‘Santa Closets’ stash gifts
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Missy Phillips knew she had a big problem on her hands when her boyfriend’s 18-year-old son ransacked their house looking for the stash of unwrapped Christmas presents.
To keep the nosy teenager from finding the stereo, video games and hunting bow she and her boyfriend bought him, Phillips had to go out of the house – and into a self-storage unit – to hide the gifts until Christmas Eve.
Around the holidays, the units typically used to store furniture and household items are becoming temporary outposts for adults to hide and wrap gifts for kids and big-ticket items like televisions or bicycles for spouses. In Nashville, one storage service bills their smaller units as “Santa Closets.”
“It’s a great concept because it takes away that worry that they’re going to find them,” said Phillips, who lives in the St. Louis suburb of Alton, Ill. “Therefore you have the element of surprise on Christmas.”
Jane Davies, who manages Abbott Self-Storage in Nashville, said several wives this year have rented the facility’s “Santa Closets” to house large presents like big-screen TVs and recliners for their husbands.
Absolute Storage Management in Memphis, which operates Abbott and other storage facilities in the Southeast, offers 4- by 4-foot units from early November through Christmas for a $1 a day.
“It’s a little hard to hide a big-screen TV, recliners, bicycles,” Davies said. “A lot of houses, condos and apartments don’t have the storage space.
“It becomes a convenience because if you do have snoopy kids – like I used to be – it works out perfect.”
Mike Scanlon, president of the Self Storage Association, said the storage industry’s busiest time is from spring through fall, though there is a bump in business around the holiday season.
“There’s not many places to hide that stuff around the house if it’s a bike or some kind of sporting good item, things you just can’t hide in the back of a closet,” Scanlon said.
“Businesses also store extra inventory. They’re gearing up for the shopping season and they may only have room for so much.”
The storage unit industry has nearly doubled in size over the past decade, with close to 40,000 storage unit facilities nationwide.
One in 11 households currently rent a self-storage unit compared to 1 in 17 in 1995. Self-storage facility gross revenues for 2005 were about $18.5 billion, according to the Virginia-based Self Storage Association.