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We were bemoaning the fact that the main use of those self-storage units that you see all over the country is to transfer money from millions of people to the owners of the self storage unit complexes. People sign up for this in the vain hope that someday they will find the time to go through their boxes of really valuable old stuff and do the right thing with every piece. There are a few exceptions. If you just need to stash things for a month or two while you look for a house, this is a cost-effective way to go, if there's too much stuff to fit in your parents' house! In Dallas I saw a set of storage units used as retail establishments. Each unit actually had a little store in it. An auto-repair shop is one that I remember. I assume that many municipalities don't allow this, but if you do want to open a business and you are too small to rent a store, but too big to work out of your own garage, then this is perfect. If you don't have a garage, a storage unit might be a good choice for crafting or building things to sell elsewhere. I have known too many people who used these places to put their things when they were in dire straits financially. In many cases their belongings ended up being auctioned off and they got nothing. For the most part, it's just another scam.