Cashing in on excess space

Aucklanders with too much stuff are now able to rent storage spaces off residents with room to spare.

All Space, To The Loft and Sharelet are online platforms aimed at making storage simpler, more accessible and cheaper than commercial storage.

Like accommodation website Airbnb, hosts set rental prices and interested parties request to use the spaces, except instead of a bed to sleep in, driveways, garages and spare rooms are offered for storage.

All Space was created by Myriam Jenni, Elena Stanovova and Ivan Ignat, and went live last month. By last week it had 12 listings.

The trio, who were from Russia and Switzerland, came up with Allspace after struggling to find flexible and affordable storage solutions in Auckland.

Stanovova said because they didn’t have friends and family in New Zealand to help store their possessions they had to use expensive and inflexible commercial storage facilities.

‘‘We got thinking about how much empty space there was in the houses and properties around us,’’ Stanovova said.

People can now harness all of the space they have, she said.

Auckland residents Cameron Wislang and Louise Hejinen created To The Loft, after Wislang struggled to store his excess possessions in Auckland.

Christchurch resident Leo Adriano launched Sharelet in July, which allowed people to lease spaces ranging from a cupboard to a farm barn.

To build trust users would be able to transfer their profiles from other sites like Airbnb, along with previous reviews, Ignat said.

They were working on a shared economy insurance cover, but until that was sorted the website offered a goods guarantee that would cover up to $5000 worth of losses.

On social media site Neighbourly.co.nz most people were for organising their storage online, but there were a few concerns.

Sandringham resident Jude Derksen said she was concerned about who would cover lost or damaged goods.

Mt Eden resident Della Kidd said she would use it if she could access the storage at any time and didn’t have to give notice.

Mt Eden resident Diana Elliot said she would use it as long as the spaces were secure, clean, and weather proof.