Climate Controlled Storage Units in Florida and Massachusetts

How Climate Controlled Units Differ From Standard Storage

The difference between a climate controlled unit and standard storage is continuity. Traditional units keep your items safe, but they don’t provide a continually controlled environment. A climate controlled unit does, so the air around your things doesn’t spike with an August afternoon in Miami or drop with a January night outside Boston.

Standard storage is still the right call for some loads. Lawn equipment, hand tools, patio furniture, bikes and sealed bins of holiday decorations hold up fine without conditioning. If that’s your whole load for a single season, climate control isn’t doing much for you, and we’d rather say so than talk you into it.

Mixed loads are where standard storage costs you in a different way. A mattress set, a leather couch, a box of photographs and a desktop computer stored beside the lawn mower all age at the pace of the worst conditions in that unit. Because our indoor range is climate controlled from end to end, a mixed load never forces that trade-off.

What Belongs in a Climate Controlled Storage Unit

Wood, paper, fabric, leather and electronics all belong in a climate controlled storage unit. Wood furniture takes on and gives up moisture with the air around it, which loosens joints and lifts veneer over a season or two. Books and documents curl and yellow. Clothing and upholstery are usually where mildew shows up first, and it announces itself as a smell before it shows as a stain.

Electronics and media are the second group. Laptops, monitors, televisions, stereo gear, camera bodies and lenses, hard drives, vinyl records, photographs and film react badly to condensation, which forms when a space swings between warm and cool. Musical instruments belong here too. A guitar is a wooden box under tension, and it moves with the air around it.

Business inventory and records are the third group, and the one people underestimate. Product stock, sample cases, printed marketing material, client files and tax records all keep better in conditioned air. Boxes stay square instead of sagging, adhesive labels stay stuck, and printed material stays sellable instead of going soft at the edges.

Climate Controlled Storage in Florida’s Humid Subtropical Climate

Florida’s humid subtropical climate is the strongest single argument for climate controlled storage units in this state. Warm, moisture-heavy air runs for most of the year, and the rainy season lands on top of the hottest months. In an unconditioned building, that air doesn’t stay outside. It moves in, and cardboard, fabric and wood absorb it.

Mold and mildew are the practical result, and they don’t need a hurricane to get started. Value Store It runs climate controlled facilities across Miami-Dade and Broward, up through Palm Beach County, out to the Orlando area and the Space Coast, and across Tampa Bay. Coastal air adds a second problem, since metal hardware and exposed fasteners corrode faster in salty air than they do inland.

Climate Controlled Storage Through Massachusetts Winters

Massachusetts has the opposite problem and the same answer. Greater Boston and southeastern Massachusetts run through repeated freeze and thaw cycles from late fall into spring, where a daytime melt turns to overnight ice. Anything holding trapped moisture, like a wooden dresser or a stack of books or a sealed box of linens, gets stressed each time that water expands and contracts.

Cold on its own is hard on specific things. Batteries lose charge, adhesives release, vinyl and plastic turn brittle, and screens and hard drives don’t take kindly to being cycled from freezing to warm and back. Our Allston and Lakeville facilities keep indoor units conditioned straight through the winter, which is the reason to store there rather than in an unheated garage.

Unit Sizes Available in Climate Controlled Storage

Climate controlled units at Value Store It run from 25 square feet to 300 square feet, a 5x5 at the small end and a 10x30 at the large end. The useful way to pick one is by rooms rather than dimensions, since most people are storing the contents of a home. A 5x5 holds a dorm room or a large closet: a dresser, a desk, chairs, lamps, framed art and boxes.

The middle of the range covers most moves. A 5x10 (50 square feet) takes one room’s worth of appliances, a bookcase, a dresser, chairs, a desk and boxes. A 10x10 (100 square feet) takes three rooms, with space for a kitchen table and chairs, mattress sets, bookcases, dressers and a couch. A 10x15 handles four rooms, and a 10x20 is about the footprint of a one car garage.

Sizes vary by building, so the size you want may not exist at the facility closest to you. Each location page lists the climate controlled sizes that building actually rents, along with what’s open now. Lockers and reduced height units are available at some locations for smaller loads.

Unit Features, Access, and Rental Terms

Every climate controlled unit at Value Store It has its own door alarm, and access uses an individualized pin rather than a code shared around the building. Our facilities run state of the art security systems, and because the units are indoor, your belongings sit inside the conditioned building rather than opening onto the weather.

Access runs 7 days a week including holidays, from 6 AM to 10 PM, with extended hours at some locations. Rentals are month to month with no long term contract, so you can cancel any time your plans change. Office hours run Monday through Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM, and Sunday, 10 AM to 2 PM, and you can rent online without coming in first.

The extras matter most on moving day. Free moving carts are in the building, storage supplies are sold at every location, and truck rentals are available onsite. Many facilities also offer free Wi-Fi, a coffee station and lounge area, a business center with internet and fax access, PO Box rental and a conference room. Protection plans covering property are available too.

Cost Factors for Climate Controlled Storage Units

Five things set the monthly rate on a climate controlled storage unit: the size of the unit, climate controlled versus a non climate controlled space, whether the unit is upstairs or downstairs, the local rental market, and how much space that building has open at the moment. Availability moves rates more than most people expect.

Location does the rest. A 10x20 in Miami and the same 10x20 in Ocoee price differently because storage follows local real estate, and the same is true of Allston against Lakeville. Choose your city on the Value Store It locations page to see the climate controlled sizes that facility has open right now, with live rates and online rental. It takes a few minutes, there’s no long term contract, and you can cancel any time.