Store Your Car For The Winter With Centron Storage

Now that the weather’s turned frigid, running away to a tropical island or an all-inclusive resort sounds more attractive than ever. Even if you’re not heading to some enchanted beach get-away, taking a long vacation from the winter cold can prove to be just the escape you need to return to work or responsibilities refreshed and invigorated.

If you’re going away on an extended vacation, you’re going to need a place to store your car. Not everyone has the luxury of having a heated, secure garage, so if you normally park on the road or in an alleyway, know that our 10’ x 15’ and 10’ x 20’ rental units can accommodate small to mid-size automobiles easily. And with all that extra room comes security features that will keep your convertible, sports car, or minivan safe and secure for however long you plan on catching some rays.

Before closing the door and running away, remember to employ good storage practices for your car. That way, when you return things will be as good as new. Here are a few tips on storing a vehicle for an extended period:

Remember to put a weather cover over the vehicle to reduce the accumulation of dust. Beforehand, give your car a thorough wash (including the undercarriage) to avoid any tar, droppings, grease, salt, or mud from the road damaging your paint job or leaving a permanent stain. A proper wax will seal the deal even more. Wipe down the interior, protect the leather, and in the case of a convertible, clean and leave the top up to avoid developing unsightly creases. Remove the windshield wipers to prevent them holding one position for too long and staying that way. Cover all vents and openings to your car—like the exhaust pipe, heater box, air vents, and so forth—to seal against unwanted tenants, like mice.

Give your car a full oil change, top up all fluids, and fill up the tank with gas. If you’re going to be away for more than a month, you’ll want to put in a gas stabilizer to eliminate a build up of ethanol. It will also protect you against rust, varnish, gum, and having extra moisture and dried out seals. Ensure you’ve got between 50 and 30 percent antifreeze in the coolant system before saying “so long.”

If you’re gone for more than a month, and you have no one to come in to drive your car and keep things lubricated (and use the A/C briefly to keep it functional), you’ll want to put your vehicle up on jack stands to avoid flat spots in your tires (especially since it’s going to be cold this winter). Inflate them to just beyond the recommended level before you leave. Use a chock instead of the parking brake to avoid any movement and to prevent brakes fusing with rotors.

Also, remember that your battery can’t be left unattended and still be expected to work properly upon your return. if you’re gone for many weeks, remove the battery completely and leave it somewhere that’s cool and dry—then you can keep the battery charged to avoid sulfating and freezing. Alternatively, you can use a trickle charger to keep a small charge in the unit and to get away from using jumper cables. You can clean your battery while you’re at it using water and baking soda.

Properly preparing your vehicle for its dormancy means it’ll be road ready when your vacation comes to its inevitable conclusion. And we’ll be here at Centron Storage whenever you need to pick it up. Drop us a line or give us a call to discuss how and when we’ll be caring for you car. And enjoy your trip!

Top Five Things Never To Store In A Rental Unit

While we encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to storing unused or excess items — think vehicles, electronics, furniture, toys, and so much more — there are some things you should never, ever try to store with a professional facility. While discovering these items makes for great reality TV, it’s never so fun in reality. These are our Top Four things never to store in one of our units.

5. Stolen Items and Drugs. While we pride ourselves on being your go-to resource for all things storage, we do have our limits — and helping you evade the law is certainly not one of them! Other people have tried it over the years; famously, stolen Picasso, Monet, and Munch paintings (including “The Scream”) have been hidden away in storage units … for a time. Same goes for drugs. We are not your personal depository of stolen goods or banned substances, regardless of value or length of stay. If the police have reason to believe your unit contains stolen goods or illegal narcotics, they will easily obtain a warrant and search it.

4. Insects and Animals, Living or Dead. It’s one thing to store a piece of taxidermy, and quite another to attempt to store decaying materials and all the pests, bacteria, and odours they invite. Even worse is an attempt to store living creatures, such as insects or reptiles, in your storage unit. In one instance, over 30 dead pythons were found in a Minnesota unit — incurring legal penalties for the owner. It’s strange to even imagine having to say this, but there’s no excuse for animal abuse — and storing a live animal is against our policy, illegal, and unspeakably cruel.

3. Plant Life and Perishable Food. This is a no-brainer, right? There’s no way your plants are going to survive without water or sunlight. We don’t want to have to deal with messes associated with decomposition, and you don’t want to lose your precious fica or poinsettias. Moreover, if your food is going to perish, please don’t leave it in one of our units — the smell alone will be enough to make any trip near your goods a nightmare, but they (like other dead things …) will attract unwanted guests like insects, vermin, and so forth.

