How to Live in a Storage Unit and Get Away With It

Are high rents eating up your paycheck? Would you prefer a more minimalistic lifestyle? Or do you just like your solitude? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, look no further than redditor 007craft’s storage unit apartment for inspiration. He’s equipped a storage unit with a bed, an entertainment center, a cellular antenna, a bar, and even running water. And while this DIY pad is not exactly up to building code, he’s never had any safety issues.

007craft modified his home with an eye toward safety and simplicity but not so much toward following the rules. In a video tour of the storage unit he gave on YouTube, the crafty hermit emphasized that secrecy is first and foremost: “If you’re gonna live in a storage unit, you’re gonna need to be as invisible as you possibly can be,” he says while walking down a fluorescent-lit hallway lined with identical red doors. “You basically need to be a ghost.”

And a ghost he became, living there for two months. But he didn’t become so much of a ghost that he didn’t have time to turn his Reddit thread into something of an AMA, compiling an FAQ section for curious readers.

So what do you need to make your own storage unit apartment? Pretty much the same stuff you need when you’re camping. Except you’re indoors. And it’s a secret.

Water

The reservoir for 007craft’s sink feeds a tube that runs down into a tub, which drains into another container. He says he refills the top tank and empties the bottom tank about once a week.

Food

Making careful use of space, 007craft set up a kitchenette next to his sink. With a cutting board for food prep and a hot plate for boiling water, this tidy corner covers the basic necessities. Whatever cereal he has in that container and those two sad bananas round out this still-life nicely.

Electricity

If you want a hot plate, you need electricity. To do that, 007craft ran an extension cord from an outlet in the hallway, carefully zip tying it along the existing electrical routing to hide his handiwork. In his Reddit post, he says the staff knew about the power, and charged him $5 a month for it, which is pretty cheap compared to what a lot of people pay. “The keeping it hidden part was from the customers,” he says, “to keep a low profile and so I didn’t need to keep unplugging the power.”

Booze

And of course, what good would a storage unit apartment be without a bar? 007craft put the bar above his bed to store liquor and other liquid essentials, but he also built in a swivel so he could move it out of the way to access storage space behind it.

Dummy Lock

Since a storage unit isn’t meant to be lived in, it doesn’t come standard with a door that locks from the inside. To solve that problem, and to elude curious passersby, 007craft put a decoy magnetized lock on the outside of the door and a functional latch on the inside. That way the door looked like it had been locked from the outside, keeping his secret safe.

In his Reddit post, 007craft says he lived in the storage unit apartment for two months, paying $200 a month in rent. Now that’s a steal no matter what housing market you live in.