Fall Has Finally Arrived

As we near the middle of October here at Storage Station on 25 James Street and 29 Flint Road, Toms River, we are trying to catch up on all of the last minute maintenance that needs to be done before winter sets in. There are so many little things to do that are easier in the warmer weather and need to be addressed now. Some of our doors on James St have to be repaired, and the Manager is busy attending to that task.  Over on Flint Road a crew of painters are busy repainting all of the buildings and hanging new numbers on all of our units. I have to say they are giving the place a real fresh look. They want to finish before it gets too cold and so far it looks terrific. I am looking forward to seeing it completely done.

This is such a busy time of year for us. Most of our seasonal tenants are back. Some tenants that had their boats in the water all summer enjoying Barnegat Bay have now covered and stored them for another winter at our Flint Road location. This also goes for our RV and Landscaping crowd. Most of our landscapers have their trailers with their equipment stored until next April when their new season starts. Right now they’re taking off a little time before plowing season begins. 

Our RV owners are also coming in and parking for the winter now that their summer adventures are behind them.  What great stories I hear about their adventures to all parts of this country. Let’s not forget our wonderful group of tenants that are motorcycle lovers. All summer long I would see this group going in and out of the gate as the wind is blowing their hair, and they have huge smile on their faces as they depart on another adventure. Now one by one I see them covering their bikes as they put them in their storage unit for another winter.

I notice that each group of tenants didn’t know each other when they made the decision to store their vehicles on Flint Road, but all have  become friends that are willing to help one another with advice, opinions, or just friendly kindness. It always amazes me when I see these friendships blooming. Our clients are from all walks of life, but they have a commonality by storing at our James Street or Flint Road locations. These tenants feel like this is their second family. They reward us by sending all of their friends to also store with us.  A good portion of our new clientele has been sent to us by someone who already stores here and recommends it to their family and friends.  This means so much to us knowing that what we provide are appreciated. We strive to help everyone that walks through our door with their self storage needs and although we have come across some very unique storage requests, we have always been able to come up with a solution that works.

So please give us a call with any of your storage questions or needs. We are here at our James Street location here in Toms River, NJ Monday through Friday from 8:30AM to 4:30PM and on Saturday from 9:30AM to 2:30PM. Let us help you find the right solution for you.

The art of landscaping

Most of us take what we see around us on a daily basis for granted. On our drive to work or taking the kids off to school we tend to have tunnel vision. Next time you hop into your car off to run errands or maybe visit friends or relatives take the time to enjoy the view, whether commercial or residential the view often times is what most would call picture perfect, and that my friends takes a lot of hard work by professionals otherwise known as landscapers.

We don’t often take the time to think about them but there’s more to what they do than meets the eye.

They are not just big kids out making a mess playing in the dirt or showing off their latest and greatest big boy toy Landscaping is both a mixture of science, art and design. Let’s start with the art and design portion. In art we think of what a designer might put forth for us with color on our walls or features in our home, a landscaper works much in the same way, they have a vision of what they would like the surroundings to be, they use the elements that are within nature and arrange them accordingly maybe by adding or removing certain elements, much like a painter, they look, have a vision and create. Here is a bit of history on the word landscaper, it goes back a few centuries…..I bet you didn’t know that did you? 

Word History: Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were pioneering the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply "region, tract of land" but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of "a picture depicting scenery on land."

Here is a bit of art featuring design…. The talented painters of centuries past as well as our modern day Picasso’s gave us the vision to take art and create it wherever we can. Both painters and landscapers have the same goal to create a beautiful environment for us to see everyday, where a painter uses brushes a landscaper uses tools, many different types of tools to create their art.
 Landscapers use basic hand tools, including long-handled maintenance implements like rakes, shovels, picks and lawn sweepers to create and maintain lawns and flower gardens. Smaller tools typically include spades and trowels for planting, transplanting and maintaining small plants and flowers and several types of shears to prune and shape bushes, shrubs and small trees...Power tools, using gas or electricity when the jobs are bigger and they have a need for speed, large hedges and tree limbs need the power of power tools. Lawnmowers and leaf blowers are two of a landscaper's most important tools. Let’s not forget that a chain saw often is indispensible. There are gas mowers and push mowers, mowers you can ride on either standing or sitting; there are mowers for every type of lawn out there. Blowers come in super handy, they don’t just blow leaves they blow grass and debris as well, so a super fantastic cleaning tool they are for sure-what did we ever do without them!! Let us not forget the most basic of tools, gloves for hands they have safety purposes al well, goggles for the eyes, those are a must have. The list goes on and on, weed killer, fertilizer…… I’m sure you get the picture…..

