Monthly Archives: April 2017

Spring Cleaning!

Spring Cleaning Tips For Your Storage Spaces!

Storage Sheds and a Good Spring Cleaning

Spring has sprung and the grass is growin’. Time for spring cleanin’ and a little yard mowin’!

That’s right folks, the spring weather has certainly arrived and everyone and everything is gettin’ busy doin’ it’s thing, including the grass! Yep, it’s time to pull out the mower and get’er going. But, when many of us open the door to the storage garage sometimes it’s not quite so easy to do. The mower is in there somewhere, but it’s gonna take some time to find it! Instead of pushing this and that out of the way. Get organized. Take a little time to give the shed a good spring cleaning. Let’s face it, you have a lot of weeks ahead that you’ll be needing easy access to this storage space. So put some of that spring zing and pep in your step to good use; let’s give the storage shed a good spring cleaning.

Everything out!
If you’ve got a mess, pull it all out. Sort your items into piles of like items. Set aside any items that you no longer need and decide if they are trash or yard sale merchandise! Now if an item doesn’t belong in the storage shed, simply decide where it needs to be and put it back in it’s rightful home.

Self Storage Solutions

Clean Up Time
Time to sweep the floor and wipe down the shelves and work bench areas. You may also want to inspect the items that you’re storing to see if they need to be wiped off or hosed down before returning them to the shed. A clean and neat storage space will make your gardening and yard work life so much more enjoyable and easy to do!

Re-group and Replace
Now that everything’s out, and your space is clean, it’s time to reorganize and place your items back into the shed. Store the items that will be used most often toward the front of the storage space. Items that get used less frequently can be stored further back. Leave yourself a path to reach all of your warm weather items when needed. Hanging tools on walls or pegboard, as well as keeping smaller items in cans or plastic containers can also free up additional storage space. If you find yourself still in need of more storage space for items, such as your autumn fire pit or those Christmas decorations that you finally found, you may want to consider a small self-storage space. Your local self-storage facility will be happy to assist!

Now that you’ve put everything back into your clean storage space, you can stand back and admire your great work. Organized and ready, it’s time to enjoy all that fun lawn mowing, weed whacking, weed pulling, painting, gutter cleaning, hedge trimming, and the list goes on and on and on…. and oh well, hopefully you’ll get to use those sparkling bicycles and tidy beach chairs once or twice before winter returns!

LIttle League Baseball History

The Storage Inn talks with a youth sports storage rental customer about the origins of Little League Baseball.

Little League Baseball Storage and The Story of Carl Stotz

So winter is over, and nothing says Spring quite like the crack of a baseball bat, or the sound of a ball hitting a glove! Here at The Storage Inn self storage in Egg Harbor Township New Jersey, we get a visit every spring by our local Little League team to retrieve their baseball gear from the two storage units they rent. Coach Friedman stopped into the storage rental office to say hello, and we got to talking about the origin of little league baseball.

”I know the story of Abner Doubleday, and his inventing the game of baseball, but do know how little league baseball came about?” I asked coach Friedman. “Just so happens that I have a pamphlet in my truck that we hand out to the parents of our kids when they sign up for Little League – I’ll grab you one” said the coach.  I read up on the subject between storage rentals and here is what I learned about the history of little league baseball.

Carl E. Stotz, was a Williamsport Pennsylvania lumberyard clerk who came up with the idea for Little League baseball when he stumbled over a lilac bush during a backyard game of catch with his two young nephews in 1938.
Mr. Stotz, a lifelong Williamsport resident who later served as tax collector there, never tired of describing the summertime mishap that launched the vast Little League game now played by more than 2.5 million youngsters in more than 30 countries. As he frequently recalled, “I banged my leg against a bush, and while I sat on the back steps letting the pain subside, I asked my nephews… How would you like to play on a regular team with uniforms, your own cap, a new ball for every game and bats your size?!”

A few weeks later he crammed most of the neighborhood into his 1934 Plymouth and set out in search of the perfect field. By the end of the summer he had devised the stripped-down, boys’-sized dimensions at the core of Little League’s eventual spectacular success: 60 feet between the bases (two-thirds of the major league distance) and 46 feet from the pitcher’s mound to home plate (instead of 60 feet 6 inches).

By the next summer, Mr. Stotz had recruited sponsors for three teams, and on June 6, 1939, on a field he laid out himself, Lundy Lumber beat Lycoming Dairy, 23-8, and Little League baseball was born.

The league expanded and quickly spread across the country. There was a Pennsylvania state tournament in 1947, and two years later a national championship when the first Little League World Series was held.

Carl Stotz even established his own museum in a converted toolshed behind his house. In a place of honor among the other original Little League memorabilia he installed a glass case containing the very lilac bush that gave the game its start.

To this day, The Little League World Series is played in Williamsport Pennsylvania, drawing thousands of visitors to the tiny Mountain town.

So dust off your gloves, grab your bat and ball, and let’s head out to the field for some baseball. I’ll have to be very careful as I prepare to leave The Storage Inn rental office for the baseball field. We have quite a few lilac bushes around here – Play Ball!