The hazy-lazy days of summer are dwindling. The kids are back in school. The days of using your RV or boat is numbered. Proguard Storage in Texas is preparing for a rise in demand for boat self storage services.

"We know that as the summer ends, fewer and fewer people will be out on their boats or camping out in RVs, and we're prepared for a higher demand for our larger storage units. We want our customers to know that they can leave their vehicles with us for the long haul - through the fall, winter, and early spring - and not have to worry about them," said Blenda Stapleton, a manager at one of Proguard's Texas storage facilities. [More]

A self storage owner in Andover, Minn. was denied by the city council by a 3-2 vote his request to develop outdoor storage for trailers, RVs, boats and other vehicles even though there’s a need for such self storage in the area. Council members who voted against the request cited aesthetic concerns, claiming it is not the direction of redevelopment they’d like to pursue. [More]

Starting a self storage business could not have been a more easy decision for Brian Haskins of High Ridge, Mo. After having grown up beside a local farm in the 1960s where he and his family kept some horses, cows and chickens and grew pumpkins as a fundraiser for his kid’s baseball team, he returned in 1991 to purchase the farm and sell horse and cows as well as begin a landscaping business. [More]

If you’ve got a lot of land, a good location by water and good timing, then building a RV/boat storage facility might be a good business move. Today’s economy has made land costs cheap, steel prices low and concrete readily available and low-cost. Construction crews are also itching to find work. All of these factors combine to create a good time to construct a profitable RV/boat storage. [More]

Self storage operators often consider renovating or expanding space to grow their business. One avenue that more operators are now looking into is boat and RV storage. Many developers and owners are adding to their existing facilities in locations and markets where it makes sense. A popular trend in the self storage market is the addition of bigger units. [More]

When the weather is warm enough, many people like to walk or bike to work or school every day, either to reduce carbon emissions from a car and reduce air pollution, or simply because they enjoy the exercise. A few adventurous souls travel by bike on vacation, bicycling across the United States, Europe, or Asia. The challenge is where to put your bike when you are not using it. Not all destinations have convenient bike racks. In a few cities, though, bicyclists are turning to self storage units to hold their bikes temporarily -- while they are at work or school, or while they spend the night in a hotel. Not only are self storage units more readily available than bike racks in some areas, but shoppers or travelers can leave parcels or luggage with the bikes in storage and know that their belongings will remain secure. Best of all, a bike can be contained in a very small storage unit. [More]

The thunderstorms that rolled into southwest Michigan late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, in addition to knocking out power to hundreds of people and turning over a semi-truck as its driver slept, also caused extensive damage at a Kalamazoo area self storage facility, Cloverleaf RV and Self Storage of Schoolcraft.

The storms are not, at this point, thought to have generated tornados in the area, but gusts of wind were reported up to 72 miles per hour in the Schoolcraft area, and one National Weather Service surveyor commented to Kalamazoo's News Channel 3 that the damage was consistent with 80-mile-per-hour winds. The winds knocked down power lines providing power to about 7,000 customers of Midwest Energy Cooperative and about 9,700 customers of Consumers Energy during the worst of the storm, and left live power lines lying across Michigan roads. A 70,000 pound semi-trailer full of fabricated metal driven by Alan Cowherd was tipped over by the winds (Cowherd, who was parked and sleeping in the cab at the time, was unhurt). In nearby Vicksburg, a silo was knocked over. And, at Cloverleaf RV, about a dozen RVs were badly damaged. [More]