What a storage unit cleanout costs in Nashville

The short answer by unit size

These are typical, not guaranteed. A packed 10x10 stacked to the ceiling can run to five-eighths at $513, and a half-empty 10x15 might only be three-eighths at $338. We confirm the bracket against the published ladder before anything is loaded.

Do the rent arithmetic first

This is the part people avoid, and it is the part that decides the whole question.

Work out what you have paid on the unit since you last opened it. Then look at what is inside and ask what you would pay to buy it again today. For most Nashville storage units the answer is that the rent passed the contents years ago, and the only thing keeping the unit is that emptying it feels like a project.

A one-time $431 to clear a 10x10 against an indefinite monthly charge is usually not a close call. It is just a decision nobody has made yet.

Why Nashville has so many of these units

Three local reasons, and they compound.

No basements. Most of this metro is built on a crawlspace, so houses here have less storage than their square footage suggests. The garage absorbs what it can and the overflow goes to a rented unit off Charlotte Pike, Nolensville Pike or Gallatin Pike.

Transient population. Nashville takes in a lot of people, and a rented unit is the standard bridge between arriving and finding somewhere permanent. Plenty of those bridges became permanent themselves.

Downsizing into the core. People selling a large house in Brentwood or Franklin and moving into a condo in the Gulch or a tall-skinny in The Nations put the difference into storage, intending to sort it later. Later has not arrived.

What the climate does to stored belongings

Ask whether your unit is climate controlled, because it changes what you will find.

A non-climate-controlled unit in Middle Tennessee goes through the full summer cycle: high humidity from May through September, daily heating and cooling, and condensation on whatever surface is coldest. Over a few years that means cardboard boxes on the slab that fall apart when lifted, particleboard furniture swollen and delaminated at the base, upholstery that has taken on a smell, and books and photographs foxed and stuck.

What survives: solid wood, metal, plastic totes with real lids, and anything that was sealed. A climate-controlled unit is a different story and most of the contents will be fine.

The practical upshot is that people who sort a non-climate-controlled unit are usually surprised by how little is worth keeping, and sorting goes faster once you accept that.

Facility access is the scheduling constraint

The unit is easy. The building is the variable.

• Gate hours and access codes. Many facilities have gate hours narrower than their office hours. Confirm both, and make sure the code works for the person who will be there.
• Drive-up versus interior. Drive-up units are the fastest jobs there are. Interior units mean a corridor, a freight elevator and a loading bay that other tenants are also using.
• Upper floors. Multi-story facilities have one or two lifts. No stair charge from us, but it does change how long the job takes.
• Your lock. Bring the key, or bring bolt cutters, or arrange for the facility to cut it. Do not discover this on the day.
• Tell the office. Most facilities want to know a removal crew is coming and some require it.

If the unit is in arrears

Different situation, and the order of operations matters. Tennessee self-storage facilities have their own lien and sale process for delinquent units, and the facility controls access until whatever they require is settled. Sort that with the office before booking anyone.

If you are the facility rather than the tenant, and you are clearing a unit after that process has run its course, we can work directly against a bracket on the published ladder. Tell us the unit size, whether it is drive-up or interior, and whether the contents are furniture or loose material.

Pricing it by item instead

Worth doing if the unit holds a handful of large things rather than a wall of boxes.

A typical Nashville 10x10 after a downsize: sofa $126 + queen mattress and box spring set $143 + dresser $126 + dining table for 2-4 $103 + bookshelf $72 = $570.

Against the ladder, three-quarters is $587 and a half is $431. If the five pieces genuinely fit in half a truck, $431 is the booking and you have saved $139 by comparing.

For boxes rather than furniture, use the bag ladder: 10 bags $132, 20 bags $259, 30 bags $385, 50 bags $575. For a full unit the truck bracket almost always wins.

Booking one

Tell us the facility, the unit size and number, whether it is drive-up or interior, the gate hours and the access code, and roughly what is inside. If you cannot be there, say who can let us in and whether the office needs notice.

Sort anything you want to keep before the day if you can, because the slow part of a storage cleanout is always the deciding, never the carrying. And check the unit for documents and photographs before anything moves. They turn up in these more often than in any other kind of job.

Frequently asked questions