What not to store in storage units
While most people don’t use their storage units for anything more exciting than furniture, household items and childhood possessions, there are some people who keep weird and wonderful items in their storage containers.
At Removals Unlimited, we offer short and long-term storage in Bournemouth to our customers and thankfully we’ve never had anything too strange turn up in one of our containers.
But an article for History shared some of the strangest items discovered by people who bought old storage containers in the US and some of the things that turned up were truly bizarre. In fact, there’s a whole reality show, Storage Wars, which follows those who bid for storage units and shares what they find when they open them up.
For instance, one Storage Wars contestant purchased a container only to discover a nest of albino Burmese pythons inside. It turns out the former owner had been breeding the snakes to sell as exotic pets!
However, sometimes people strike it lucky when they win storage containers up for auction. Such as one man from Long Island who purchased a container for $100 only to discover the Lotus submarine car driven by none other than 007 Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me. The Lotus went on to sell at auction for over $1 million!
One of the grimmer finds in a US storage container was made by a Shannon Whisnaut. One of the items in the container he purchased was a barbeque smoker - so far so good. But when Mr Whisnaut got home and opened it up he discovered a human leg wrapped in tin foil. It turned out that there was an explanation when the former owner of the container was tracked down.
The leg actually belonged to a gentleman named John Wood. His leg had been severed in a plane crash and he decided to keep it so that he could be buried with his limb when he died. However, he forgot where he had put the leg for safe keeping!
In all seriousness though, storing human body parts - or humans for that matter - in storage units is certainly not allowed.
Store Insure, an insurance company for storage units, explained that no animals, living plants or foodstuffs can be kept in storage containers. For obvious reasons, you shouldn’t keep living creatures in storage containers as they aren’t designed for habitation. The reason why food and plants are banned is because they can attract pests.
You also shouldn’t store anything flammable in your container. That might seem obvious but it’s worth mentioning as it could be easy to overlook a lawn mower that still has some petrol in its fuel tank, for instance.
Similarly, toxic and chemical substances are generally not allowed in storage containers, and pressurised items like aerosols are often restricted due to the risk that they could burst.
For the most part, you’ll probably just want somewhere secure, weatherproof and clean where you can store furniture and boxes of your possessions safe in the knowledge that they’ll be protected until you’re ready to collect them, which is exactly what we provide at Removals Unlimited in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Although all of our storage containers in Bournemouth are monitored by CCTV and fully secure, we do strongly advise against storing any valuables or irreplaceable family heirlooms in a storage unit. It’s more sensible to use a bank or safety deposit box for items of this nature.
If you’d like to find out more about our storage options and removals services in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, get in touch for a free, no-obligation quote for our services.