Science, oh yes science, you didn’t think I was serious! Ok so we are not finding new forms of life but it plays and important role in landscaping, just as much as art and design play a role. When making changes to an environment especially outdoors you have to be careful as to not change the basic structure of nature. If you do not have basic science skills you can inadvertently destroy ecosystems, alter inhabitants of animals that live in the great outdoors by simply digging too big a hole, a hole in the wrong spot, or by introducing non-native species .  So yes, science is very much a key player in a landscapers job. They are indeed many different aspects of the job, landscape engineer, ecologist, planning architecture, and design. Nature is vast and so is the job of the landscaper.

Now where on earth do they put all this stuff? Storage…… some drive around with pod like mini houses on the back of their trucks or they may have a pod on wheels they attach to the back of a pick up truck, it depends on the business and the size of the business. If you happen to be a larger company you might own a pull along that carry’s all your tools, and if you are that big you may have a place to park your trucks. If you are on the smaller side then you utilize a Storage Facility, We here at Storage Station, depending on the facility, can accommodate pretty much any sort of landscaper-big, small and somewhere in between . Some of our facilities have parking for large vehicles and we all certainly have space to store all of their tools, any where form a small sized storage unit to a double door storage unit the landscapers use them all. Some keep extra equipment they may not need on a daily basis or maybe they put into storage their excess, hey we all love a good sale and sometimes when buying bulk for a business you just need the extra space. The great thing about storage is the ability to upsize or downsize your storage unit. If you are a new business and need something along the size of a 5x10 storage unit then progress into bigger jobs you can easily transition to a larger unit. Some rent the larger ones for easy access and easy accessibility. Whatever the need storage units are always helpful things to have available.

Social Media

As I fumble in my pocketbook for my reading glasses, I say a little curse under my breath. If it wasn’t for text messaging and Facebook I would never know what is going on in my children’s’ lives, but all that typing on a tiny keyboard is exhausting to me. I could find out everything that I need to know if they would just pick up the phone and talk to me for 2 minutes. Instead they choose to take 20 minutes typing back and forth. If that’s not bad enough, then I have to figure out what ttyl, lmao and all of the other acronyms they throw at me really mean.  It’s hard enough when you get to my age to keep up with the normal without throwing all of this technology into the mix. I have to be honest though, if it wasn’t for my kids I would still be in a technology time warp not knowing what was going on. Over the past couple of years I have really noticed a growing gap in the social skills of the young adults compared to the middle age people, myself included. A face to face conversation with the younger group is becoming harder and harder to come by. It’s all done by email, text, instant messenger, Skype and the variety of other methods out there today.

Working in the Self Storage business you would think that I wouldn’t encounter any social media  problems, but you would be surprised. As our clientele becomes younger and younger we’re getting more and more requests for rate information, or reservations for our parking spots, or storage units via the internet. I had one gentleman tell me he found us on Facebook, and decided to stop in and rent a 10 X 10 unit with us because we were nice enough to friend him, and if I had a nickel for every time someone  told me  that they googled us, I would have a lot of nickels. Storage Station has always embraced new technology, and social media outlets making it easier for you the consumer to find us on the web.

Our website, www.storagestations.com  is easy to navigate, and is chock full of information about our company as well as useful storage information. It also lists all of our locations in New Jersey and New York so you can easily find the facility that suits your needs. Not able to find what you are looking for? We are only a mouse click away, ready to answer any of your questions or concerns via email, or phone. Even though we welcome new technology, we still embrace the traditional ways of doing business. Good old fashioned face to face contact, and also personal phone calls. We are never to busy to help any of our tenants with what ever they need to make their stay with us a pleasant experience. Many of our new tenants are friends and family from our past clientele. When you like what you do and treat your customers right, word gets around!

So as I get back to my texting, a part of me longs for the good old days before all of this confusing technology, but a larger part of me tries to embrace it all so that even though we are all from different generations, we can still stay connected, and when you think about it, that’s all that really matters!

P.S. To see our locations - Visit our Youtube Channel for a virtual Tour