Guy named Jerry called me last month. He rents a unit down at our SecureSpace on Morse Road. I don’t manage that location but the system transferred him to me by accident. He was crying. Not like tearing up. Full on crying. The kind where you can barely understand what they’re saying.
He said he opened his unit, and water had leaked in and ruined a bunch of old family photos. Not all of them. Just the box on the bottom. The box he packed five years ago when his mom died. He couldn’t look at them then, so he just taped it up and shoved it in the corner. He didn’t even remember what photos were in there. His mom’s wedding, maybe. Her parents. His baby pictures. He had no idea because he never opened it. And now it was too late.
I sat on the phone with Jerry for forty-five minutes. I don’t know him. I don’t work at that location. The system just dumped him to me by mistake. But he needed somebody to sit there and listen and I was the one who answered. He kept saying “I should have gone through them when she died” and “why didn’t I just take them home” and “my wife told me to put them in the house but I didn’t want to look at them.”
I didn’t have any answers. I just let him talk.
After a while he calmed down. Asked me what he should do. I told him look, I’m not an expert, but I’ve watched a lot of people go through this over the years and I can tell you what I’ve seen work. He said okay.
So here’s what I told Jerry. And here’s what I’m telling you.
Before You Do Anything Else, Pick Up Your Phone
I know you already moved things around. Jerry did too. He pulled the box out, opened it, saw the damage, and then called me. Everything was already shifted. That’s fine. Just take pictures of what it looks like right now. Take pictures of the ceiling. Take pictures of the floor. Walk around and take a video and talk out loud about what you’re seeing. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
You need these for insurance. But you also need them for yourself. Because in two weeks you’re not going to remember exactly how bad it was. You’re going to think maybe you overreacted. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. The pictures will remind you that yes, it was that bad, and you’re not crazy.
Call the Office While You’re Still Standing There
Not when you get home. Not tomorrow. Right now. While you’re still standing there with the door open. Tell them what happened. Ask them to come look at it. Ask if anybody else in the building has had problems. Ask them to make a note in your file.
Jerry called his location after he got off the phone with me. The manager walked over, looked at his unit, and found a small hole in the roof that maintenance missed during the last inspection. They fixed it that same afternoon. Jerry’s photos were already ruined but at least nobody else’s stuff got wet.
The Part Everybody Wants to Skip
This is the part nobody wants to hear. Your storage unit insurance probably doesn’t cover your stuff. I know. You pay rent every month. You think that covers you. It doesn’t. That’s not how any of this works.
At SecureSpace we require renters insurance. We don’t do it to make a buck. We do it because we got sick of watching people lose everything and having nothing to fall back on. Jerry didn’t have it. Neither did Pat with her wedding dress or Tony with his car parts or Rhonda with her grandmother’s quilt.
If you have insurance, call them today. Not next week. Today. Ask if your policy covers stuff in storage. Ask what paperwork they need. Ask if there’s a deadline to file. If you don’t have insurance, call your homeowners or renters insurance anyway. Some policies cover off site storage even if you didn’t know about it. Check your credit card. Some cards offer protection if you pay your storage bill with that card.
If you don’t have anything you need to know that now. Not after you spend two weeks hoping somebody’s going to cut you a check.
Sorting Through It Without Making Yourself Sick
If there’s standing water don’t go in there with sneakers on. If there’s sewage don’t go in there at all. If there’s black mold don’t start scrubbing it yourself. If there’s mouse or rat droppings don’t sweep them up with a broom.
I know you want to handle it yourself. I know hiring somebody costs money you don’t have. But I watched a guy spend a week in the hospital because he cleaned mold without a respirator. I watched another guy get a bacterial infection from rat piss that took two months of antibiotics to clear up.
Call a restoration company. They have the equipment. You don’t.
If the damage is dry and not hazardous you can do it yourself. Get gloves. Get a mask. Get trash bags. Get boxes. Work in one corner at a time. Don’t try to do the whole unit in one day.
Make three piles
- The keep pile: Stuff that’s fine. Maybe dusty. Maybe needs wiped down. But not damaged. Put it in your car or your truck. Get it out of the way.
- The maybe pile: Stuff that’s damaged but might be fixable. Wet photos can be frozen and restored. Rusty tools can be cleaned. Wood furniture can be refinished. Set this stuff aside somewhere dry. You don’t have to decide today.
- The trash pile: Stuff that’s ruined. If it’s fabric and got wet and smells musty it’s trash. If it’s particle board and got wet it’s trash. If it’s cardboard and got wet it’s trash. If you haven’t looked at it in five years and now it’s damaged it’s trash.
