Hey y'all! Rebecca here. We wrote about the Male unit, here's the Female unit. We bought these on the same day, and here's what this one looked like when the door rolled open:
When units are disorganized like this it makes others not want to go for them, but for us, that's a good thing. A) It means they will go for less than other units, so we have a potential for more profit, and B) if the tenant packed things so haphazardly it means there's probably a good chance that they either do not know what's inside or don't remember. Or even if they do, they can't get to it quickly to get it out! These are the units where we find gold in garbage bags. And at $25, it was worth that gamble. We figured even in sterilite bins alone, it was worth our money!
Here's a closeup of one side:
And a closeup of the other:
It's really nothing particular... just a lot of pink in this one... a lot of clothes and shoes visible, an obvious contrast to the boxes and tools visible in the other unit. It makes it easier to remember which one is which (especially when you could buy up to 7 units in one day) by giving them little nicknames.
We opened the unit and took a quick peek. Of course I went straight for a box I thought gave me the feeling and didn't stop until I uncovered it-- a men's gold ring. Score! I wasn't entirely sure it was real, but Brian was, so I trusted him and we sent it off to our contact to get a final $ value.
We packed our stuff up and started digging the following day...
It's kind of ironic, really-- we called these the Male and Female units even before we really knew what was inside, just by the way they looked... and so far, it's working out perfectly. In the "male" unit, we found penis enhancing pills, and in the woman's, we find breast enhancement cream! What are the odds?
A drawing of the family, I guess...
This watch was designer (D&G I think), and really nice... a shame the rats ate the leather. It happens a lot in Storage units!
A lovely petrified mosquito on an item of clothing! It would NOT come off so I just threw away the item of clothing. Another part of cleaning out storage units!
Yeah... she TOTALLY took someone else's medical excuse letter, used white out on the filled out parts, and re-copied it!
Lots of nice baby stuff, including this On-The-Go Bottle Warmer & case.
She also got this custom made banner for her child with the custom name (Blayz). I guess this is Yo Gabba Gabba? I'm not an expert at all of that kids stuff... but it seems like a really cute idea for a kids party!
The leftovers of the bottom of a sterilite bin. Storage unit bins are so random sometimes!
It's so weird, there were TWO packets of paperwork from lawyers in this unit and I know a partner at EACH of the firms! How random is that?
This next bin is a hodge podge, including a TON of personal items on top. Framed pictures, diplomas, photographs. We tried to leave the items for the tenant but the storage facility would not accept them. Sometimes this happens when they have just been completely and totally strung along by the tenant. Sometimes they even ban the tenant from their property.
More Dora the Explorer puzzle pieces, and STORAGE LOCKER GOLD-- a cell phone charger! Brian and I's phones take the same charger (along with half of America), and whenever we find mini-USB chargers we hoard them. We already had one in each car, 2 at my house, 2 at his house, and 1 in the warehouse, so this one will go in the van! Woop woop!
And, a ha! We always find tampons! I would expect nothing less from a "female" unit!
Apparently this particular lady had her own business. LOTS of Storage Unit tenants seem to have their own businesses. Or I guess storage unit tenants who default. We've had at least 10 that I can think of right now... but I'm sure there are more. Scrapbook businesses, salons, t-shirt businesses, restaurants, pirated DVD businesses, seamstresses, the list goes on and on... I wonder if it was the failing business that caused them to default on the unit or maybe just their general irresponsibility that caused them to lose lots of different things. Maybe we'll look into this at some point (like, if I ever go back to graduate school for Psychology!)... but for now, it's a unique chain of events. And, we can add "House of Braids" to our list of businesses.
One of the best (or worst) parts about this business is really getting to know a lot about each tenant, and almost getting to live life as they would, or experience the things they experience, if only just for a couple of minutes. Before I knew what we would find in this unit, we named it the Female Unit, only because the other one was so obviously male (fishing, and tools, and camo items, and World's Greatest Dad items, and so on and so forth)... and this one was so obviously female (stilettos, and female clothing, and makeup, not to mention all of the pink bins), but had I not went with that name, this might have been the Obituary unit. This poor lady knew SO MANY people who passed on. Some at an old age, most, including her brother, at a tragically young age. I found article after article (and obituary after obituary) of all of the loved ones she had to say Goodbye to. I need to remember that whatever my own problems, there are people in certain communities (some closer to home than I'd like) who are facing intense crime and losing their loved ones every day for seemingly little reason.
