Look, Picking a City is Like Dating. You Gotta Find The One That Annoys You in a Way You Can Handle.
Seriously. Every city has its thing. The trick is finding the city whose “thing” makes you smile instead of scream into a pillow.
I’m not a travel blogger. I run a storage business. You know who has to think really hard about where they live? People who are between homes, sizing up or down, or just plain stuck with too much stuff for their new apartment. I’ve heard all the stories. The good, the bad, the “why is my sofa suddenly damp?” So let’s cut the “vibrant metropolis” crap.
For The “I Need To Be Where Things Are Happening” Person:
You’re probably looking at New York or Austin. But man, they are different animals.
- New York will eat you alive and then apologize with the best bagel you’ve ever had. The real truth no one tells you? It’s filthy expensive, you’ll be friends with rats (the subway kind, hopefully), and you will walk more in a week than you did all last year. But. But. The energy is a real, physical thing. It’s in the pavement. You’ll see a famous actor buying toothpaste. You’ll have a 2 AM conversation with a stranger that changes how you see the world. Your apartment will be a closet. A literal closet. I can’t tell you how many customers we have in NYC who use a small storage unit just for their off-season clothes because their studio apartment only fits one season at a time. That’s the trade. You trade space for life.
- Austin is what happens if a tech bro and a blues musician had a baby. It’s ambitious, but it’s chill about it. People talk about “work-life balance” while actually having one. You can be in a boardroom at 3 and at Barton Springs in a swimsuit by 4:30. The hype is real, but so is the traffic. The “weird” is getting paved over by condo towers, but you can still find it in the little dive bars off South Congress. You come here to build a career but refuse to wear hard pants to do it.
For The “Please Just Let Me See A Tree And Breathe” Person:
You want Denver. But listen—Denver is not a mountain town. It’s a big, spread-out city IN FRONT of the mountains. The view is killer. The reality is, you’ll sit in I-70 traffic for two hours on a Sunday to get to a hiking trail.
Everyone is obscenely healthy. Your barista will tell you about their 50-mile bike ride before their shift. It’s inspiring and also kind of exhausting. You will buy a Subaru. It’s basically mandatory. And you will need a storage unit. Not maybe. Definitely. Because your garage and your apartment will be filled with a confusing arsenal of gear: skis, snowboards, hiking packs, mountain bikes, kayak paddles. It’s a gear lifestyle. We are basically everyone’s second garage out here.
For The “I Want My Life To Have A Soundtrack And A Smell” Person:
That’s New Orleans. Oh, baby. This city doesn’t care about your five-year plan. It cares about what you’re doing for dinner and if you know where the good music is tonight.
It’s not all Bourbon Street and beads. That’s for tourists. The real New Orleans is in the shotguns houses, the second-line parades that block traffic on a random Sunday, the old man on his stoop playing the trumpet just because. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking. It smells like jasmine and old brick and sometimes… less good things.
It’s humid enough to swim through the air. Things move slow. Nothing works like it should. But the people? The food? The music? It gets in your blood. People here hold onto history—their grandma’s china, Mardi Gras Indian suits, old vinyl records. Their houses are often small and not exactly climate-controlled, so a lot of folks keep their precious, sensitive stuff in one of our climate-controlled units. It’s like a safe deposit box for your soul.
For The “I Just Want It To Make Sense And Be Nice” Person:
Let’s talk about somewhere like Raleigh-Durham. This is the smart, sensible friend who always has a charger when your phone dies.
It’s clean. The schools are great. There are greenways everywhere. It’s got jobs—good, stable, tech and research jobs. It’s the city version of a well-built Toyota. Reliable, safe, gets good mileage.
Is it gonna set your soul on fire? Probably not. But will it let you build a calm, comfortable, happy life where you can afford a house with a yard? Absolutely. People move here, settle in, and their storage unit often becomes a holding zone for their kids’ stuff coming back from college, or a place for the lawnmower and holiday decorations. It’s practical. Just like the city.
So How Do You Really Know?
Think about a regular Tuesday. You had a kinda bad day at work. What fixes it?
- Calling three friends and finding a new, weird bar to try? (NYC, Austin, NOLA).
- Putting on your shoes and just walking out your door onto a trail? (Denver).
- Grilling in your backyard while your kids play safely on the swing set? (Raleigh).
That’s your answer. That simple.
And wherever you land, you’ll probably have more stuff than space. That’s just life. We get it. That’s why we’re here—not to sell you a dream, but to hold your stuff while you figure out what that dream actually looks like in a real place, with real weather, and a real rent check. Good luck out there. Go find your weird, wonderful fit.
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