2. Explosives, Firearms, and Other Dangerous Items. If you’re the sort of person with an excess amount of grenades, bombs, rifles, pistols, and other weapons, you should also have options for storage beyond the usual avenues. Hazardous chemicals, compressed gasses, and oil and gasoline should not be kept in storage due to dangers associated with spills, leaks, explosions, and other incidents. Following this rule means you’ll never endanger our staff or your neighbours’ units by storing potentially dangerous items. If common sense and safety don’t sway you, just think of the liabilities you’ll owe if you end up damaging other people’s particularly valuable heirlooms!

1. People. Though 99.9 percent of the population would never even consider this, there have been occasions when people have tried to live in their storage unit. Moreover, others have tried to hide outlaws, illegal immigrants, and other unwanted people in units until they can be moved. Other more insidious individuals have even tried to set up mini-sweat shops in the larger spaces, forcing their poor workers to sleep where they toil. This warning goes for dead people, too — a number of bodies have turned up in units over the years, with tragic results. Just remember: regardless of your financial situation, a storage facility is not a stand-in for a funeral home!

A great number of people assume that storage facilities are only appropriate for old heirlooms, family keepsakes, or sentimental trinkets. On the other hand, some people assume that only businesses with important (and bulky) files and documents make use of mini-storage units. In reality, self-storage can accommodate so much more than what you see on Storage Wars or Auction Hunters — and it often does, with sometimes less than savoury discoveries. But by following our guidelines and by using a little common sense, you can find all sorts of inventive uses for a newly rented unit, and never endanger others or lose your investments. And the best part? All you need to do is ask!

My Storage Story—How Using Storage Units Help Me Pay The Rent

When I moved to Toronto, I was a young man with a fantastic job on Bay Street, and like the saying goes, the world was my oyster. Even though I lived alone, with my salary I was lucky enough to afford to rent a three-bedroom apartment. Over my years of bachelor living, I accumulated a lot of stuff and had enough free time to indulge in a number of sports-related hobbies, so having a three-bedroom was ideal: it gave me a lot of room for my skis, snowboards, and other winter-sport equipment.

Fast forward a few years, and things weren’t looking so great for me. Financial turmoil in my company meant I was laid off, which was certainly a blow to my self-esteem and income, but I was also thinking of changing career paths. The high-stakes financial world wasn’t the most agreeable place for me, and I wanted to go back to school, rethink who I was, and start my own business.

However, I’d grown so attached to my stellar three-bedroom apartment and all the extra storage space it provided me. The thought of downsizing to a bachelor pad and giving away all my things (or living like a hoarder) sent me into a funk. I didn’t know what to do — until I saw an ad for Centron Storage, and the proverbial light bulb switched on over my head. It was clear that if I wanted to keep my apartment, I would have to share it with other people, but I had way too much stuff. But after doing the math, I realized I could actually save money by renting storage units from a qualified and reliable company.

Most people would agree that Toronto is an expensive place to live. According to Numbeo, the average price to rent a one-bedroom in downtown Toronto is now $1,466.02 per month, while a three-bedroom costs $2,711.96. Basic utilities average out to another $176.06 per month. Another study from Settlement.Org puts these figures slightly lower — $1,067 for one bedroom and $1,458 for three per month — but that incorporates the entire City of Toronto and even the most out-of-the-way and remote apartments. It’s clear that if you want to live in an attractive part of the city, you’ve got to dish out the dough.

So I found two awesome new roommates, who each shelled out $1,000 per month to live with me and provide their share of the rent and utilities. I was now only paying a third of what I used to pay when I lived alone — a figure I could now easily cover. Then I took my all my hobby and sports-related things that were occupying their rooms and put them into storage. Even after paying for two secure and modern storage units from Centron (something I would never have considered a few months before) I was still saving well over $1,500 per month.

This is a scenario that worked for me, but I imagine there are many other people out there who don’t realize the untold cost benefits of storage! By renting out a guest room in their apartment, and then storing their things with a professional storage company, an urban homeowner or renter can save hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars per month, and never have to part with cherished or bulky items that simply take up space. So take my advice, and give Centron Storage a call today and see what great deals are available to save you money!

Get Your End-of-Year Documents In Order With Professional Storage

At my company, December’s a time to reflect, reminisce, and make very merry—but it’s also our time for counting our inventory, investigating our stock, and doing a great deal of accounting for the end of our calendar year. Since we haven’t made the move to an entirely electronic database—and like many businesses, forced to hold on to paper-based records – we usually amass quite a lot of raw physical data. That means folders, binders, boxes, and shelves filled with indispensible, but rarely read and used, financial information.

