As it turns out, my favorite storage space was the school
bus my husband bought on silent auction from the school
district.  This was a complete surprise - having a bus, I
mean.  I came home from an overseas trip to find this big
yellow thing in our driveway, and I thought my husband must
have lost his senses.  Gary bought it for $601 and had to
tow it for $100 more because it didn't work.  I thought it
was the weirdest whim, but now I give him credit.  He
actually had a good plan.

We all need storage - good spaces and systems - but not
everyone wants to go out and buy a storage bus!   Gary's
story is merely to inspire you to start thinking "outside
the box," and to give you some ideas to help you create
some extraordinary storage spaces of your own.

It was a 32 foot bus, one of the really big ones.  It
looked so massively out of place in our driveway, and so~
yellow.  I painted the exterior [$20] in an effort to make
it 'blend'.  Then we got to work making the behemoth
useful.  We took out all the seats and hauled them to the
landfill [$14] and washed it down inside.  The interior
measurements are 24 x 6 x 7.5.  Now, we had 1080 cubic feet
of dry and clean storage.

Next, my husband got busy making the bus run.  Turns out,
it only needed a push-rod replacement [$80].  He had it
working in no time.  Now our 'storage unit' was clean, dry,
AND portable!  We built some shelves over the wheel wells
with recycled 2x4s and plywood, and we were all set to fill
it up with stuff!  Total cost: 601+100+20+14+80 = $815

By comparison, we looked at our costs from renting a space
at a self-storage located about 30 minutes from our home.
There, we rented 1,000 cubic feet (10 x 10 x 10) for eleven
months.  We paid $660 dollars plus tax before we emptied
out the space and moved the contents onto our "storage bus".

>From the rented space, what we had to show for our $660
was continued possession of the same old stuff, (much of
which was probably not worth the cost to store it).
However, in the case of the school bus, we had all our
stuff conveniently on hand, plus we owned a saleable
vehicle.  We had these advantages for a similar price to
renting storage for 11 months.  In our situation, the bus
was a financial winner.

Of course, a bus doesn't work for every situation!  Let's
say you live in a neighborhood with covenants.  Or the bus
concept is totally out of sync with your sense of home
aesthetics.  I know the feeling.  The point is that if you
are paying month after month to rent storage, it might be a
good idea to take a serious look at your situation and make
a better plan.  You could end up saving a lot of money.

One of the best alternatives is just to get rid of a lot
of the stuff, especially if you're not using it anyway.
But if that's not an option or you're not willing to do
that, then think long-term and create some space.  If you
have room outdoors, it might be cost-effective to take the
money you will pay over time to rent storage to have a shed
built, or buy a pre-fab shed from one of the big Home
Stores.  If you live in an apartment, you might be better
off than renting storage if you make a one-time investment
in having a carpenter build fitted shelves for an under-
utilized closet. Besides it's nice to have your things
readily at hand.

It's an overlooked fact: having stuff costs money.  Not
just to buy it, but also to maintain it and store it.
However, if you put a little thought into how and where you
keep your stuff, you'll get better value in the long run
for your time and money.

Anna Creighton is a frequent contributor to <a
href="http://fullstorage.com">Full Storage Newsletter</a>
the best on-line storage information resource. Anna's
archive of articles is found at http://www.fullstorage.com/

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