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" You probably have belongings that you&amp;#039;d like to keep but don&amp;#039;t have room for: the skis you use once a year, the china you inherited from a great-aunt. Should you rent a self-storage unit, as people in 10% of U.S. households do? Before you call a facility, go through the following steps to see if it&amp;#039;s a cost-effective move. 1. Pick and choose Weed out items you don&amp;#039;t actually need or are on the fence about. Renting a unit because you can&amp;#039;t figure out what to do with something is a waste of your money. Here&amp;#039;s how to assess whether your item is a keeper: Is it a &amp;quot;might&amp;quot;? Holding on to your mom&amp;#039;s desk because you &amp;quot;might&amp;quot; move into a bigger place can end up costing you as much or more than buying a new one. Have you used it recently? Experts suggest that you don&amp;#039;t need an item if you haven&amp;#039;t dusted it off in the past year. Weigh utility against sentiment. Does that family china have a place at future holiday meals? If not, consider selling it (if you want, keep one piece as a memento). Does it have meaning for you? A reminder of a beloved memory, like a wedding dress, is usually better off staying at home, not being stored. Try to make room for it by clearing out items that aren&amp;#039;t as emotionally valuable to you. 2. Gather cost information First, make a list of each item you plan to store, and note what it would cost to replace. Next: Figure out the monthly cost of a unit that&amp;#039;s big enough for what you&amp;#039;re storing. Fees vary from $20 to more than $400, depending on where you live and square footage. Do you want extra insurance for stored items? Check with the storage company, and your homeowners or rental insurance carrier to find out monthly rates and what types of coverage (water damage, theft, mold, etc.) are offered. If your policy already covers a percentage of storage, subtract that amount. 3. Figure out a timeline Count out how many months you plan to rent a unit. Self-storage can be a great resource during temporary projects, such as renovating your kitchen, or when you&amp;#039;re going through a life change like moving or divorce. But if you don&amp;#039;t give yourself a deadline for taking your things back, storing them can quickly become a money pit. So set a specific date as an end point for storage, then circle it on your calendar. Do the math. Add the storage fee plus the monthly insurance cost you calculated in Step 2. Then multiply that amount by the number of months you&amp;#039;re planning to store your things. Finally, add one-time costs, like movers for large or heavy items like furniture or framed pictures. Your total is how much it will cost to store your belongings. 4. Compare the final numbers Think hard about whether your things are worth storing, given the cost and your time frame. A $5,000 couch may be a good candidate for short-term storage, for example, but a $200 love seat probably won&amp;#039;t justify the expense. BOTTOM LINE Only store items that you will use in the foreseeable future, and only if it&amp;#039;s cheaper than replacing them. If you&amp;#039;re storing something to get it out of the way, you&amp;#039;re better off selling, donating or recycling it. SOURCES: Mitchell D. Weiss, adjunct professor of finance, University of Hartford, and author of Life Happens: A Practical Guide to Personal Finance from College to Career. Christa Zamel, professional organizer and president, Neat Freak Design Group, Saddle River, NJ. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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