What Should Come Out of Your Edgewater Garage Before a Storm?

The reason to clear the garage before a storm is simple. You want the car in it, and you want the loose things out of the yard.

Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, and it peaks around 10 September. If you are in Edgewater, that is now. Here is the short version of what to move and what not to.

Why does the garage matter?

Because it is the only covered space most houses have, and it is usually full.

A garage packed to the walls means the car stays on the driveway, the patio furniture stays on the patio, and the kayak stays on the side of the house. In sustained wind, every one of those is a loose object. Emptying half a garage is not about protecting what is in the garage. It is about creating somewhere for the things that need to come in off the ground.

What is worth moving out first?

Start with whatever is bulky, rarely used and hard to secure.

Seasonal decorations, camping and beach gear, spare furniture, exercise equipment, boxes of records, tools you are not using this month. That is the category that fills a garage and earns nothing by being there.

Then the things you would be upset to lose. Photographs, documents, artwork, anything with paper or leather in it. Those are worth putting somewhere climate controlled rather than moving them from a hot garage to a hot spare room.

Then the yard items, once the space exists. Patio chairs, umbrellas, planters, the grill, kids' outdoor toys. Anything light enough to move in wind.

What should not go into a storage unit?

This matters and people get it wrong under time pressure.

No fuel of any kind. No propane tanks, no gas cans, no paint thinner, no fertilizer, no fireworks. Nothing combustible. That rule does not bend for a storm.

That also rules out anything with fuel still in it. A mower, a generator, a pressure washer or a chainsaw has to be drained first. If you cannot drain it, it stays home.

No food, no plants, no pets, and nothing living. Food attracts pests, and pests do not stay in one unit.

When is it too late to bother?

When a watch is already up and the roads are busy, it is too late to start moving furniture. At that point you are securing what is outside, not relocating it.

The useful version of this is done in advance, in the quiet part of the season, which is exactly why September is worth acting on rather than reading about. Clearing a garage in October after a storm is a very different job from clearing it now.

Where to put it in southern Volusia

Edgewater Self Storage is at 2424 Hibiscus Dr, just off U.S. Route 1, which locally is North Ridgewood Avenue, and a short drive from State Road 442 and I-95. That puts us in reach of New Smyrna Beach, Oak Hill and the communities across southern Volusia County.

Our units are climate controlled and reached from an interior hallway rather than an outdoor row, in sizes from a 4x5 up to a 10x10. There is also gravel parking in 6x15 and 12x15 spaces inside the gated property, lit and camera monitored, for a trailer or a spare vehicle.

One practical note before you arrive. Each unit here comes with a coded doorknob entry included at move in, so there is nothing to collect, but we do not supply the lock. Bring your own, and make it a disc lock or a closed shackle padlock rather than a standard one.

Call us on (386) 465-4967 and we will tell you what size your garage load actually needs.