Storage & Lockers

Storage space is never the first thing on someone's mind when they are looking for their new home, but it should certainly be added to almost everyone's list - at least as a secondary concern.

If you are moving from a home or living space of over 1,500 square feet, the amount of storage or closet space available is essential when evaluating your potential new apartment residence. The largest apartments in the city are rarely 1,500 square feet so you must decide what is worth keeping or discarding. Many buildings have eliminated the service of locker rooms in recent years. Vandalism and the expensive cost of maintaining the area has really turned Landlords off. It also seems that every time a locker is vandalized, the tenant seems to think the Landlord is responsible for the lost contents, even though the Landlord generally has conspicuous signage insisting that the residents store items at "their own risk". The other issue with respect to storing items in a basement locker room, is the difficulty for residents to obtain insurance coverage for contents in the locker. Insurance companies also see this as a high-risk area.

For those select buildings that still try to maintain locker area for their residents, many have introduced a double lock system. The tenant is given one key which opens the bottom lock to the actual locker room. The Landlord holds the other key to the room. In order to gain access to the Landlord's key, the tenant often has to sign-in and leave a small deposit to assure the Landlord that the key will be returned. You are still expected to obtain a key for your individual locker.

If the luxury of a locker room is available to you, I recommend that you not put anything of value in the locker itself. I grew up in an apartment and I can still remember our locker being vandalized when I was in my teens. We innocently kept out Christmas decorations in our locker including an angel for the top of the tree. It was my family's most treasured ornament. It wasn't worth anything to anyone else but it was taken along with the rest of our decorations. Our family lived in the same building for over ten years and I can assure you, the experience was a real disappointment to all of us.

Many of the newer buildings have now opted for in-suite storage instead of basement locker rooms, which is a far superior idea. All of your possessions are now within the apartment, making them accessible and insurance coverage easier to obtain.

As a final note, if you must start using an outside storage facility to "warehouse" your valuable items, you might consideration a larger apartment instead. Outside storage can add up and your furniture really isn't doing you any good in storage unless your living situation is short-term or temporary.

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