By Travis Morrow and Brad Hadfield

elf-storage is, in many ways, a numbers game. You have square footage, occupancy rates, rental rates, cap rates, NOI, ROI, and so on. So why have we spent the last two months talking about psychology and emotions? Because understanding tenant disposition—the reasons they can’t let go of their belongings—allows you to serve them better while boosting your bottom line. But now it is time to delve into the data. Through the lens of disposition, you’ll find that attachment isn’t just something people talk about. It appears in what they choose to store, why they rent units, and how long they remain tenants.

For decades, self-storage has been described as a business built around life’s transitions. The 2025 Self Storage Demand Study confirms the four Ds remain major demand drivers, but it also hints at something deeper. Long-term storage is most commonly driven by a lack of room at home, accounting for 46 percent of rentals. That’s hardly surprising. More revealing is what comes next.

Twenty-one percent of renters admit they’re storing items they no longer want or need—that’s one in five tenants. That’s more likely an emotional attachment than a space problem. In addition, another 15 percent are storing belongings for relatives who have experienced a change in living situation and 13 percent are storing possessions inherited after the death of a loved one. Those numbers suggest many customers aren’t simply running out of space but rather postponing difficult decisions.

It’s a pattern that parallels what Dr. Russell Belk, research professor and author of Possessions and the Extended Self, described in first two parts of this series. People don’t always keep possessions because they’re valuable. They keep them because the objects have become extensions of memory, identity, relationships, or obligation. Sometimes, paying monthly rent is simply easier than deciding what stays and what goes.

The contents of storage units reinforce that idea. The most commonly stored items aren’t expensive electronics or collectibles. They’re the ordinary possessions that slowly accumulate over a lifetime. Indoor furniture tops the list at 49 percent, followed by clothing (44 percent), holiday decorations (43 percent), kitchenware (40 percent), and photographs and artwork (39 percent).

Individually, these items don’t seem notable, but when you apply disposition, they paint a different picture. Furniture often represents homes people once lived in, holiday decorations may connect families to traditions, and photographs preserve moments that can never be recreated. These aren’t just possessions but physical reminders of memories.

Perhaps the strongest evidence for disposition appears in a statistic operators watch every day: length of stay. Many of the events that trigger self-storage are temporary. People eventually complete remodels, finish moving, settle estates, or recover from unexpected disruptions. Yet storage often outlasts the event that created the need.

The same demand study reveals that the largest group of customers (26 percent) remain tenants for one to two years. Another 17 percent stay between three and five years, while six percent remain with a storage company for six years or longer. Only 11 percent move out within the first three months. If storage were purely a matter of available space, many of those rentals would end once the crisis passed.

M. Anne Ballard, who examined customer behavior in 2017 while leading Universal Storage Group, observed this trend for years. In an MSM report, she notes that more than half the company’s customer base rents for more than five years. Ballard recognized the importance of knowing what brought the tenant to the facility, writing, “Understanding how the population uses our product and the drivers for length of stay are paramount to keeping them happy and in place while still growing income and NOI.”

The self-storage industry has been courting millennials for years, embracing automation and digital apps to appeal to them, and for good reason. Millennials comprise the largest share of storage users at 37 percent, often storing lifestyle and hobby gear, seasonal items, and overflow from smaller living spaces. Gen Z follows a similar pattern, though fewer currently use storage, in part because many still live at home. By contrast, boomers, who account for 16 percent of renters, are more likely to store inherited belongings, furniture, and memorabilia—items often tied to memory and identity, and likely death or divorce in some cases. Ballard told MSM that from her experience, these long-term renters are using storage as a lifestyle-management tool that allows them to postpone emotionally difficult decisions. “The older group of baby boomers have higher disposable incomes and more stuff they believe to be valuable and want to keep. They can [afford to] put off emotional decision-making and just rent from month to month.”

Belk would likely agree. “Older people tend to keep things, probably more so than the younger people, because they have accumulated things that have memories attached to them. Younger people store things that they tend to use, like sports equipment and so forth,” he says, all of which prove true in the data.

Last but not least is Gen X, which accounts for another sizable percentage at 26 percent. Their storage use is attributed largely to family transitions, including divorce and downsizing as children leave home. Add aging parents and inherited possessions to the mix, and that’s basically a four Ds collision course.

Self-storage professionals often arrive at many of the same conclusions without ever using the word “disposition.” Guy Middlebrooks, executive vice president of operations at CubeSmart, pointed to the four Ds when MSM interviewed him for a cover story last year. “When someone passes away or a couple splits, sentimental items or furniture get placed in storage,” he told MSM. “Someone loses a job and downsizes, they turn to storage.” For Middlebrooks, understanding those circumstances is key to customer care. “When someone walks in or calls to rent a unit, our teammates need to understand their situation and be empathetic. The personal interactions we have with our customers really set us apart from the competition.”

Self-storage manager Chad Coker also noted that many customers arrive during one of life’s four Ds, requiring managers to approach each situation with empathy. He recalled helping a man going through a divorce who needed a unit quickly but lacked an alternate contact required for the lease. Coker helped him identify a former co-worker. “After that, I was able to get him into a unit that day,” he said.

Taken together, the industry’s data and its operators tell the same story: Storage isn’t simply a business built around stuff, but a business built around necessity, identity, and delayed decisions.

In November, we get to the part you’ve been waiting for: “Turning Disposition Into Dollars.” We’ll explore the ways you can appeal to people’s need to hold on to items through marketing, pricing, promotions, and more.