulky stuff that takes up most of your space at ‘maximum security’ rates will chew through your cash and is just plain unnecessary. Draw a clear line between your valuable stuff and your ‘bulky’ stuff before you store.

What to Store Where ?

I guess the main point of this post is that the stuff you put into private storage is stuff that is both big, and that IS replaceable if worse comes to worst. You just want to park it some place that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Most SpaceRenters take this view of stuff they put in Private storage. Consider using a traditional storage facility for things that are worthy of the higher storage rates.

Separating ‘bulk’ from value items can save you big time. A bit of forethought can stretch your dollar a long way.