San Francisco Mini Storage in San Francisco, California: A Review

San Francisco Mini Storage is located on 7th Street, just across from the CalTrain tracks. The location is a combination of drive-up self storage units of various sizes kept in a gated outside area, and a Budget truck rental center. They also sell moving supplies such as boxes, bubble wrap, furniture covers, rope, packing tape and wrapping paper.

As far as the drive-up storage units go, they offer fourteen different sizes from "locker to mini warehouse" as the website puts it. Personally, I was in the market for something around a 4x4 or 5x5. The front office seemed to be adequately staffed, and they had no problem showing me a 4x4x8 unit on my drop in visit. A hobo dude who was getting out of the sun in front of it had to be shooed away so we could get in to the unit, but once in there the unit looked pretty clean and well kept. Most of the units look like old cargo containers divided up with plywood, but I've found those actually seem to work out better for weather resistance and keeping out various creepy crawlies, so that was all good.

The hobo thing actually turned out to be a recurring issue with the property. Personally, I didn't really care as I had a smaller unit and no one really hangs out around those, but apparently some homeless people rent the larger units as an improvised daytime shelter to sit out of the sun and smoke (usually with no shirt on), and I can only assume the property managers approve of this as they seem to be there all the time, plus there's cameras all over the property so I doubt they don't know these guys are hanging out there.

I eventually moved on from this place after a few months, not because of the hobos, but because after a very decent introductory rate they wanted to raise the price to over eighty dollars per month. While those prices are common for units in the middle of downtown, I felt this place was a little too far out to justify their regular rates. If you're willing to travel away from downtown you might as well pay half of what this place is asking. A week before I moved out, I stopped by to start moving stuff out and some hobo who apparently moved out around that time left a bag full of food sitting near where my unit was. When I came back one week later to do the final move-out the bag was still sitting there rotting away and attracting the attention of flies. I took that as a sign that I made the right decision.

I don't know anything about their Budget truck rental aspect from personal experience, but over at Yelp they've got a few reviews casting the pall of sketchiness over them. Personally I'd look elsewhere for both the truck and storage, unless you're a hobo looking to get out of the sun in the summer.

San Francisco Mini Storage
1000 7th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
# 415-252-0300
http://www.sfministorage.com/