Schlitterbahn opens May 2 this year, and the Comal has been running tubes since early March. If you've lived here a while, you know what that means at home. The patio heater that ran all of January is in the way of the kayak. The fire pit is sitting where the cooler needs to go. Every spring the same swap happens in garages all over town, and nobody really talks about it until they're standing in their driveway at 7pm trying to figure out where the float pump went.
This is the part of self storage in New Braunfels that's just practical. Not glamorous. Not an emergency. Just the seasonal shuffle.
What actually needs to move
Most folks I see this time of year aren't renting a big unit. They're renting a 5x10 or a 5x15 to park the cold-weather stuff for six months. Patio heaters. The smoker cover. Heavy quilts and the flannel sheets. Christmas tubs if they didn't deal with them in January (and a lot of people didn't).
Then the garage opens up for what you actually use between May and October — tubes, the cooler rotation, paddleboards, the canopy you drag to Landa Park, life jackets, the kayak that's been leaning against the fence all winter looking sad.
If you've got a boat or a camper, that's a different conversation and you already know it. Boat storage and RV storage book up before Memorial Day weekend every single year. I'm not exaggerating. If you're thinking about it, call this week, not next month.
The heat problem people forget about
April highs are already running around 86°F per AccuWeather, and May gets hotter and stickier from there. Here's the thing customers don't always know: the inside of a standard metal storage unit in a Texas summer can hit over 120°F. That's not a scare number, that's just what happens when the sun beats on a metal roof for ten hours.
For tubes, coolers, life jackets, camping gear — fine. That stuff is built to take it. For anything with adhesive, leather, wood, electronics, or vinyl records your uncle gave you — not fine. That's when people ask about climate-controlled storage, and honestly, if you're storing the wrong thing in the wrong unit you'll know by August. The wood warps, the leather molds, the glue lets go on speaker cabinets. Texas humidity can grow mildew on fabric in a day or two if conditions are right.
So the rule of thumb I give people: river gear and yard tools, drive-up is fine. Furniture, photos, anything you actually care about long-term, climate-controlled. Don't overthink it.
Timing matters more than size
Every year I get the same call the last week of April. Someone's hosting family for the weekend, the kids are coming in for tubing, and they need somewhere to stash the dining room furniture or the home office stuff so the guest room works. By that point, the small units are tight.
I'm not trying to push anyone. I'm telling you what I see. The shuffle starts now. The people who handled it in early April are sitting comfortable. The people who wait until the week before Schlitterbahn's opening day are calling around at 4:30 on a Friday.
If you only need it for the season, month-to-month is the way. Pay May through September, clear it out before Wurstfest in November, done. We don't make people sign long contracts for short jobs.
One thing about what you can't store
Since people ask: no gasoline, no propane tanks, no fireworks. That includes the little green camp propane bottles and the full tank off your grill. Drain the gas out of the weed eater before it goes in. This isn't a StoreMore rule, it's how storage works everywhere in Texas, and it's there because one leaky tank ruins everyone's stuff in the row.
Also — and I shouldn't have to say this but I do — you can't live in a unit. Texas storage law and our lease both prohibit it. Every couple of years someone asks. The answer is no.
The community side of it
What I like about this time of year is you can feel the town wake up. Gruene Hall starts pulling bigger crowds on weekends. Naegelin's has a line out the door on Saturday morning. The Main Plaza bandstand has something going on most weeks. People are outside again.
The storage shuffle is just part of that rhythm. New Braunfels is a town that lives outdoors from May to October and indoors from November to February, and most of us own gear for both versions of life. There's only so much garage. Something has to give.
If you're doing the swap this week or next, plan the trip once. Load the truck with everything that needs to come out, drop it, and don't make four runs. The Schumanns Beach Road area has the storage, the U-Haul rentals, and easy access off the highway, so you can knock it all out in a morning.
And if you're new here and this is your first summer — welcome. The Comal is only 2.5 miles long. You'll see most of it by July.