I just read a short story called "The Long Road Home" in the story a guy has to walk home after TSHTF, he has supplies stashed along the route home, one of the places is a storage building where he rented a 8X10, has anyone ever thought about this or actually done it, is it worth considering, any suggestions?

Here in the thief capital of America, those places are surrounded by chain link and barbed or razor wire, not the easiest places to get into.

Of course, you could keep a pair of 36" bolt cutters with you all the time...

I've seen that idea posted before, and it seems like it's another of those "too good to be true/probably is" things. I would hate to have to depend on something that I can't get to. The mindset that your stuff WILL BE THERE can cause you to make decisions based on that assumption that can go bad.

I don't know what the answer is, but that one doesn't feel right.

Sue

The U-Store-It sheds. Regardless of the name the company calls itself you rent a small room by the month or year. They are meant for storing extra furniture or businesses store old records in them.

Depending on your level of paranoia. You might worry about someone breaking in and stealing the supplies you are counting on. Here the secret is camouflage. Go to an auction or second hand furniture store. Purchase the cheapest ugliest set of sofas and chairs you can find. Try thinking along the lines of something that your in-laws might get you. The idea is to get something no one in his or her right mind would steal. Now tuck your supplies in the cushions, up in the springs, in the back ETC. It is amazing how much stuff can actually hidden this way. Behind and under the drawers of a filing cabinet, dresser, whatever. Do not store anything important in anywhere a person would normally look. The idea is to use something that would be worthless to steal then hide things inside. Sure the stuff can be found it just that unless the thief has a reason it is most likely that they will not look

thats the same thought i have, those places could easily be not accessible unless you break in. I can't think of any place to stash supplies that someone else can't easily find them or that you could access if something happened.

I had this long post, but, I think the general idea here so far is:

Make your stuff look unattractive and uncared for.

Old, worn out, or disassembled in a few pieces. Maybe fuel in old looking cans, or bottles (I'm assuming lamp oil here).

Make your storage unit scream and/or smell: "I have a mental problem, or someone else in my family does that won't just let me throw this crap out".

Use plastic bags to store your good stuff.

The idea of caches is a good one. Unfortunately, for the time scale on which disasters where you might use it is concerned, I think the obstacles are too big. The only exception might be hurricane evacuation, but even there you have some major problems. A big one is simply that a lot of things you might want to store, fuel, lamp oil, etc. Are usually against a storage company's rules. They don't want a fire or explosion on their property. This is the problem I think caches have for hurricane evacuations. You can't store fuel for your car. Likewise, if a place is accessible it probably isn't climate controlled, which means food, even MRE's have to be replaced every year or so. And again many places don't want you storing food there anyway.

So outside of food or fuel what would you store? Camping supplies? Maybe, but if you saved the $50 (minimum) a month rental fee, in a year you could afford $600 to buy or bribe you're way into a hotel or motel for a night. Cold hard cash might be a better survival tool then what you'd store, even if you have to be price gouged a little.

Finally, problems of security versus accessibility come up. If you can get into a place when the power is out, you're stuff will probably be gone pretty quick. If you can leave it for a year or two unmolested, you probably can't get to it in an emergency.

A better idea might be to swap storage space with a friend; you have a closet at his place and vice versa.

You got a link to that short story, Shadow?

I have a well stocked truck, that I'm not concerned about, what I was asking is that if I had to walk ( travel restrictions,limited fuel, truck brakes down or whatever the reason ) to my Bug Out Location, and obviously couldn't carry enough for the trip, considering there will be 4 adults one limited in their mobility and 3 children. I'm also talking about going to my bug out location, I know if I'm cross country trying to get home I might not have that option, but if it was well thought out as to distance and location on the road home you could also use this option. I checked out a lot of the storage places around here, happy to say there isn't any barbed wire, there is however some with chain link fences, simple enough to cut and enter as long as the shed rented was located on the back side and not easily watched from any surrounding homes or businesses. A lot of them don't even have fences. I guess as some suggested hiding stuff in old couches or chairs, bags of garbage or what have you would be one way, the food choices would be limited for sure, water could be kept in a cooler to help with the heat problem, certainly item's like that would have to be rotated. And as was mentioned being on the one road that you supplies are stashed on might only be 50/50 so having other stashes located within a reasonable walking distance as long as it didn't take you to far out of you way might also be a consideration.
In the story he put a bolt inside so he could lock it and prevent anyone from using the outside lock ot trap him inside, he also had a piece of carpet attached to the door so no light would shine outside as well as a inspection mirror to see if the cost was clear when leaving. There is a lot of interesting ideas in this story as well as all the others. I have been reading quite a few lately. Here's the link you asked for and also if anyone else is interested.

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=131&order=desc&daysprune=-1&page=2

Also as Susan mentioned, I wouldn't use this as my only stash, between here and there, but any that I would select would be within walking distance all withing a reasonable area, there are many routes to my BOL and all are secondary roads and offer quite a few options for places to stash supplies.

Please keep the suggestions coming as nothing is written in stone yet and I value everyones opinion. This is just one of the many things I'm considering. Also swapping storage space with someone isn't an option as I don't know anyone in that direction, at least not yet.

Thanks Shadow!

EDIT: Thanks again! Took me a while to get registered so I could read the stories but it was well worth it!

Another question: Do you know for certain that you would be traveling in the proper direction to be able to use your stashed resources? With my luck, I would be anywhere else.

And what would you use to cut through chainlink fencing that you would be carrying with you? The only thing that I've found that works is a large pair of bolt cutters, and that would be very low on my list of what I would be likely to have with me.

Just what-iffing...

Sue

Susan

There are about half a dozen roads that lead to my BOL, all in the same area maybe between 10 to 20 miles apart certainly withing walking distance of each other, so I figured If I chose location along at least three of them that I would able to hit at least one on the way if I was walking, the storage shed would be on the primary route centered between the others, that way I would have a good chance to get to it. Obviously if I was away from ( which I seldom am) I might not make it to the stash, but there is still that chance, even if I'm away from home I still have to either get home, or to the BOL. There is no way to know where your going to be away from home so selecting a location to store supplies is obviously harder but still doable. As far as what to cut a chain link fence, Home Depot sells and I'm sure other hardware stores also sell a standard plier size pair of bolt cutters that would easly fit in a BOB bag.

A fencing tool for barbed wire fences would do chain link as well, IMO. I've got one of those on my "to get this year list" from the local feed & seed store.

"...A fencing tool for barbed wire fences would do chain link as well, IMO..."

Probably would, but a strong grip will be required. Fencing pliers are a great tool, hammer, wire cutters, staple puller, and more, all wrapped up in one tool...

Not really. Growing up on a farm reaplcing barb wire fence, the fencing pliers will chew through barb wire if you have a nice new sharp tool and bit it then twist it back and forth for a while and finally it breaks loose and even then it takes a lot of muscle.
Home grade chain link maybe you could slowly cut your way through a small hole but the heavier gauge stuff used for commerical applications your going to be there all day and have some very sore arms and hands trying to cut through them.

You could probably get through faster with one of those small pocket hack saws and a couple new blades.