Never that bad but I can see how it could happen. We sell most of our stuff on EBAY, Amazon and Craigslist. A couple times a year we do a huge garage sale to get rid of the leftovers.  Then we take a deep breath, box up everything that is left and put a free stuff ad up on craigslist with the stipulation that the taker takes it all. Sometimes it might require a couple trucks to take it but there is always someone out there who will race over to get it. It feels really good to start fresh once in a while.

It's a horrible show and yes I have watched it. It's totally like passing an accident on the highway. You don't want to look but you can't help it. I just keep telling myself that hopefully this poor child is at least benefitting financially from this trainwreck.

I am laughing right now about the poster that almost bought Christmas cards before remembering to just use ones he had from a storage unit. I just did the same thing except I DID go buy the stupid cards at Target and never even thought of picking out of the hundreds I have waiting to be sold. Aaarrrggghhh!

As far as gifting from stuff found in units, I didn't but would if I found something that I thought someone would like. I need to plan ahead next year and save up. My kids (adults) are among the snobby types that would not be too appreciative of storage unit gifts although they are happy to collect stuff throughout the year from the units.

Just public storage and no I won't use a credit card. I much prefer that the storage facilities take cash only. I would hate to see someone get carried away and spend more than they can afford and allowing credit cards can allow that.

48 hours seems to be the norm for my area. Occasionally 24 hours. As calcoastgal said it does help to leave the unit spotless because they do remember. There have been a couple times where we have needed an extra day or two and generally they will give in. I recently went to an auction where gave a week to clean out. Didn't buy one there but that would be great.

I'm sure we all let tens of thousands of dollars slip through our fingers, lol! If a unit is really a good one we are more likely to pick out the choice things and take a mountain to the goodwill.....etc. But when a unit is a potential loss, yeah we start looking at everything a little closer. I can not list the number of times I have looked at something with dismay thinking "why did someone store this?" only to find out it has value to someone. For example, got a unit with two large tubs of spools of thread. Set them aside for a couple weeks because I didn't think they were worth anything. One day I looked them up and ended up selling them in several huge lots on EBAY for a total of about $400. Who knew? Another time I set aside a little file of papers from a unit. Eventually uncovered it one day, found a folded piece of paper, glanced at it, reached to drop it in the trash and at the last second decided to look closer....WWII German map, sold it for $750.00. Several times I have found cash in odd places, (pockets, greeting cards, back packs, checkbooks...never in a bible yet but always look). So, no I don't always really take time to maximize my profit on every unit but when I do it's amazing what you can sell sometimes to make your money.

In my area box units can go pretty high also. An 8x10 locker loaded with boxes will bring probably $800-$1200. Much more if there is evidence of money, like other things showing expendable income in the unit (fishing poles, kayaks, golf clubs, equestrian gear, boxes marked grandma's silver set...) much less if there is evidence of no money, (broken stuff, trash/recycles, boxes marked 'save for garage sale' and 'dirty clothes')