A couple of events recently convinced me to never have a storage locker (though it could also be a packed garage) without some sort of exit plan. A storage locker because you're in the process of moving or need some space for outdoor gear because you live in an apartment?
Fine.
A storage locker because you have too much stuff and have no real plans to buy a second home or move somewhere bigger?
Not so fine.
I held this same belief for many years, but now find myself the renter of an interminable storage unit. Its contents are almost entirely:
* Boxes for various bits of electronic gear that I may sell at some point and will net a better value if I have the original packaging. This has proven worthwhile in the past as I explored my synth hobby.
* Halloween and Christmas decorations, because my wife decorates for the holidays like an exuberant goth Clark Griswald.
The unit is 90% the latter.
I've thought long and hard that we shouldn't own more than we can hold on our property. I've even thought that maybe we should move into a bigger house with more storage in order to achieve that goal.
But then I realized that a storage unit is essentially a much cheaper version of that second sentence. Here in Seattle, uprgading to an even slightly bigger house would be an enormous increase in our mortgage, would incur a large costly move, and risks having to change schools for my kids.
Compared to that, a storage unit is a much cheaper, easier option.
I would still prefer to not have it, and I'm enough of a minimalist that I could get by fine without it. But marriage is a partnership and those decorations bring her (and the rest of our neighborhood) a lot of joy, so here we are.
It sounds like you mostly have a plan as opposed to not sure why we have all this stuff and not sure what we'll do with it whenever :-)
The cost of these places also is pretty substantial. Really should consider what is the value of stored items if replaced with new, compared to storage cost. Especially with furniture like say beds or sofas. But why not everything else.
Does it really make sense to store. And do you actually want to reuse it. Especially if it is say some particle board and not full wood.
It's often a form of kicking the can down the road. As you write, not cheap, but easier than sorting and making decisions. But you're often just making it someone else's problem.