We can’t get rid of it, and don’t have the means to transfer it all to the digital realm at the moment, and we certainly can’t ignore it. For many years, this system worked, and while we’ve happily stayed in business, we’ve also steadily lost space, both due to relocating our main office and due to the sheer volume of paperwork we’ve amassed over the seasons. We’re now simply running out of room, but we can’t afford an entirely new office, and we’re not in a position to move once again.

At this point, I began to explore the wide world of professional storage solutions. I had a few necessities going forward. First, the site had to be affordable; I wasn’t about to burn profits on space for documents. Second, it had to be safe and secure—these were important financial records, containing client and account information, that couldn’t be damaged or stolen. Third, I needed to have access to our records whenever we needed them; they had to be available at a moment’s notice in case we were required to cross-reference or double-check any of our forms.

I searched high and low for all of the above, but the company that truly stood head and shoulders above the competition was Centron Storage. They understood our needs immediately and were extremely professional in their communications. Their Winter Special gave us up to four 5 x 10 units for only $99 each, which was an incredibly affordable solution for our particular requirements. They assured us that our documents would be safe, as highly trained staff, motion sensors and security cameras, key-card access, and a host of other security options would keep our things intact. The storage rooms were dry, climate controlled, and free from mould or pests. My employees could pick up or drop off items when necessary, giving us access seven days a week and alleviating all my fears that we’d need an item and it wouldn’t be available.

Best of all, we could even ship our documents to them with their on-site package acceptance and individual mailboxes. This made my life even easier, as it would be a snap sending out records as we filed them. They even provided dollies and banker’s boxes in case we needed help boxing things up (not one of our worries—we were absolutely drowning in boxes)!

These days, all our paper storage concerns are a thing of the past. Whenever a friend or colleague complains about too much stock, or simply too little room, I always recommend Centron. End-of-year accounting and filing have never been easier, which lets my team focus on what really matters: celebrating the holiday season! Trust me—getting in touch with these professionals is the best way out of a cluttered situation.

Avoid These Four Common Mistakes When Using Our Storage Units

While enjoying our great deals, security, and access features are a snap, sometimes customers don’t get the most out of their units, especially if it’s their first time. While a complete list of things to avoid while storing might be exhaustive, here are four extremely common mistakes for storage-renters that you can now side-step for optimal usage.

1. No Labels = Major Headache. The choice is yours to pile up dozens (or even hundreds!) of boxes in one or more of our units — we’ve certainly got the space. But remember: while things seem clear, sorted, and organized now, it’s going to be difficult to remember where you put that particular form or that cherished jacket in several months. Without proper labels, you’ll be tearing through your carefully organized units and wasting a ton of time. Remember to label every box legibly and on a side that can be located without struggle.
2. Out of Sight, Out of Memory. We completely understand why you’re using a storage unit. Space is ever more valuable, and there are some things you just can’t give away. That being said, you can save yourself some money by potentially downgrading to a smaller unit size after semi-regular purges. If you make semi-regular visits to our facilities—say, once every three months— you might realize you’ve stored a number of items that you’ll never need again. Have you needed that old clock or pair of shoes in six months? If not, chances are you never will. Send it to charity and save some cash.
3. You Thought Tetris Was For Kids. Those who’ve mastered the art of Tetris realize that you can take advantage of floor and height to get the most out of your storage space. One way to stack vertically without creating mountains of immovable boxes is to invest in free-standing shelving units. You’ll pay for them in no time with the space you’ll save and the easy-to-access nature of shelving.
4. What, Me? Insurance? While we can offer the best security features in the storage business — including security cameras, motion detectors, clean and dry units, intercom connection, security patrols and inspections, and more — we can’t control mother earth. Natural disasters can and will happen regardless of human intervention, or wishes. Just as you’d naturally invest in insurance in the home or at work for those unpredictable events, so too should you purchase insurance for your stored valuables. There’s a reason you’re keeping them safe with us, so make sure they’re covered even in the unlikely event of Biblical flood or raging fire.

When we say that finding all your storage solutions at Centron Storage is simple, we really mean it. Our facilities can handle just about anything you might want to store, with individual units ranging from 20 to 300 square feet at both of our well-lit, safe, and above all, secure locations. With our great rental deals, we’re also the best value in the neighbourhood, hands down. So with these great tips in mind, send us a message and we’ll get started on finding the best units for you!

