When I worked in NYC (post 9/11), I was always won­der­ing how I was going to store any type of gear to get me across two rivers into NJ to my apart­ment, so I could bug in or bug out if the SHTF and the bridges and tun­nels were shut down.  I decid­ed on, but nev­er took action on an inflat­able boat with wheels on the rear to drag it across land and a motor to get me across the rivers in a decent time frame.  It was an imper­fect plan, for sure.  But it was a plan.  The next ques­tion, had a acquired said gear, it is a lit­tle bulky, and I am sure my com­pa­ny was­n’t going to let me keep a self inflat­able com­pressed boat and gear in my cubi­cle.  Can you imag­ine the con­ver­sa­tions with your col­leagues and peers?  Ha!  

So, pri­or to my boat pur­chase that nev­er hap­pened, I start­ed inves­ti­gat­ing where I would keep it, as well as some addi­tion­al gear, such as a more com­plete Bug Out Bag than just my sim­ple Get Home Bag, in the event I was stuck in NYC for an extend­ed peri­od of time.  These addi­tion­al items would have includ­ed, addi­tion­al win­ter clothes, addi­tion­al sum­mer clothes, addi­tion­al rations, water, and yes, while ille­gal, a hand­gun and ammu­ni­tion. Which, I might add is a HUGE felony in NYC.  I do not rec­om­mend you do this unless you are caching and it is only ever going to be used in an emer­gency.  So, that said… Where can one store all this gear?  Hmmm…

In many cities, clos­et size self stor­age units are all the rage.  For rough­ly $60.00 — $75.00 (which is a lit­tle expen­sive, but it is NYC) a month, you can get a 4′ x 4′ x 4′ Self stor­age unit.  Man­hat­tan Mini Stor­age, for instance has 14 loca­tions through­out NYC.  The loca­tion I was going to chose was on the west side on 44th Street and 11th Ave, near the Hud­son Riv­er.

To reit­er­ate a bit, the point of hav­ing the loca­tion was to cache gear while in the city, and to only ever access it in anoth­er real SHTF event in NYC.  11th Avenue and 44th Street is also a res­i­den­tial area, west of Mid-Town prop­er, and away from any finan­cial area, etc.  So I was fair­ly cer­tain that if there was a SHTF, less a major nuclear event in Mid-Town, that I could make my way west to the riv­er and get the hell out of Dodge.  I thought that I hit pay-dirt when I found the mini self stor­age units.  They are real­ly an excel­lent size for caching gear in the city.  So if you have a small apart­ment, and want to store more gear, such as your tent/shelter, Bug Out Bag, and oth­er gear, these units may be a real con­sid­er­a­tion for you.

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