Cloud Storage for Your Stuff
If you use cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive, you know how convenient it is to access your files from any computer or device. But what about non-data stuff? What if there was a way we could magically store our stuff offsite, accessing it whenever we needed it via pressing a button or two on our computers? That’s exactly the idea behind MakeSpace.
MakeSpace provides its users with standard-sized storage boxes, which you can either fill up while drivers wait, or they can pre-deliver them and you fill up at your leisure. The boxes are taken away to a secure storage unit. When you want them, go online to schedule a delivery, and your stuff will arrive within a day.
The service allows you to inventory your items and access that inventory online. They will also take items that don’t fit in their boxes; they say those items must be ones “that a single person can carry” (we’re not sure if that’s a large or small person).
We know what you’re thinking: “Great, a place to put all the stuff I don’t use and pay a monthly fee to keep it there.” To some extent, that is true, but there are a number of very practical applications for MakeSpace, such as storing winter clothes, storing while traveling or in-between homes, etc. But by far the most exciting application is if we could give access to our friends, or possibly rent out our stuff, and have MakeSpace deliver and pick it up when they’re done. This feature is not available yet, but it seems like a natural evolution of the idea.
MakeSpace charges $25 to store four of their boxes for a month (additional boxes are $6.25). First pickups are free, but subsequent pickups and deliveries are $30/each. They take pains to compare themselves to traditional storage facilities, which often include renting a truck, lengthy excursions to the middle of nowhere and other hidden costs. MakeSpace is currently only in New York City, but it seems like a sufficiently smart idea that it will catch on elsewhere in the near future.
via TechCrunch