Reasons people lose their storage unit

Why do you think people lose their storage unit?

I think the number 1 reason is divorce. Followed by sudden inability to pay bills (job loss, medical, etc.) death, incarceration, and lastly mismanagement of monthly bills.

Divorce
Job loss
Drugs
Medical
Death

I think drugs play a major role.

Certain drugs make you not care about anything.

People on drugs also tend to go to jail a lot.

ack forgot Jail.  put it right after job loss.

I think relocation plays an important role as well. People who have to move unexpectedly put their stuff in storage. Several months later they realize that the cost & inconvenience of transporting their stuff to their new home outweighs the value of the merchandise...then they just relinquish it to the storage facility or quit paying rent.

This was one of the first questions that I had to wrap my mind around before I could ever bid on a unit. 

Based on what I've seen it breaks down about like this:
Tenant moved out, took only what they felt was important, and left cleanup to the facility. 70%.  (bad units)
Drugs / Jail 20% (some good some bad)
Job loss / Miscommunication about who needed to pay for the unit / divorce / Death 10%.  (mostly good units)

Not every unit follows the pattern though.  I got one from a guy who died.  10x20 packed full of expensive looking boxes.  The kind you pay for not the kind you get for free from the grocer.  The boxes were full of 50 years worth of scrapbooks and Christmas lights.

In the lockers that I've bought this year, an overwhelming number of them have sort of followed a story of divorce. I've found divorce decrees, marriage counseling info, etc. in many units. The next most popular story line that I've pieced together is death. I've had 2 lockers that had lots of letters to and from prisons. A few lockers with no particular rhyme or reason. I assume these people either moved out, moved on, or were unable to pay their bills.

I think it runs the gammit, people die and family don't know htey have the unit, divorce and gets forgotten about, I've bought anumber of units where the person obviously went to jail. Military deployment is another one, I'll sell the stuff back for not much more than cost if they are interested and that's the case as I feel bad for them and had a similar thing happen to a friend of mine, gf was supposed to pay his bills kept his money he lost everything he had when the unit was auctioned, guns, laptops, furniture, family pictures, etc. Also I think alot of people accumulate a bill and reaslize they have crap in the unit, its not going to be reported on their credit and just let it default figure they'd rather lose some old clothes than pay the $90 or whatever the past few months of their storage bil has come to

I think people lose there units cause they are lazy people. Thes are the people that accept the bare min in life just to get by and are the people that thought its better to party than become educated.

This is a really interesting and honestly, depressing compilation of reasons here. Honestly we've witnessed a lot of different reasons why people give up their storage space. Mind, that some of this is pretty confidential, so no names of course. Sometimes the storage units are just forgotten, people travel cross country and realise that they don't need the items anymore, and since it's cheaper to not have to bother with clearing their stuff out and disposal, they simply stop paying the rental charges. Go figure.

Plethora of reasons: economy, law breakers, divorce, death, etc.

I lost a storage unit in '92. We sold our business and packed everything in vaults for storage at a moving company. Leftover items went into storage. Then everything fell apart. Economy hit us hard and we lost everything. In that unit I lost my high school lettered jacket from varsity volleyball and soccer. VHS tapes of my son's soccer games. Irreplaceable items.

We did not have a stable environment to house the items and the next thing we knew, we were off to the east coast to look for a job. We kept our important papers/documents with us. But my son's baby book, lettered jacket, and few other items, no way to replace them.

Sometimes people go through hard times. When the choice is to eat or pay the rental fees, it's not a hard choice. We never went back to try to get any personal items for too much time had gone by and we were already in another state. It's a loss none of us have recovered from to this day.

I feel like I've gotten a few "single mom's" unit, and they can't afford their apartments any longer...it is sad, especially when you find alot of well cared for children's clothes and toys.