Summer doesn't end on a date in the foothills — it ends when the gear stops getting used and starts getting in the way. Right about now, the garage and the spare room fill with things that had their season and don't need to be underfoot until next year. Here's what tends to come off the active pile in Caldwell County.

• Pool and water gear — the floats, the pump, the bags of stuff that lived by the door all summer.
• Camping and hiking equipment — the tents and coolers that get one more fall trip and then a long rest.
• Patio cushions and outdoor extras — the cushions especially fade and mildew if they winter outside; box them and store them flat.
• Fans and window units — bulky, seasonal, and much happier stored than crammed in a closet.
• Kids' outdoor toys and off-season bikes — the things that rotate out as the daylight shrinks.
• The lake stuff — tubes, jackets, the gear that's easier to store together than to scatter.

None of it is junk. It's just out of season, and out-of-season things do best somewhere other than the middle of your garage.

A small drive-up unit on the Wilkesboro Boulevard side of Lenoir is the natural home for the seasonal half. Every unit is drive-up, so you load straight from the car; the gate's open well past office hours for an after-work run; and we're minutes from downtown Lenoir and Whitnel. Everything's month-to-month, so you store the summer half now and pull it back out when the weather turns warm.

If it's time to clear the seasonal pile, you can reserve self storage in Lenoir online in a few minutes, or call and we'll size it to what you've got. Family-owned, and we treat customers like neighbors.