Storage in Cottonwood

These two answer the same question in opposite ways, and which is right depends almost entirely on how long you need the space for.

Aspen Mini Storage, 751 East Aspen Street, rents self-storage units by the month.

AZ Barn and Storage Solutions, 4151 East Western Drive, sells sheds and barns. Not rental: you buy the building and it goes on your own land.

Do the arithmetic before you decide

A storage unit is the obvious answer to a short problem: a move, a renovation, a few months between houses. Rent is rent, and you walk away when you are done.

For a long problem, it stops being obvious. A unit rented for years quietly costs more than a shed would have, and at the end of it you own nothing. If you have the land, which a great many properties in and around Cottonwood do, buying the building can be the cheaper answer within a couple of years. Work out the monthly rent, multiply it by how long you honestly expect to need it, and compare.

The catch on the buying side is that a shed or barn over a certain size usually needs a permit, and possibly a setback from the boundary. Ask the seller what the rules are for your parcel, and if the answer is vague, ask the city or the county rather than guessing.

Questions for the rental side

What happens in July. A metal unit in this valley gets hot enough to warp candles, ruin records and destroy anything with a battery. If you are storing electronics, instruments, photographs or paperwork, ask directly whether any unit is climate controlled and take a plain no as a plain no.

The real monthly price after any introductory rate, the notice period to leave, whether the deposit is refundable, and what the site’s insurance covers, which is almost always far less than people assume. Your own contents policy may extend to a storage unit; it is worth a call to check rather than an assumption.

Camp Verde has more storage, including RV and vehicle space, on the Camp Verde storage page.