Believe it or not, self storage was speculated to have begun thousands of years ago in Ancient China. It is said a man named Xiang Lau built huge pots to store rocks and bones underground (after his wife complained about the clutter!).

In Ancient Greece, it is said that written files, documents and possessions were stored in Delphi – a sacred location dedicated to Apollo, the Greek God of the Sun and Light.

The Ancient Egyptians also used chests to store treasures and other personal goods, as wells as organs in canopic jars.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it seems like British merchants and voyagers stored their valuables at banks while they were at sea. The banks were soon full of goods, so they then had to be moved to a warehouse.

In Australia, Kennards Hire built the first self storage centre at Moorebank in 1973.

According to the SSAA Industry Snapshot 2021, there are 1570 self storage facilities in Australia and 490 in New Zealand and more than 6 million square metres of net storage area hold the possessions of nearly half a million self storage customers!