Most people shop for storage the same way. They find the cheapest number on the screen, call it a day, and find out three months later that the price went up.

We’d rather you do the math first. It takes about two minutes, and it can save you a few hundred dollars over a year. Here’s how we’d run the numbers.

Start with price per square foot, because that’s the only fair way to compare sizes. Our 5×10 is $50 a month for 50 square feet, so it works out to a dollar a square foot. The 10×10 is $95 for 100 square feet, which is 95 cents. The 10×20 is $136 for 200 square feet, about 68 cents. That’s the sweet spot. You get twice the room of a 10×10 for $41 more a month.

Now the part that surprises people. The 10×30 is $276, or about 92 cents a foot. That’s a fair price for a big space, but it’s more per square foot than the 10×20. If you need 300 square feet, two smaller units can come out cheaper. A 10×20 and a 10×10 together run $231 a month. That’s $45 less than the 10×30, or $540 over a year, for the same total space.

The trade-off is that your stuff sits in two places instead of one. For some people that’s a deal breaker. For a lot of others it’s not, so it’s worth asking about when you call.

Next, look at what happens after the first month. A lot of facilities lure you in with a low intro rate and then raise it once you’re settled. We lock your rate for 12 months, so the number you sign up at is the number you pay for a full year. No mid-year bump, no surprise letter. Leases are month-to-month, so you’re never locked in and can leave whenever you need to.

Then there’s the first month, which is $1. On a 10×20, that’s $135 you didn’t spend on day one. Over a year, you pay for eleven months at $136 plus a dollar. That’s $1,497 for 200 square feet of drive-up space, or roughly $125 a month once you spread it out.

Discounts help too. Seniors get 5% off, and military, first responders, and government employees get 10% off. On a 10×20, that 10% is about $13.60 a month, a little over $160 a year. Just ask when you sign up, since it’s easy to forget.

Location matters as well. We’re in Indio, but plenty of our customers live in Palm Desert and La Quinta, and a good number come from Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells too. It’s a short drive from any of them, so a cheaper unit doesn’t cost you more in gas and time.

We’ve been family-owned in Indio for over 30 years. No corporate parent, no call center. When you phone, you get someone who actually works here, and our prices are the lowest in the Coachella Valley. Every size is listed on our rates page.

Call us at (760) 342-5911, or check current rates at aaastorageofindio.com/rates. Have a question first? Reach out through our contact page, or browse more local tips on our blog.

AAA Storage of Indio, 82521 Market Street, Indio, CA 92201. Office open Monday through Saturday, 8:30AM to 5:30PM.