Protecting Your Valuables In Self Storage
Before you put your belongings in self storage, you need to make sure that you carefully consider what you are putting into storage and then take steps to keep your belongings safe both from would-be thieves and from the environment. If you leave your belongings susceptible to mother nature's ravages, you might open your unit to find your belongings irreparably damaged. A good storage facility will give you the ability to keep your belongings safe from thieves and from Mother Nature.
Theft Prevention
There are a few key features that you should look for when you analyze a unit for its security:
1. Cameras. When you look at security cameras, you should make sure that they are placed carefully so that they can cover every angle of the facility. You should also ask how long the footage is stored. If the cameras simply allow a guard to keep an eye on a facility, they can help ensure an immediate response to a break in, but stored footage can help police track down any thieves that escape.
2. Alarms. The most secure facilities will equip each storage locker with its own alarm. Thus, if a thieve does get into your locker, the alarm will sound and security guards and police can respond immediately.
3. Security Wall. A masonry wall is harder to bypass than a fence.
Even if you only plan on leaving your belongings in a locker for a few weeks, you should carefully inspect potential storage facilities. Rather than basing your choice of facility on proximity and price, you should also analyze facilities for security and climate control.
Gold Can Stay
The saying nothing gold can stay applies to many storage units. The sliding door that separates a storage locker from the outside world is usually enough to keep thieves out, but dust, humidity, and fluctuations in the outside temperature have no problem getting around the door. If you have a delicate musical instrument like a piano or violin in your locker, the changes in temperature and humidity can make your instrument go out of tune, but they can also warp the instrument making it so that it will never be in tune again. Dust can settle through the vents in electrical equipment and cause short circuits that will take the pieces permanently offline. Artwork is also susceptible to environmental damage. Thus, if you plan on storing any sort of delicate items, you should put them in a climate-controlled unit. The right unit will protect your belongings so that they are just as valuable when you pull them out as they were when you put them in.
