Self-storage units are springing up in the United States like mushrooms in a warm, shady, moist lawn. You see those units around town with the garage doors lined up in row after row and perhaps wonder what could be behind all those doors.
When people have too much furniture or too many belongings in their houses or they move to a new location, they need a space to store that stuff.
Or maybe an entrepreneur sells items on eBay and needs the storage space for them. That’s where storage units come in very handy.
And it’s all a lot of fun until someone can’t pay the monthly rent anymore.
What happens to these storage units full of belongings when the rent is not paid?
What is in that auction?
The contents are auctioned off. Cable channel A&E features Storage Wars, the show about business owners who bid on these very storage units that people have abandoned. What will they find there? Treasures like expensive jewelry, coin collections, and collectable cars? Or will they find junk like broken bicycles and old letters?
Old letters? Would that be junk? What if the letters were to or from a famous person? Were they written during an important time in history and elucidate a historical event to us? Are they love letters written but never sent, and is the intended recipient still alive? Hmmm . . . maybe old letters aren’t junk.
In real life, when someone can’t or doesn’t pay the rent on a storage unit, an auction is held. People bid on the contents of the unit without really knowing what is inside them. The garage door is closed. Bidders take a chance on finding something valuable to keep or resell. You can find out more about what happens to an abandoned storage unit here. You can also find interesting facts about self-storage units here.
Now it’s your turn: Choose from one of the options below.
- You’re standing outside a storage unit, waiting for the auctioneer to start the bidding. What do you hope to find there? Write your ideas.
- Write a story about a bidder and what he or she finds inside a storage unit.
- Choose a character, real or imagined. Now write a story about this character standing outside the storage unit when it is being auctioned off.
