Many of us tend to store similar things in storage spaces - furniture, boxes of winter clothes, camping gear, toys or electronic gear that may or may not be needed later.
But some people take the concept of storage to a completely new level with what they’ve got stashed away. While modern day finds of what people store certainly has raised an eyebrow or two, you may be surprised to find what people have stored in the past.
Today let’s go on a journey from the past to the present to take a look at the strange things that people have stored. After reading this, your storage space might seem boring, and you may find yourself inspired to spice it up a bit.
Inside the walls of Greenwich
There was a time in history when witches were a big deal.
People were legitimately terrified of these so-called evil beings, and believed in the curses and spells they could cast.
For every curse these evil witches cast, there needed to be a counter-curse — you know, in case of emergency. You never knew during the 17th century in south London when you’d be walking down the street and a witch would put a hex on you.
So, to prepare for times such as that, people would store “witch bottles” in their walls.
What was in these witch bottles?
Urine, hair, dirty fingernails, and sometimes red thread. Apparently that mixture is the recipe to cure a witch’s curse. And storing them in the walls seemed to be the safest place.
Inside TNT storage igloos
What is now a regional airport and recreational area outside of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was once a military facility that not only made, but stored TNT during World War II in concrete “igloos.”
At one point the facility was producing over 500,000 pounds of TNT a day. That is more TNT than even our favorite cartoon bad guy, Wile E. Coyote, would have known what to do with.
Though the TNT production facility closed back in 1945, its memory still lingers. Today, due to the heavy contamination of the land by TNT, as well as DNT, this area is a Superfund site that ranks at the top of the list.
As if that wasn’t enough, back in 2010 one of the igloos exploded, and blasted 20,000 pounds of “unstable materials” into the area.
Inside an underground Nevada bunker
If you ever watched an episode ofThe X-Files or had a conspiracy theorist for a friend, chances are good that you are somewhat familiar with the Roswell crash of 1947.
And just in case you’re not, here’s a little background:
In 1947, observers claimed they saw an alien spaceship crash near Roswell, New Mexico. The government proceeded to spend days cleaning up what may, or may not, have been what they claimed was a weather balloon crash.
Some of the government officials who worked on the cleanup later came out to say that any debris left from the crash was taken away to Area 51 - a military testing site in the middle of the Nevada desert.
And that’s where things get interesting. Many people think that anything related to aliens — their crafts, their technology, possibly even aliens themselves — are stored at Area 51. While people have theorized for years that Area 51 is a top-secret alien research base, many now thing the base is actually housed in nearby Papoose Mountain’s Area S4.
There’s no way of knowing just exactly what is hiding in the mountains of Area S4, or Area 51 for that matter. These areas are highly protected and you can’t just walk in.
We can only speculate what all of this means, and keep in mind, as Agent Mulder always told us, “trust no one.”
Inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Often called the “Doomsday” vault, this storage unit literally is built into the side of a mountain in freezing cold Norway and houses the seeds of many of Earth’s edible plants.
The Norwegian government funded the $9 million in construction costs back in 1984 when the Cold War had most of the world worried about a nuclear war or disaster wiping out the plants of the world.
Plan for the worst, and hope for the best, right?
In planning for the worst, a lot of thought was put into the correct way to store these seeds.
The vault itself is covered in a layer of permafrost, and the seeds inside are stored at a temperature of -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
In case power at the facility fails, the built-in “refrigerator” mountain, should keep the seeds frozen.
In addition to the careful attention paid to the optimal temperature and emergency back-up plans for the seeds, the vault is also incredibly well secured. Ifour sets of locked doors wasn’t enough to keep the seeds safe, there are also Svalbard’s trained security guards keeping watch at all times.
Oh yeah, and the vault is about 800 miles from the North Pole. In other words, no one is going to “happen” upon this place.
Inside A British Storage Unit
You can usually accurately guess what you’ll find if you open up someone’s storage unit. Furniture, clothes, family valuables, seasonal items, etc.
However, if you opened up the door to unit S002 in Reading, U.K., you would be very surprised to find a martial arts gym.
Philip Else, owner of the storage unit, turned his 800 square-foot, windowless storage unit into the perfect place for people to punch each other’s lights out.
It’s certainly more organized than that — he’s not running some British Fight Club in there.
Else has incredibly transformed an unexpected space into something that is booming with life from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every single day.
What will you store?
Whether you’re into storing alien technology, seeds, witch counter curses, or just some extra furniture, if you would rather not haul it yourself use a full-service storage company like Closetbox. Closetbox will come to you, pick up your belongings, then bring your items back when you’re ready. It’s just that easy.
