Storage unit in New York City (Boston: fit in, insurance, crime)
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Okay, here is a different point of view, per suggestion received from a personal friend. She asked if there is a relatively cheaper and safer option for my locked belongings than NYC somewhere in the US that I still like as a place to live. After much thought, I came up with Santa Fe NM.
So then she proposed the following:
1. Right now, I have micro-condos in Boston MA (primary home), San Francisco CA (where I go often), and a "fairly decent" area of the Bronx (which I have been renting out; I have not been living there except for staying there for a couple of weeks between the tenants). I live in Boston mostly because of the excellent health insurance in MA (which I pay myself as a self-employed person), otherwise I am not really keen on Boston or MA. I was planning to sell the Boston place between my age of 66 and 69, keeping San Francisco onward as my primary home, and the Bronx as the secondary one (and the principal storage place for my books and media discs). The issue is the safety of my NYC condo (which I thought of upgrading by selling the Bronx place, buying a micro-condo in mid-town East +/- the storage unit in Manhattan for my stuff when I am not there... but here we are getting into a fair bit of expense, for a condo that I will be using for only a part of the year).
2. My friend suggested that (after I sell the present condo in Boston) I buy a micro-condo in a gated complex in Santa Fe NM (which will cost about half of what I'll get from the sale of the Boston place), and move my stuff to the safe micro-condo in Santa Fe NM. Then I should keep San Francisco as the primary home, and BOTH Santa Fe and the Bronx as the secondary homes, with the place in the Bronx serving only for me to sleep & shower when I'm in NYC. It seems that way I would have 3 tiny homes instead of 2 AND it would be cheaper than living is SF + Manhattan + Manhattan storage. The downside is that 3 properties are more of a bother than 2 for an old person - timing of all the tax payments, dealing with the condo management companies, repairs etc).
What do you say: SF/Manhattan/Manhattan storage, or SF/Santa Fe/Bronx???
Trust me, I DO need that stuff! I tried to reduce it, but I regularly go over, say, one thousand old books, and find maybe one or two that I can donate to the library. The others are all indispensable.
You didn't undertstand; I will have an apartment (do not plan to rent it, but to buy it), but am concerned that it might be broken into while I am traveling away from home for extended time, which I will be doing a lot. Although I have seemingly a lot of stuff, all of it can be stored compactly, and fits into a small studio. The purpose of storage would not be more space (I do not in fact need more space), but a greater security of belongings in a locked storage vs. in a locked apartment, while I am away for several months per year.
But you and some other people seem to be saying that it might be in fact safer to keep things in locked apartment than in locked storage (things getting wet and infested with bed bugs im storage were mentioned).
How many people vote for securing things in a locked storage unit vs. in a locked apartment, in NYC, when someone plans to be away several months every year?
I don't know how to set up a poll on this. Seventh Floor, can you set it up, please?
You can set up a poll by using thread tools, which is located at the top, near where the pages of this thread are listed.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
You can set up a poll by using thread tools, which is located at the top, near where the pages of this thread are listed.
Thanks a lot for the instructions. People, please vote!
Just want to add that storing stuff in San Francisco is not an option I'd consider. My unit in San Francisco is Zen-Buddhist empty, no furniture except the futon on the floor. Quakes are common, stuff falls from shelves even during relatively minor quakes (experienced it twice), don't want books and CDs and in fact the entire bookcase to fall on my head and kill me during a minor quake.
Thanks a lot for the instructions. People, please vote!
Just want to add that storing stuff in San Francisco is not an option I'd consider. My unit in San Francisco is Zen-Buddhist empty, no furniture except the futon on the floor. Quakes are common, stuff falls from shelves even during relatively minor quakes (experienced it twice), don't want books and CDs and in fact the entire bookcase to fall on my head and kill me during a minor quake.
