Introduction

There are items that people own that they at times outgrow. Some of the items that were used 10 years ago are not in use today. These items end up filling the house and either need to be disposed through family auctions or stored away. Also, at times people can need to store goods in a single place especially when they are not sure of when next to settle. In a divorce, some of the things gained as settlement may need to be stored someplace else before being moved back to the house. This brought about the rise of the self storage industry.

History

There are many records of how self-storage units came to be. Some sources claim that China is one of the oldest cultures to use storage units. They used to store their items in a common storage place. Towards the middle of the 19^th century, there were a lot of voyages and conquests by British sailors and explorers. Due to security issues, they left their wealth with the available bank institutions. However, with time, these banks became overwhelmed and sought another option which led them to set up one of the first storage warehouses in order to store these items. Recently, about 50 years ago, the very first modern storage unit was built in Texas. So optimal was this facility that other countries picked the idea and currently there are hundreds of thousands of self-storage units.

Development today

The continued demand for the use of self-storage units over the years has led to the creation of the Self Storage industry. It is now legal to have a self-storage unit and to either become a tenant or an owner to one. This is to say that it has developed into a booming business. Contractors construct them as chains of multiple units which they sell to real estate owners who can then rent them out. This is attributed to the increased demand for storage spaces around the globe. It has been discovered that a lot of households especially in developed nations have a self-storage facility where they store the excesses from their homes. There is a global quest to live a minimalist life. In order to do so, less stuff is encouraged in homes. Most of this stuff such as old sofa sets, obsolete electronics and others are stored up in self-storage units.

Future

1. Increase in value in the market

There is an ever increasing demand for self-storage facilities especially in urban centres. This is warranting more construction and more sales leading to a growth in the global market. In addition, firms have rapidly emerged to see the delivery of these products and this is set to continue for a while.

2. Increase in market competition

There is set to be increased players in the market due to the strong demand of units. As such, in the future, there will be more players in the market then that there are now, translating to more competition.

3. Increased service provision

In order to beat competition, future firms will be forced to provide optimal service and product provision to clients in order to retain them and gain others in the process. This will ensure quality provision in the self-storage industry.