With that said, this part of the blog was written before I learned tragic news, that one of my dear friend's little brothers was shot to death in New Orleans, just HOURS after being inducted into an honor society at his college. An absolute shame that such a bright light and talented young man had his life cut shorter than we all would have expected. My heart goes out to my friend Jason, and to the George family, and there is a link here to the story if you'd like to read it. If we can keep people like Joshua always on our minds, we can make sure that something like this does not happen again. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Here's a picture of Joshua taken at his Honor Society Induction:
The crime situation has gotten RIDICULOUS.
Sigh. I'm almost too sad to go on with our blog, but life goes on, and so does our hard work. And pointing out the mistakes of others so that they do not happen again. This is not nearly as important as crime, but it's still important- don't pack food. EVER.
This formal prom/cruise ship/whatever picture looks lovely.... the lady has a lovely hair do, a great dress, beautiful jewelry... and the best accessory of all-- her cell phone hanging in the neckline of her dress.
Someone in this family was an artist. He was actually really talented... but some of the drawings were kind of strange / I'm not exactly sure what they were trying to represent.
Loved this flower panel!
This is one of those giant pencils that she had for her children-- must have been older though, because the Twin Towers are still depicted in the New York City skyline.
More drawings... this one is interesting because it has two lions, our artist, and Bob Marley. I'm not sure what they all have in common-- but he definitely had some drawing skills!
A jungle lioness... and a cougar!
More obituaries...
A BOX full of obituaries...
Ooh, a Pet Passport. I didn't know they made these! Very cute! We will have to get them for Lola and for Angelo.
And it's AUTOGRAPHED! Is this worth anything? :)
If you're offended by obscene language, don't read this notebook. Someone REALLY wanted to keep people out of their notebook!
Card from the very nice vet. The dog's name was Lala. Ironic because mine is Lola!
A garbage bag full of miscellaneous items:
And some really cute shoes (not my size):
These spandex gold pants are definitely coming with me! They are perfect for Saints games!
An overview of all the goodies collected so far...
Closeup of goodies...
A bunch of really nice/cute kids clothes...
And really cute babies clothes...
And adult clothes and shoes...
And of course, there's random stuff too!
Sadly, this box had a lot more personal items. Including a baby book with notes from the Mom and Dad. It breaks my heart when we can't get these things back to the rightful owner. In this case, we tried to return to the facility, they would not allow us, and we could not find any contact information in the unit. The contact information the facility had was no good. We even posted a craigslist ad-- at this point though, what can you do? So sad that people let things like this get away from them. But, I guess life is most important, and things (even sentimental things) are just things.
A box of uniforms and costumes... always useful in New Orleans!
ON this digging day, I found this... time to play, What's in the Bag?
Toiletries of course... the broken kind! A broken cologne bottle and a broken razor blade!
And then, there was something in one of the flaps, but it didn't have an opening. I wasn't sure if it was just part of the bag that broke, or something someone sewed in... like drugs... or hopefully, money. No dice. What I found was this:
The black plastic flap of the bag broken into a million pieces! At least I was smart enough to know that it wasn't "normal" for a bag like this! Always check EVERYTHING. It could have easily been a coin collection in there. (Okay, not likely, but POSSIBLE).
Ah... TOTALLY USEFUL! An NFL Saints Rain Poncho!
There were a ton of VHS tapes in BOTH units (the Male unit and the Female unit), so I guess we have no clues as to which gender prefers tapes... but I will say, that Red Sun VHS was the largest one I have EVER SEEN. Look at the size of it compared to the other tape!
Here's another comparison:
Here's a look at the collection of VHS tapes that accumulated from this unit (there were the same amount in the other unit, so we definitely have quite the collection now! Won't be able to GIVE them all away)
Hmm... guess who's been HERE?
