Rent your storage space discussion

I have just caught up on today's discussion, and would like to confirm that I am a genuine user! I have been getting MSE newsletters for a long time and regularly use the website. However, couldn't log on to join the debate so had to re-register. I had seen on Facebook that Storemates were mentioned on MSE and as one of the first users I was of course keen to have a look!

Anyway, I am glad to see that some people still have faith in others and would trust their gut feeling. As I said, of course you never know, but it is as easy as to ask to have a peek in the boxes that your Storemate is bringing and maybe do a list of the content as part of the contract.

I noticed that the people who are suspious about us "newbies" are also those who are suspicious about the whole idea, so it probably just isn't for them!

Best of luck to those who do join; I hope your experience is a positive as mine.

i feel really disappointed reading other users' comment as some just haven't understood the idea behind "storemates", which is about promoting the community. In these tough economic times, it is also about sharing already existing resources, meeting your neighbours and offering support to each other. Shouldn't it be what we should all be looking for? ....


myself and my husband couldn't fault the system and the experience was an extremely positive one, which allowed us to meet some very lovely people in our neighbourhood, where we know our stuff will be well looked after (and to some of you making comments, "no, i don't expect a hurricane and i don't think the roof will be torn apart....") The owners couldn't have done more to help us store our stuff in their loft (i even didn't carry any box, the owner carried the boxes up the ladder with my husband) and couldn't have been more accommodating.

a) the owners of the loft and i communicated by email and discussed what we had to store. within a week , we had arranged to meet up for us to check the space and for the owners to meet us and assess our suitability. we discussed the contract at that meeting and the need to be thorough in the packing of items. we arranged to come and store our stuff the following week.

(the stuff i needed to have stored was kept in an expensive storage company so i cancelled the contract there and moved the items to the owners' loft in the following weekend).

b) we arrived late on a saturday night but the owners welcomed us to their home. The owner helped my husband bring the boxes upstairs whilst i was discussing the arrangements with the owners' wife.

c) we went carefully through the written contract with the owners (which is on the website) and checked the contents of our boxes.

d) we gave the owners some money for the first week of storage and to allow time for the direct debit to be set up.


Common sense would dictate that you do not store any valuables and i do not anticipate any difficulties whatsoever. (we have books and folders, files etc) Should we have had any concerns, i could have easily discussed all the issues mentioned in other emails with the owners in our previous meeting or in emails. (i know someone mentioned hundred of "what ifs..." but i prefer to remain an optimist and do not believe that we live in a hurricane prone country!!!. i understand that in "business" it is important to be clear, transparent and think of all the eventualities in order to prevent problems but that is a community-based enterprise.

i do really hope others like us will use "storemates" and i wish i had known about it before rather than wasting hundred of pounds in these expensive commercial storage companies. (i had heard about it in the press).
i would recommend to use storemates unreservedly and people to use their common sense and make their requirements clear such as "do they need to access the storage?" etc.


(PS: yes i am a first time user of MSE and yes i have been prompted by "storemate" to leave a review and yes i am completely genuine. i hope that by describing my experience step-by-step you can see that.)