Buena Vista Self Storage Blog

Moving to Buena Vista? A Storage Checklist for Chaffee County

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:26:24 GMT

Moves into Buena Vista rarely line up neatly. The lease ends in one town before the closing happens in this one, the rental is furnished, or the house you bought needs a month of work before the furniture goes in. A storage unit is the buffer that makes the timing stop mattering. Here is how people use Buena Vista Self Storage during a move, and a checklist to make it painless.

1. Rent the unit before the truck is loaded

You can rent online in a few minutes from anywhere, and your gate code and move-in details come by text and email once the rental is confirmed. That means you can book from your old kitchen the night before you drive over Trout Creek Pass, and unload straight into the unit when you arrive instead of into a friend's garage. The gate is open 24 hours a day with your personal keypad code, so a late arrival is not a problem.

2. Pick the size for the whole house, then plan the layout

For a full move, most households use a 10x20 or a 10x30 drive-up unit. Our size guide explains what fits in each, and the short version is: a 10x20 holds a three-bedroom house, a 10x30 holds four or five bedrooms or a vehicle plus a household. Load the things you will not touch for months at the back (winter clothes in July, the guest bed, the garage shelving) and keep the kitchen boxes and the tools you will need for the new place at the front.

3. Every unit is drive-up, so use it

There are no hallways, elevators or carts here. Every unit has a roll-up door you can back the truck or trailer right up to, and gravel aisles run along every row. A two-person crew can empty a 26-foot moving truck into a 10x30 in about an hour if the heavy pieces go in first and the boxes stack behind them.

4. The mountain-town extras

Newcomers are always surprised by how much gear this valley collects. Within a year you will own a raft or a kayak, a second set of skis, a bike for every family member and a bin of camping equipment. None of it needs to live in the house. A 5x10 unit holds the whole seasonal pile, and our open-air parking spaces take the camper, the boat on its trailer or a utility trailer for a fraction of what an enclosed unit costs.

5. The checklist

Measure the big furniture and count the boxes, then pick a size from the size guide .
Rent online the day before you move, so the gate code is on your phone when you arrive.
Bring a disc lock for the roll-up door and a marker for labeling the sides of boxes.
Load heavy and rarely used items first, keep a walkway, put daily-life boxes at the front.
Photograph the packed unit at move-in. It makes the tenant protection plan and your own insurance simpler if anything happens.
When the house is ready, give notice from your phone. Rentals are month to month, with no long-term contract.

Where we are

Buena Vista Self Storage is at 27040 County Road 310 in Johnson Village, right where US-24 meets US-285, about five minutes south of downtown Buena Vista and eight minutes from Nathrop. Live availability and pricing are in the rental list on our home page , and you can call or text us at (719) 435-5644 any day. Welcome to the valley.

RV, Boat and Trailer Parking in Buena Vista: What to Know Before Winter

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:26:22 GMT

Buena Vista runs on things with wheels and hulls. Rafts come off the Arkansas in September, the boat comes home from Twin Lakes, and the camper that spent the summer at Chalk Creek needs a place to sit until spring. Most driveways in town were not built for that, and many HOAs will not allow it. Here is how the parking spaces at Buena Vista Self Storage work, what fits, and how to put a rig away for a Chaffee County winter so it starts in May.

1. What the spaces are, honestly

Our parking is open-air, on an unpaved lot, inside the same gated and camera-monitored yard as the storage units. There is no roof over the spaces and no electrical hookup at the space. What you get is a spot that is behind a keypad gate 24 hours a day, five minutes from downtown at the US-24 and US-285 junction in Johnson Village, on a month-to-month rental with no long-term contract.

Spaces come in three sizes: 10x20, 12x20 and 12x22. The number that matters is length including the tongue or the trailer hitch. A 22-foot space fits most campers, boats on trailers, utility and work trailers, and smaller travel trailers. If your rig is longer than about 22 feet, text us the length before you book and we will tell you straight whether it fits. Anything you want behind a locked door instead of outside can go in a 10x20 or 10x30 drive-up unit, or our one 15x25 drive-in garage.

2. Winterizing for the Upper Arkansas Valley

Johnson Village sits at about 7,900 feet. Nights drop well below zero in January and the sun is strong enough at midday to cook rubber and vinyl. A rig that is simply parked in October and forgotten will greet you in May with a dead battery, cracked seals and a mouse family. A couple of hours of prep prevents all of it.

Drain the water system and add RV antifreeze to the traps. Water left in a line here will split it.
Pull the battery and keep it on a tender at home. There is no power at the space, and a battery that sits discharged through a cold winter rarely comes back.
Cover it. A breathable cover keeps the UV off the roof and the snow off the seals. Tarps trap moisture, so use a real cover if you can.
Seal it against mice. Steel wool in the openings, no food left inside, and a few dryer sheets do more than any trap.
Top off the fuel and add stabilizer, then run the engine long enough to pull treated fuel through the system.
Note your gate code somewhere you will find it in spring, and check on the rig after the first big storm.