Entertaining Over The Holidays? Give Your Guests The Gift Of A Clutter-Free Home

While growing up, maybe you never had to worry about prepping the home for visitors over the holidays—that was Mom and Dad’s job, right? Or you all piled into the station wagon and made the annual voyage to Grandma and Grandpa’s place to sample their famous turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. Oh, the luxuries of being a guest! Today, it’s your turn to host the holiday gathering—friends and relatives will be here before you know it, presents in hand and little elves in tow. Maybe this is the first time you’ll be entertaining your parents or your in-laws, and you know the white gloves are coming out to inspect the premises and see if you keep a tight ship…

So whether you’re a gourmet cook or a novice with the turkey baster, one thing’s for sure: you’re going to have to get the house tidy—nobody wants to stay in a messy, cluttered, crowded home. Aside from the usual mopping, vacuuming, and dusting you’ll be doing, you might notice another problem: you’ve become a bit of a pack rat! There’s hardly any floor space left for you and your family, let alone the added numbers you’re expecting in December. A cluttered home is certainly not going to make a good impression on the scrupulous in-laws or the concerned parent. If only there was a solution!

Luckily, by coming to us here at Centron Self Storage—the easy answer to all your holiday-stowage needs—you can clear out excess baggage, furniture, or junk just in time for your guests’ arrival! If all the furniture and miscellaneous stuff you’ve been keeping in that spare bedroom now needs to vamoose for incoming residents, we’ve got an appropriately sized storage unit that will let you take control of your living space and reclaim entire rooms! Our handy-dandy storage calculator will let you determine your square-footage needs by room and item, using categories—living room, nursery, dining room, sports/utility, audio/visual, and so forth—to discover what kind of unit will work best for you and prevent you from overpaying. But don’t worry—even if you’ve got a ton of stuff, we’ve got a unit for you; we have rooms the size of single-car garages (up to 200 square feet!). If your closets are busting at the seams, we’ve got wardrobe boxes for hanging long garments; and if you’ve got heavy furniture to relocate, carts and dollies are always on hand to help you get things from your vehicle to your new unit.

To avoid repeating the cluttered experience at home, make sure that when you start filling up your unit, leave space around the perimeter (don’t pile things up against the walls). Leave a walkway through your things so that you can reach the back of the room. And place things that you might need to retrieve easily near the front, just for the sake of convenience. Not that we need to say it, but you don’t want to turn your storage unit into another cluttered pile-up. That way, once all the guests are gone and your holiday decorations are back in their boxes, you can come pick up your stuff and bring it all back home, stress free.

Be the superstar entertainer you need to be this holiday season, and de-clutter your home for parties, dinners, stopovers, and weeklong stays. Whatever your storage needs, we at North York Centron Storage will help you make your home a haven, so get in touch now to see what we have in store!

On This Black Friday, Let Centron Storage Deal With Excess Baggage

For the past few years, Black Friday blowouts and one-day-only sales have been steadily creeping across the border into Canada. Once only a post-American Thanksgiving spending spree, this year’s Black Friday promises to drive thousands of Canadian shoppers mad with rock-bottom prices from Newfoundland to Victoria. Toronto’s big box stores will no doubt see longer lines of camped out, deal-crazy shoppers than ever before. If this sounds like you, or someone you share a roof with, you know this means accumulating a whole bunch of stuff—and often stuff that you don’t need, or you don’t have the room for!

All your old things aren’t ready for the trash, though—maybe you’ll want to sell them on Kijiji or Craigslist; maybe you’ll want to hold on to it all for a rainy day, or for parts. While you can certainly get a good deal on new products, Black Friday won’t miraculously find you room in your home; you can’t buy floor space at Future Shop, Best Buy, or Walmart! So if you have a shopaholic at home, or you need to find a spot for all the goods from last year’s blowout, consider how one of our North York storage facilities could help you find some much needed space.

We’ve got room for all your electronics—flat- or wide-screen TVs, video game consoles, stereos, car speakers, entertainment centres—in our climate controlled, super-secure self-storage units. If you need boxes (of all shapes and sizes), don’t worry about making another run to the mall—we’ve got everything you need. And no matter how valuable or expensive your things are, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we’ve got all the best security systems in place: keycard access and motion detectors, surveillance equipment and security patrols, a brightly lit and fenced-in compound.

On the other hand, maybe you’re not a super-sale consumer, but a small business owner prepping for a Black Friday sale yourself. If you’ve got extra stock and need somewhere to store it in the lead-up to your event, or you predict having a bit too much after November 28, we have a perfect location to safely store your things until you need them. Surplus inventory doesn’t have to be sold off in a panic, and there’s no need to start thinking about relocating—we’re happy to protect your things for as long as necessary. Another great feature of our service is that you have your own lock and key, which means daily access to your things. It’s no good to wait if you can make a sale, right?