Be honest about the trash pile. I’m not saying throw away your grandmother’s china because it got a little dusty. I’m saying if you have a box of old magazines from 1998 that got wet and now they’re a moldy brick just let them go.
Dealing With Insurance and Paperwork
If you have insurance file it now. Don’t wait until you finish sorting. Don’t wait until you feel less stressed. Do it now.
You need your policy number. You need the date you found the damage. You need photos and video. You need a list of what got damaged. You need receipts if you have them.
Here’s the thing about the list. Be specific.
Don’t write “miscellaneous household goods.” Write “brown leather couch bought at Value City Furniture in 2019 paid $800.” Write “Samsung TV 55 inch bought at Best Buy in 2020 paid $500.” Write “wedding dress bought in 2002 estimated replacement cost $1200.”
If you don’t have receipts look up similar stuff on Facebook Marketplace or eBay and screenshot the prices. If you have a photo of the item from before it was damaged include that.
Keep track of every phone call. Date time who you talked to what they said. Insurance companies lose paperwork. People quit and your claim gets handed off to somebody who doesn’t know anything about it. Having your own notes protects you.
How to Make Sure This Never Happens Again
I can’t promise it won’t. Leaks happen. Mice get in. Bugs get in. Someone backed a truck into a unit door and crushed a guy’s entire woodshop. I can’t promise that won’t happen again.
But I can tell you what I’ve seen work.
- Never put anything directly on concrete: Concrete sweats. Moisture comes up through the floor and soaks into cardboard and fabric and wood. Put pallets down. Put shelving up. Put those interlocking foam tiles on the floor. Anything that creates air space.
- Use plastic bins. Not cardboard: Cardboard is a sponge. It pulls moisture out of the air and holds it. Plastic bins with snap lids keep moisture out. Spend the money. Your stuff is worth more than plastic bins.
- Leave space between your stuff and the walls: Air needs to move. If you pack everything tight against the walls you won’t notice a small leak until it’s been running for weeks. Leave a few inches.
- Check your unit regularly: Not once a year. Every couple months. Open the door look at the ceiling look at the corners smell the air. You’re not looking for disaster. You’re looking for the little signs that happen before disaster.
- Buy moisture absorbers: The little buckets with the crystals. Five bucks at Walmart. Put one in each corner. Replace them when the crystals turn to liquid. In humid weather replace them every month.
- Do not store food: I cannot say this enough. Not canned food. Not sealed snacks. Not pet food. Not a box of crackers. Mice can smell food through plastic. They can chew through plastic. They will find it and they will bring their whole family.
What Jerry Found
He said he took my advice. He filed a claim with his homeowners insurance and they actually covered part of it. Not all of it but enough to make him feel like he didn’t completely drop the ball.
He said he went through the rest of his mom’s boxes. Found more photos. Found her wedding ring in a little velvet pouch at the bottom of a box of kitchen stuff. He didn’t even know it was in there. His wife is wearing it now.
He said he’s still sad about the photos that got ruined. He’ll always be sad about that. But he said he’s glad he opened the box. He’s glad he finally looked at what was in there.
He said he felt like he let his mom down by not taking care of her stuff. I told him his mom probably wouldn’t see it that way. His mom probably just wanted him to have her ring.
He said yeah. Maybe.
What I’ve Learned
Look. I don’t work at every SecureSpace location. I just manage the one on Sawmill Road. But I’ve been doing this twelve years and I’ve seen a lot of people go through this exact thing.
The people who get through it okay aren’t the ones who never had damage. They’re the ones who had damage and dealt with it. They took the pictures. They called the office. They sorted the piles. They filed the claim. They learned what not to do next time.
They didn’t pretend it didn’t happen. They didn’t just close the door and hope it would go away. They dealt with it.
That’s the only secret. You just deal with it.
So if you’re standing in front of a ruined storage unit right now I’m sorry. I’m sorry for whatever you lost and however long it takes you to clean up the mess. I’m sorry you have to spend your weekend sorting through damaged stuff and your weekdays on the phone with insurance adjusters.
But you can do this. Take the pictures. Call the office. Sort the piles. File the claim. One thing at a time.
And when you’re ready to try again we’ll be here. Clean units dry units space waiting for whatever you need to store next.
Not because we’re the best storage place in Columbus. Because we’ve been doing this long enough to know that everybody deserves a second chance.
Jerry got one. Pat got one. Tony got one. Rhonda got one.
So can you.
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