Maybe I missed it, but why not sell the SF place? I've never been to SF, but with the hills and stuff, it doesn't look like an ideal place to retire. Plus I hear the homeless situation is actually worse than NYC. Do you drive? I hear BART is not all that great either.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
I can't really vote, I don't really like SF. "Manhatan + lock stuff in Manhattan condo" <- this is my favorite option if you can afford it. I can see the reasons as to why you would want one, but personally, unless I was to rent out my apartment or was leaving with intent to come back and not have a residence in NYC during that time, I wouldn't get one. I'm not materialistic though for the most part, so YMMV.
Maybe I missed it, but why not sell the SF place? I've never been to SF, but with the hills and stuff, it doesn't look like an ideal place to retire. Plus I hear the homeless situation is actually worse than NYC. Do you drive? I hear BART is not all that great either.
Many reasons not to sell SF:
1. It is hands down the most beautiful and most cosmopolitan city in the world. I worked there on a temporary contract, and then absolutely could not severe the connection with that place when I had to go work elsewhere.
2. It is a gateway to Asia, my most frequent destination when I travel abroad. Most of the cheap flights for Asia leave from SF.
3. It is a convenient starting point for hiking in the Sierra. I am a hiker, and at 58 am still all muscle :-). I had a grandfather who walked 5 miles a day until a couple of weeks prior to his death at the age of 99. The hills of SF are definitely not an obstacle to retirement - I plan to climb them until I drop dead.
4. BART is satisfactory. I drive, but don't own a car (I rent a car whenever I need it. I don't need it in the city).
5. Homelessness and crime are bad in SF, but SF Peninsula is small relative to NYC - dangerous areas are well known and avoidable.
So, selling SF is out :-). But I don't want to keep stuff there because of the quakes, foggy humidity which gets into everything, and also a concern of a break-in when I am not there. Plus, I must have a little place on each coast - that was my main dream in life, I realized it at the age of 48, and can't let go of it. When you own 350 sq ft on each coast, it feels like owning the entire world, at least to me :-).
1. It is hands down the most beautiful and most cosmopolitan city in the world. I worked there on a temporary contract, and then absolutely could not severe the connection with that place when I had to go work elsewhere.
2. It is a gateway to Asia, my most frequent destination when I travel abroad. Most of the cheap flights for Asia leave from SF.
3. It is a convenient starting point for hiking in the Sierra. I am a hiker, and at 58 am still all muscle :-). I had a grandfather who walked 5 miles a day until a couple of weeks prior to his death at the age of 99. The hills of SF are definitely not an obstacle to retirement - I plan to climb them until I drop dead.
4. BART is satisfactory. I drive, but don't own a car (I rent a car whenever I need it. I don't need it in the city).
5. Homelessness and crime are bad in SF, but SF Peninsula is small relative to NYC - dangerous areas are well known and avoidable.
So, selling SF is out :-). But I don't want to keep stuff there because of the quakes, foggy humidity which gets into everything, and also a concern of a break-in when I am not there. Plus, I must have a little place on each coast - that was my main dream in life, I realized it at the age of 48, and can't let go of it. When you own 350 sq ft on each coast, it feels like owning the entire world, at least to me :-).
I respect it.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
I can't really vote, I don't really like SF. "Manhatan + lock stuff in Manhattan condo" <- this is my favorite option if you can afford it. I can see the reasons as to why you would want one, but personally, unless I was to rent out my apartment or was leaving with intent to come back and not have a residence in NYC during that time, I wouldn't get one. I'm not materialistic though for the most part, so YMMV.
While I am not materialistic either (350 sq ft micro-condos are not particularly materialistic :-), non-tangible values (such as all the experiences, historic heritage of human ideas, and ultimately human thoughts and human life itself) all issue from material sources. Of course I don't care about a bunch of paper and plastic, but I care about the words, music and images that are recorded on those media. We live in material universe, there is no way of avoiding matter unless you wish to die :-).
Sell Boston, Keep Bronx and SF. Set up a camera system in your apartment you can view on your phone/computer in both apartments.
That's a good thought. I don't need to monitor the place in SF, but maybe I could still use the place in the Bronx if I wired it up with a camera and alarm. I'll look into that, thank you.
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