3. Boats and rafts

A boat on a trailer takes the same space as a camper of the same length, so measure from the trailer tongue to the end of the outdrive. Pull the drain plug, tilt the motor down so water runs out, and store the plug in the glove box where you will find it before the first launch. Raft trailers are the easiest thing on the lot: strap the boat, cover it, and it is ready for the next float.

4. Getting in and out

The gate is keypad controlled and open to tenants 24 hours a day. That matters for a 6 a.m. launch or a Sunday night return from the desert. Aisles are gravel and run along every row, and the parking spaces sit inside the same fenced lot as the units, covered by security cameras.

Ready to park it?

Live availability for parking spaces is in the rental list on our home page . Rent online in a few minutes, or text us your rig length at (719) 435-5644 and we will confirm the fit before you book. Full details are on our RV, boat and trailer parking page .

How to Pick the Right Storage Unit Size in Buena Vista, CO

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:26:21 GMT

Most people rent a storage unit the same week they need it, standing in a driveway full of boxes with a truck idling. The question is always the same: how big does the unit need to be? Pick too small and you are back the next day renting a second one. Pick too big and you pay every month for air. This guide walks through the five drive-up sizes we rent at Buena Vista Self Storage in Johnson Village and what actually fits in each, so you can book the right one online in a few minutes and move in the same day.

1. Start with what you are storing, not with square feet

Unit sizes are quoted in feet, which is hard to picture. It helps to think in real objects instead. A queen mattress set standing on edge takes about 5 feet of wall. A full-size fridge is roughly 3 feet by 3 feet. A raft on a trailer runs 12 to 15 feet long. A standard moving box is about 18 inches on a side, so twelve boxes stack into a 3-foot cube. Walk through your house with a notepad and list the big things first: furniture, appliances, bikes, skis, coolers, the camping bin. The boxes fill in around them.

Then decide how often you will visit. If you plan to pull the skis out every weekend from November to April, you want a unit with an aisle left open and the winter gear near the door. If it is a full house going in for a year while you build or renovate, you can pack tight to the ceiling. The same pile of stuff can fit a 10x10 packed tight or need a 10x15 packed for access.

2. 5x10: the walk-in closet

A 5x10 is 50 square feet, about the size of a large shed. It holds the contents of a studio or a dorm room: a mattress set, a dresser, a couple of chairs and 15 to 20 boxes. In Buena Vista it is the classic seasonal-gear unit. Two or three bikes, a set of skis and boots, a paddleboard, the camping kit and the holiday decorations all fit with room to walk in. Every unit we rent is drive-up, so you back the truck to the roll-up door and unload straight in.

3. 10x10: a one-bedroom home

At 100 square feet, a 10x10 is half of a standard garage. It takes the furniture from a one-bedroom apartment: sofa, mattress set, dresser, a small dining table and 30 to 40 boxes. It is also the size most people choose when they are between houses in Chaffee County for a few months and want everything in one place. Leave a walkway down the middle and put the things you might need at the front.

4. 10x15: two bedrooms, or a small business

A 10x15 gives you 150 square feet, close to a large bedroom. It fits a two-bedroom home including appliances, or it works as overflow for a business: shelving, inventory, tools and the seasonal signage that only comes out in summer. Contractors in the valley use this size for equipment they do not want in the truck overnight.

5. 10x20 and 10x30: the whole house, or a vehicle

A 10x20 is 200 square feet, the size of a one-car garage. It holds a three-bedroom house, or a car, a side-by-side or a small trailer with room around it. Our 10x20 and 10x30 drive-up units are set up for vehicle storage, and we also have one 15x25 drive-in garage with a tall overhead door. The 10x30 is 300 square feet, a full house of four or five bedrooms, or a vehicle plus a household. If you are storing a boat or camper that can stay outdoors, our open-air parking spaces run 10x20 to 12x22 and cost less than an enclosed unit.

6. A few tricks that save money

Stand mattresses, sofas and tables on end against the walls. Height is free, floor space is what you pay for.
Use uniform boxes so they stack straight to the ceiling. Odd-shaped bins waste the top third of the unit.
Put the things you will need again at the front and label the sides of boxes, not the tops.
Rentals are month to month, so if you clear things out over the winter, move down a size instead of paying for the empty half.

Still not sure?

Our size guide has the full breakdown for every unit we have on the lot, and live availability and pricing are in the rental list on our home page . If you would rather ask a person, text us what you are storing at (719) 435-5644 and we will tell you which size fits. The gate is open 24/7 with your personal keypad code, so once you rent you can move in on your own schedule.