Jack Guttman, president of National Storage Partners, shows off his product.

"I was carrying this guy’s old couch and once we got out in the yard we saw maggots falling off," recalled Dennis Rosario, assistant manager of Access Self Storage in Long Island City.

Baisden says that a couple of years ago a man walked into her office and asked if he could put a moose in his storage space.

"He said that he would come in three times a day to feed the thing and change the hay. I mean he was talking about hay!" says Baisden.

It is standard for storage companies to have a list of items such as flammable materials and live animals that are prohibited from being stored in their rented space.

Rivera acknowledges that it is hard to regulate such rules, though, because the mode of operation is that "you store, you lock, and you keep the key."

However, many storage facilities now offer delivery for large items to the facility. Dennis Rosario, assistant manager of Access, says that when they go to customers’ homes they are more able to find prohibited items.

"I was carrying this guy’s old couch and once we got out in the yard we saw maggots falling off," recalls Rosario. "The couch stayed at the gentlemen’s place. We sure didn’t want to bring it here."

Sometimes it’s not the items that people bring in that add color to an otherwise quiet job, it’s the people themselves.

"We get all types, a cornucopia," says Rivera.

Baisden recollects a customer who dressed in Army fatigues every time he came in. "He was very intimidating and huge, but I didn’t care. He always paid on time."

But then one of her assistants came to the office area and said that she thought the man had set off a stink bomb. She called 911 for a police car to come and help her remove him from the property.