The math storage facilities hope you skip
A storage unit is a subscription to your own stuff. At a typical $100–$300 a month, that's $1,200–$3,600 a year — quietly, on auto-pay, usually with a rate increase after the first year. Most people compare the rent to the hassle of dealing with the unit. The honest comparison is the rent against the resale value of what's actually inside — and for a unit full of used furniture, old appliances, and boxes you haven't opened since the move, that value is usually far lower than remembered.
Keep, shrink, or clear — a quick framework
- Keep if it's genuinely irreplaceable (family pieces, documents, records) or a short-term bridge — a move, a renovation, a deployment — with a real end date.
- Shrink if a few things justify the unit but most don't: sell or donate the bulk, then downsize to the smallest unit that fits what survives.
- Clear if you're storing "someday" furniture and duplicates. If you haven't needed anything in the unit for a year, you already know the answer — the calculator just puts a number on it.
Put a real number on what's inside
The hard part of this decision isn't the rent — it's the guess about the contents. That's the part OwnWorth automates: do a Voice Walk through the unit — stroll and describe what you see — and the AI catalogs every item with a fair-market value. It works fully offline, which matters in a concrete building with no signal, and syncs when you're back. You leave with an honest total for the keep-or-clear call, plus resale prices and AI-written listings for what you sell and an itemized receipt with IRS Form 8283 for what you donate.