Whether you’re buying or selling this Black Friday, remember to keep us in mind for your storage needs. We understand the importance of product and inventory, so don’t cram everything into a closet or lose your sales floor space to towering displays. Contact us at Centron Storage and let us take care of the rest!

This Halloween, Don’t Be Afraid of Affordable Storage

Every Halloween, there’s always that house: the one with the long line of cars slowing down outside it, drivers rubber-necking to get a look. The one that all the neighbourhood kids marvel at, and are ashamed to admit they’re a little bit afraid of. Cobwebs, tombstones, spiders, smoke, jack-o’-lanterns, a creepy soundtrack—they’ve got it all. But what in the world do those mega-scare enthusiasts do with all their stuff come November 1^st?

Whether you own the number one haunted house on the block, you dabble with the odd vampire bat or dangling skeleton, or you have a little pack of pint-sized ghouls to doll up in darling costumes, the task of finding clean and affordable storage for all your Halloween swag can sometimes be … horrific. But have no fear! North York’s Centron Storage can house even the most grotesque Halloween supplies!

Rest assured that using our storage units is a safe and reliable way to preserve your ghastly goods from one year to the next. In fact, our facility is the opposite of a haunted house: it’s clean, brightly lit, and outfitted with all the most reassuring security systems: surveillance cameras, motion detectors, daily inspections, private patrols, your own lock, and a computer controlled access system. If you’re still wary, you can always get content insurance for all your family’s frightening effects, or carry over your own insurance from your provider.

The same goes for all business owners who dress up their storefronts, shops, and interiors with lively seasonal decorations. Companies who really get into the spirit of the holiday are always warmly received by people with a sense of humour. But why take up valuable stock or supply space with your ghosts, witches, and werewolves? Let us do the storing for you, and give yourself peace of mind with one of the most secure and safe storage companies in the business!

If you are the true Halloween enthusiast—the Houdini of Haunted Houses, the Master of the Maze of Misery—then there’s no need to break down, destroy, or otherwise compromise your investments. Centron offers large units—10 x 10’, 10 x 15’, and even 10 x 20’—that can accommodate even the most monstrous of supplies. Clear out that garage and make room for the next holiday extravaganza—Christmas is just a few weeks away!

So this Halloween, who you gonna call? If you’re savvy, the answer is sure to be Centron Storage!

Summer’s Over—Take Care Of All Your Warm Weather Supplies with Centron Storage

Whether you like it or not, summer’s now come to an end. The air’s turned crisp and the leaves have begun to turn colour and fall, meaning your light and breezy clothing—that summer dress, favourite Hawaiian shirt, skimpy pair of short shorts, and lazy flip-flops are reaching the end of their yearly rotation. You’re no doubt in the process of preparing your home for the incoming cold weather—taking in that air conditioner and closing windows, draining the pool and stacking patio furniture. But if you’re like most people, you may struggle each season to find a space for your things. Thankfully, Centron Storage has all your fun summer stuff covered!

Clothes, Shoes, Hats, and More

If you’ve got an abundance of sandals, bathing suits, beach towels, Tilley hats, and light cotton or linen clothing, we’ve got the right storage unit for you. Our small and medium-sized boxes can take care of all your summer clothing needs. If you have something a bit fancier—a super-light but super-elegant dress, a barely there but absolutely boss suit—we have 14-cubic-foot wardrobe boxes, allowing you to safely hang your treasured garb. These tall boxes can also house your summer draperies, blinds, and linens.

Pool and Patio Furniture

Now that the pool is empty, those pool noodles, floatation devices, beach balls, and kick boards need to be stored somewhere, right? We’re also happy to hold on to your lawn chairs, badminton nets, soccer balls, kiddie pools, and your favourite hammock for those lazy naps in the humid afternoons. Keep your shed and garage clutter-free and dedicated to dealing with the season at-hand (and c’mon, get raking—have you seen your lawn?).

Cottage Supplies and Vehicles

Cottage life may still be viable, but it’s certainly not the same as it was from April to September. With the cold air, you may have to pack away all your water gear: your fishing rods, lifejackets, wetsuits, flippers, snorkels, goggles, and other deep-sea diving items. We are also able to safely store your larger watercraft: even Sea-Doos and Jet Boats are no match for our summer storage capabilities! We can wrap them tight in blankets, bubble wrap, and other protective packing to ensure they’re safe and sound. Get those outdoor vehicles into a safe, warm, dry space and avoid any weather-related damages so that they’re as good as new next spring!

Don’t let the ghosts of summers past cramp your autumn style. Allow Centron Storage to make room for another beautiful Ontario fall.