The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities
My routes in both directions were lazy and circuitous, and they included not even one mile of interstate highway. Mainly, though, I spent long hours alone in my car thinking about our remarkable country. “Later, it became an accepted institutional-quality asset class.”The United States is the world leader, with roughly ninety per cent of global capacity.
- ▪My routes in both directions were lazy and circuitous, and they included not even one mile of interstate highway.
- ▪Mainly, though, I spent long hours alone in my car thinking about our remarkable country.
- ▪“Later, it became an accepted institutional-quality asset class.”The United States is the world leader, with roughly ninety per cent of global capacity.
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| Original publisher | The New Yorker |
| Canonical URL | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/the-american-religion-of-self-storage-facilities |
| Publication time | Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:12:28 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-17T14:03:44.992Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-17T14:03:44.992Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | wgDY1humY0bF · 1 stories |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Popular ChroniclesThe American Religion of Self-Storage FacilitiesWhy are we so obsessed with putting our belongings in metal boxes and then never looking at them again?By David OwenSeptember 14, 2026Play/Pause ButtonPauseNinety per cent of the world’s self-storage capacity is in the United States.Illustration by Lewis OsborneSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyDuring the summer of 2019, not long before COVID shut the country down, I spent three and a half days driving from Connecticut, where I live, to Kansas City, where I grew up, and three and a half days driving back. My routes in both directions were lazy and circuitous, and they included not even one mile of interstate highway.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The New Yorker.
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