In several communities across the country, local governments are regulating the use of portable self storage containers in front yards, driveways, and on local streets. During the month of April, at least three cities have passed or are considering ordinances regulating the use of portable containers: Wausau, Wisconsin; Springfield, Missouri; and Baltimore, Maryland. [More]

Pipe Spring National Monument Superintendant John Hiscock and Tribal Chairman Timothy Rogers of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians have announced that a new storage facility, to be used for museum collections and to hold Paiute cultural artifacts, will be opened on the grounds of Pipe Spring National Monument. A grand opening for the facility will be held on Saturday, May 22, at 10 a.m. (Arizona time). The opening celebration will include speakers, tours, and refreshments.

The new storage facility has 4,400 square feet of space, meets LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification requirements, and includes separate storage rooms for collections owned by the National Park Service and by the Paiute. The building also has office space for National Park Service and tribal curators. Although the Kaibab's collection of artifacts is fairly small, the Tribe hopes to expand the collection now that a dedicated, state of the art facility is available in which to store items. [More]

A Centennial, Colorado self storage company has decided to celebrate its grand opening next month by donating a percentage of its rents, along with an additional $1,500, to a nonprofit organization that helps families of children who have been hospitalized.

The self storage company, Cutting Edge Self Storage, has been working to find ways to support its new community and to blend in. One part of its effort to blend in has been designing the building so that it fits into its neighborhood architecturally. [More]

Manchester Central Library, in Manchester, England, has sent 1.5 million of its books into a deep underground storage unit, to wait there while the library undergoes renovations. The books represent about 22 miles of shelving, and are the rarest, oldest members of Manchester Central Library's collection. Some of the books date back to the 15th century. They are being stored in Deepstore, an underground specialist storage space maintained by the town of Winsford -- in its salt mine. [More]

The Lock Up, a nationwide self storage company based in Chicago, announced Sunday that it will offer its new and existing tenants the chance to win up to $1000 in free rent for a self storage unit. The raffle is a new marketing technique that The Lock Up hopes will draw in more tenants and show appreciation to tenants who currently rent units from the business. [More]

Last night, the community of Brentwood, California approved AT&T's planned construction of a cell phone tower in a self storage facility in a commercial park. The base of the tower will be located inside a storage unit at TownCentre Self Storage, and the top of the tower will be disguised as a fake pine tree. The choice to put the tower inside a self storage unit and to make it look like a pine tree were meant to allay concerns that some neighboring business owners had about the aesthetic appearance of the tower. [More]

The self storage industry is continuing to expand this spring with a wave of new facilities opening up across the country, particularly in the South.

In Georgia, a private investor has purchased the four-year-old East Ellijay facility of American Storage. The facility has about 35,000 square feet of rentable space, divided into 248 units, some of which are climate-controlled. The property also features a truck rental service and has several security features, including digital entry, perimeter fencing, and security cameras. The sale was brokered by Dale Eisenman, the president of Midcoast Properties Inc. [More]

As National Poetry Month (April) comes to a close, some particularly raucous and rambunctious poetry lovers have decided to celebrate by inventing a new form of poetry: book spine poetry. Book spine poetry is well-suited to packing books for a move or for storing, and may be a good method for enticing children to become involved in packing or unpacking books. Children may want to record their poems in a journal, or write them on the sides of the boxes they are packing. Or children may wish to illustrate their poems, personalizing their book boxes with drawings that may help them identify the boxes quickly later, when they are ready to unpack. Children who are sending packages of books to other children may also enjoy arranging the spines of the books so that their titles convey a secret message. [More]

Christie's, the internationally famous art auction house, is expanding into the storage business. A Christie's subsidiary, Christie's Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS), has bought a 100-year-old Brooklyn, New York factory that it will convert into a high-security, climate-controlled fine art storage facility. The new fine arts storage facility, located in Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront neighborhood, will open in June.

In addition to fine art, the new facility will be used to store antiques and other special high-end collectible items. The former factory has about 235,000 square feet of storage space. The space can be custom-designed to accommodate any size collectible, from a small photograph up to a vintage car. [More]

Two self storage facilities in the northeastern United States have jumped onto the renewable energy bandwagon, adding rooftop solar panels to offset some of their electricity bills. In the last week, Thornwood Self Storage of Thornwood, New York, and English Creek Self Storage of Egg Harbor, New Jersey, have both added solar panels. [More]