What a storage unit cleanout costs in Portland

The short answer

By unit size, as a rule of thumb:

• 5x5 locker — usually a quarter load at $241, sometimes less on item pricing if it is a handful of pieces.
• 5x10 — a quarter at $241, or three-eighths at $338 if it is packed to the roller door.
• 10x10 — a half at $431, or five-eighths at $513.
• 10x15 — three-quarters at $587 up to a full load at $732.
• 10x20 — a full load at $732, often more than one.

Those are rules of thumb, not quotes. A unit stacked to the ceiling holds far more than the same unit half full. Visit minimum $75, no sales tax in Oregon.

Why so many Portland households have one

The storage corridors here are familiar: the facilities strung along SE 82nd, Powell, NE Sandy and Columbia, and the newer buildings out through Beaverton, Tigard, Milwaukie and Gresham.

Three local reasons units get rented in the first place, and all three explain why they end up being cleared years later.

The tight rental market. People move into a smaller place than the one they left, take a unit for the overflow, and never get the bigger place.

The basement or garage conversion. A huge number of Portland houses have turned a basement, an attic or a detached garage into an ADU or a rental suite in the last several years. Everything that lived in that space had to go somewhere, and it went into a unit.

The estate that nobody had time for. A parent's house is sold, the contents go into a 10x10 to be dealt with properly later, and later becomes four years of monthly payments.

The common ending is the same: somebody adds up what the unit has cost and decides to stop.

What is actually in there, and what it is worth

Be realistic before you plan a sorting day.

Units are drier than a Portland basement, which is the main thing they have going for them. But they are not climate controlled unless you paid for that, and a ground-floor unit near a roller door goes through the same humidity cycle as everything else in this city. Cardboard stacked against an outer wall for four years is soft. Upholstery is musty. Particleboard has swollen at the feet if it was standing on concrete.

What usually survives well: tools, kitchenware, books, records, solid wood furniture, anything metal.

What usually does not: mattresses, upholstered furniture, flat-pack, papers and photographs stored in cardboard, and anything electronic that went through four winters of condensation.

Item pricing, when it beats the ladder

A unit that is mostly a few large pieces rather than a wall of boxes prices better item by item. Addition shown:

• Sofa + queen mattress and box spring set + dresser: $126 + $143 + $126 = $395
• Dining table (6-8 seat) + four dining chairs: $163 + $45 + $45 + $45 + $45 = $343
• Treadmill + weight bench + weight set: $115 + $69 + $93 = $277
• Upright piano + china hutch: $290 + $160 = $450
• Twenty bags of debris: $259

Compare each against the relevant truck fraction and take the lower. For a packed 10x10, the half load at $431 almost always wins.

Facility access: the part people forget

Storage facilities have rules, and they are the difference between a one-hour job and a three-hour one.

• Gate hours. Not the same as office hours. Confirm both, and confirm your gate code works before the day.
• Loading bay and lift. Multi-story facilities have a limited number of lifts and loading bays, and everyone wants them on a Saturday. Book yours if the facility allows booking.
• Drive-up versus interior. A drive-up unit at a Gresham or Hillsboro facility is the easy version. An interior unit on the third floor with a long corridor walk is not, though it costs the same.
• Trolley availability. Facilities have a handful and they vanish on weekends.
• Authorisation. If you are not going to be there, most facilities need you to authorise the crew in advance. Do that a few days ahead, not on the morning.
• Your lock. Bring bolt cutters or the key. It is remarkable how often the key is the thing nobody can find.

There is no long-carry charge for an interior unit with a corridor walk. It is included.

Sort first, and give it a deadline

Portland will rehome a lot of what is in a storage unit if you let it. Tools, bikes, building materials, solid wood furniture, books and records all have real local demand — the salvage yards, the reuse operations and the Buy Nothing groups will take them.

Two practical points. First, sort in the unit or in the corridor, not by carting everything home to sort there — that is how a storage unit becomes a garage full of the same boxes. Second, set a deadline. One week for the donation and selling round, then the truck comes for the remainder.

Every box diverted is a smaller truck fraction, which is the direct financial argument for doing it.

Timing it

Two things about the Portland calendar.

Do it before the month turns over. The whole point of a cleanout is stopping the next monthly payment, so work backwards from your billing date and leave a few days of slack.

Avoid the last weekend of August if you can. That is peak moving weekend across the metro — leases turn, students arrive, and the storage facilities, the lifts and the loading bays are all contested. There is no seasonal surcharge, but the day is slower for everyone.

Weekday mornings are the easiest slot at almost every facility in the metro, and if you can take one, take it.

What cannot go on the truck

Storage units accumulate the same problem categories as garages. Paint, stain, solvents, motor oil, propane cylinders, car batteries and loose lithium-ion batteries all need household hazardous waste intake rather than a truck. Check the current rules at the Metro facilities.

Most facilities prohibit storing those things in the first place, which does not stop people, and it is worth knowing before you open the door and find a shelf of old deck stain.

Frequently asked questions