While I was in my neighbour’s garage collecting some winter clothing I had stored there, I was thinking about a recent discussion with my friend Amanda Reekie.  Amanda is co-founder of Stratton & Reekie, a London-based PR, marketing and communications consultancy, specialising in the creative industries.

I had just told her about StorPod.com and her initial reply was “renting space out to inert objects instead of troublesome lodgers seems like a good idea”.  As always, Amanda gave me a nugget that triggered a number of other thoughts, this time about relative security implications of letting strangers into your home.

At StorPod we hear many concerns of potential risk around storing someone else’s stuff.  Of course this exists – just like it’s there if you allow someone to park in your garage, or if you lend your favourite power tool to a neighbour.

There’s always risk in dealing with other people.  You never really know what’s in a stranger’s suitcase; indeed, what’s the risk to friendship if you  accidentally spill something on your best buddy’s filing boxes stored in your attic? The question is really about the degree of risk as compared to the amount of benefit received.

There is a range of risks and a range of benefits, of course.  Perhaps you don’t want to risk a friendship, but you don’t mind that a stranger has stored a bottle of soda pop that randomly bursts and spills cola all over your attic.  Equally what could be meant by “benefit”?  Extra money, or simply convenience and space? For the sake of this article, we define “risk” in terms of the exposure of your home / family and “benefit” as financial gain.

Assuming you have extra space you want to do something with (ideally something that brings in money) we have identified a number of possible scenarios:

1/ You use the space for personal reasons.  It’s safe in that you know precisely what you’re with the space and the objects that you have stored there, but you can’t very well charge yourself for it and so that space does not earn you any money.  In fact, if you need to fix it up, it becomes an expense to you.

2/ You store your friend’s items for no fee.  The level of risk slightly increases as while your friend may not wish to intentionally cause you damage, something might break, or you might spill something on his possessions.  Again, no money is earned so there is really no (monetary) benefit to you.

3/ You could charge your friend to store his stuff.  This brings the whole question of money into friendships which isn’t very easy, but it does move this aspect of the relationship to more business-like terms and whilst you’re helping someone out, they’re giving you some financial recognition for it.  This is quite a safe option, but you probably won’t get anywhere near the true market value of your space.

4/ You could rent out a slice of your space – say your couch to a visitor.  This is actually quite a good idea, helps you meet new people – potentially from another part of the world – and gives you a bit extra money.  But, now we’re dealing with issues around people – lodgers, effectively – being in your home.  They have access to your possessions, they may snore, insist you be at their beck and call and drink your milk directly from the bottle.

5/ Rent to a fellow StorPodder. Ideally, you’ve met someone on the StorPod web site.  They need some help with extra space for their items, your home might be conveniently close.  They bring their items around and you politely ask to view the contents; you reject anything that’s not properly wrapped or is too heavy for the carpet in your spare room.  Satisfied with what you’ve seen, you help them seal everything up again (so they know that their possessions are secure) and they pay you the negotiated storage cost.

How will you use your space?

6/ We think that a similar risk / reward (as storage) is renting out your parking space.  You might have some extra challenges around granting access to the parking spot through a key card or similar manner.  Also you really don’t want a beat-up clunker as an eyesore in your driveway, leaking oil over the garage floor, or a door bashing into the neighbour’s parked car.  However, if all those are dealt with, you could have a very good relationship with your “tenant”.

7/ Rent out your spare bedroom to a professional or permanent lodger.  Here you’re dealing with more space, the need to pay electrical, water and other bills for another human being so you could probably earn more than you might if you rented out your space for storage of inert objects.  However, as with the couch surfer, no number of interviews can help determine what a potential lodger will really be like.  Will s/he start making googly eyes at your spouse?  Will the Monday to Friday professional be working really late hours and come back late after “liquid” business meetings?  Will the 7-day-a-week lodger run off one day with your laptop?

Clearly there are quite a number of ways to earn revenue from your unused space.  Your own tolerance level for risk and dynamics of your life need to govern whether having inert objects or humans under your roof is acceptable to you.

However,  within a reasonable risk / benefit range we support the notion of hiring out your space for storage purposes over simply giving it away, or having lodgers in your space.