5 Holiday Storage Options for the Space-Starved New Yorker

Unlike suburbanites, New Yorkers don’t have basements for storing holiday decorations year-round. Luckily, there are plenty of holiday storage options for space-starved city-dwellers — from storage start-ups to double-duty furniture.

Unlike suburbanites, most New Yorkers don’t have basements for holiday storage. And while some larger buildings offer storage to residents for a fee, waitlists are usually really long.

That means city-dwellers need to get creative when it comes to storing holiday decorations from year to year. Here are some ideas that’ll help save you from the clutter. Some require you to get out of the house, others can be done entirely from the comfort of your (warm) apartment.

1. Send Them to the Suburbs
If you have family or close friends in the nearby suburbs, now’s the time to ask them whether they’ll store a box or two for you. What seems like a lot in a New York City apartment would probably go unnoticed in a house.

2. Buy a Storage Unit
There are storage companies and storage units all over the city, and SpareFoot helps you find the storage space closest to your apartment (simply type in your zip code). Manhattan Mini Storage, for one, offers four-foot-by-four-foot “personal closets” for $29 a month if you sign up for a year. Plus the company offers a free ‘”storage taxi ” that takes you and your stuff to or from your holiday storage.

3. Donate Them
If you’re the nostalgic type, this option won’t work for you, but if not, you can forgo holiday storage altogether if you buy cheaper decorations each year (think Christmas lights, simple ornaments, and disposable popcorn chains) and then donate most of them after the holidays are over. Organizations like Goodwill welcome seasonal decorations. Not only will this option save you space, but it’ll help spread holiday cheer to others well into 2015.

4. Take Advantage of Storage Startups
NYC is home to a couple of new storage startups that do most of the work for you. They bring you some bins, pick them up, and store them for you on a month-to-month basis. Boxbee — which calls itself an “urban storage valet” — is $7.50 a month for each 24-by-12-inch bin. MakeSpace, whose motto is “Your Closet in the Cloud,” charges $25 a month for a 27-by-17-inch bin. Plus, they offer a digital visual catalog of your stuff so you can order it back to your home whenever you like.

5. Buy Some Cute Furniture to Hide Your Decorations
Here in NYC, our living spaces are so small that each piece of furniture needs to do double duty. Why not keep your holiday decorations in an ottoman that can also serve as extra living room seating or a place to put up your feet while you watch TV?

Image Source: Flickr/Tracy Ducasse

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Lucy Blatter

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