Like this purse. People seem to always leave their bags like this! It made me go through my house on a mission to at least clean the change and candies out of my purses. I made $50!
A book... Chocolate for a Mother's Heart!
A... slap bracelet?
Wrong, a GEISHA slap bracelet! Or is this a beloved cartoon character?
This is a letter from a family member to our tenant apologizing for her most recent tragic loss. A shame to have to receive letters like this! Really sweet of the person to send it though.
Another funeral memorial program:
A picture of our lady at a school dance or prom, judging by the flower and the limo. I *LOVE* this dress. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is. Does someone know what this is? Or where I can find it ? Or can make me one? I will trade you any piece of clothing I have, let's make it work! Better yet, I'll give you some of that fabric from the sewing unit--- some to make this dress and some for whoever can make it for me!
This next envelope was very useful, even though Brian had no idea why. It was a packet of baby shower games... and it was photocopied about 25 times. VERY useful for the future!
More baby shower games:
And more. I guess it is nice that at least she wasn't JUST planning funerals. I guess she was just the planner in her family. Ironic that we get a lot of teachers, and coaches, and those types of people's storage units too-- that someone can be so organized (and organize others) but then lose the unit. I guess it's just another one of those things.
Just what every bride needs to store for her big day... her veil, her bouquet, and her weave!
Okay, this pregnancy book cracked me up. I'm grateful that they make them, and that they are giving them out to people who maybe cannot afford the best medical care, but man do they assume the worst when it comes to those pronunciations. (kon sti PA ted) ? Really? Is it necessary to tell your doctor that you're constipated with the right emphasis on the right syllables?
Here's another one. Try MESS ters!
Some original PRISON LETTER art! YES! You know what that means! A new Letter from a Storage Locker soon!
and a really cute nurses project from one of the children from school. Precious!
That's it on this one... there were a few more bins, nothing spectacular. A bunch more clothes, and toys, and shoes, and those sorts of things. Considering we only paid $25 for the unit, it's definitely a steal. We also found (within 10 minutes of our first look inside) a 10k gold ring valued at over $300. Good for my "feelings", right? It was the only piece of jewelry inside the unit, but it definitely paid for the unit, our trouble, and then some! We would have made money just on what we saw had it not been in there (and that's the most important part), but it's nice to find some treasure every now and then!
Storage Heroes Tip #40: If a unit looks like a total disaster, take that into consideration, certainly. You may not want to buy this unit if you have a bad back, or can't stand being in the heat for very long (because the digs on site are BRUTAL-- you have to at least throw all of the items into containers to get them into your vehicle), or if you only have 24 hours to clean it out, or something like that-- but if it possible for you to buy it, do it. It will be cheaper because everyone else will be lazy and will generate more profit for you because you paid less for it. Additionally, if a tenant couldn't find their valuables inside of it, there's a good chance they couldn't take them out before they defaulted on the unit! Messy units are also a sign of irresponsible tenants, and that can mean a whole lot of things. Irresponsible tenants tend to have higher credit card debt, more irrational spending, and this could mean a whole lot of designer and new with tags items! Messy units are a lose-win-win-win. Difficult, but it pays off triple in the long run!
Until next time,
Storage Heroes
I really enjoyed reading through this post. I never have visited a blog that has photographs and large, interesting, and enjoyable captions on just about ever single item you picked from the locker! (Even the bottom of the barrel contents! [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vMhuQccBnoE/T4eQdLNxZXI/AAAAAAAAFl8/C9-jFutO2hQ/s1600/IMAG0483.jpg])
ReplyDeleteSeems like it took a good amount of time and effort and for that, I thank you. I look forward to reading more and more of your auction stories until I build enough courage to buy one for myself.
Thanks again.
Thanks, Brennan! We're glad you came by and even happier that you enjoyed it! There are another 115 posts where that came from, so be sure to click on the older ones and look at some of the other units we've purchased. We love the TV shows like Storage Wars, after all, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them-- but we do feel like they just don't have time to show you ALL of the items found (and not just the sensational ones)-- so we make it a point to give a realistic take on what we're actually doing. We show you as much as we possibly can! Please let us know when you buy your first unit!
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