So last spring I walk outside. First warm day. Sun is out. I’m ready.

I pull the cover off the pool. Water looks decent. Alright. Time to get the pump going.

I walk over to where I left it in October. Right there by the fence. Under that little overhang. Thought it would be fine.

It was not fine.

The pump housing had a crack. A nice one. Right along the bottom. I must have left water in it. It froze. It expanded. It cracked. Eight hundred dollar paperweight now.

The hose was all twisted up and stiff. Wouldn’t bend right. Kinked in three places. Trash.

The skimmer pole? Bent. No idea how. Maybe fell over. Maybe I leaned on it wrong at some point. Who knows.

I spent that whole beautiful Saturday driving to the pool store. Waiting in line with twenty other guys who did the same thing I did. Dropping more money than I wanted to. Got home at 4 pm, tired and annoyed.

My wife says how’s the pool coming?

I said don’t ask.

Here’s The Thing Nobody Tells You

When you close the pool for winter, you’re tired. It’s been a long summer. You just want to be done with it. So you drag everything over to the side of the house or behind the shed and you tell yourself you’ll deal with it later.

Then later never comes.

Then it’s February and everything is buried in snow and you forget about it completely.

Then it’s April and you remember and oh crap.

I’ve done this dance for years. I’m not proud of it. But I finally figured out a system that works. Maybe it’ll help you.

What Actually Needs To Happen

First thing. And I cannot stress this enough. Drain everything.

Not just kinda dump it out. Really drain it. Tip the pump upside down. Take the drain plug out. Leave it out. Put the plug in the pump basket so you don’t lose it. I lose mine every single year. Every year. You’d think I’d learn.

Hoses need to be drained too. Hang them over something. Let the water run out. Then coil them loose. Not tight. Loose. If you wrap them tight they get kinks and then they’re ruined.

Filters. Clean them. I know it’s gross. I know you don’t want to. But if you leave algae on them all winter it dries like cement and you’ll be scrubbing for hours in the spring. Just hose them off now. Takes ten minutes.

Chemicals. This one bit me too. I left a bucket of chlorine tabs in the shed. Shed got cold. Real cold. Tabs turned into mush. Useless. Trash. More money down the drain.

Most chemicals don’t like freezing. Bring them inside if you can. Basement. Garage if it doesn’t freeze. Somewhere not frigid.

The Space Problem

Alright so now you’ve got all this stuff. It’s clean. It’s dry. It’s ready.

Where does it go?

Your garage is already full. I know it is. Everybody’s garage is full. Bikes. Christmas decorations. Tools. The thing you bought at Home Depot three years ago that you swear you’ll use someday.

Shed is full too. Lawn mower. Weed whacker. Fertilizer. Pots. More pots than you will ever need.

Patio? You want to use your patio in the winter? For what? Sitting out there looking at the snow? Maybe. But not with a pile of pool junk taking up half of it.

Under the deck works okay if you have one. But stuff gets wet. Dirty. Mice get in it. I pulled a filter out from under my deck one year and something had nested in it. Little bits of grass and fuzz everywhere. Had to throw it out.

So what do you do?

What I Finally Started Doing

Couple years ago a buddy of mine told me he rents a storage unit for his pool stuff. Just a small one. Like 5×5. Dirt cheap.

I thought that was dumb at first. Why pay for storage when you have a house?

Then I thought about it more.

His garage is clean. Like actually clean. His car fits. His wife can park in there too. No tripping over hoses. No moving the pump to get to the recycling bin.

His patio looks nice. Just furniture. Grill. That’s it.

And his equipment? Perfect shape every spring. No cracks. No mouse nests. No sun damage. No guessing.

I started doing it too. Rented a little unit at 3D Self Storage. Drove everything over one afternoon. Stacked it neat. Shut the door. Didn’t think about it again for five months.

Come spring I went and got it. Everything right where I left it. Dry. Clean. No surprises.

Cost me like forty bucks for the whole winter. Cheaper than one new pump.

The Other Thing Nobody Talks About

Pool stuff smells. You know it does. That chemical smell. Wet hose smell. Algae smell.

When you store it in your garage, that smell seeps into everything. Your car smells like pool. Your jackets smell like pool. Your kids’ soccer stuff smells like pool.

My wife pointed this out one year. Said why does the garage smell like a public pool? I hadn’t noticed. But once she said it I couldn’t un-smell it.

Moving it out of the garage fixed that. Now the garage just smells like garage. Which is fine. Normal.

What About The Big Stuff

Heaters. Big pumps. Salt systems. These things are expensive. Like really expensive. Some of them cost thousands.

You can’t just leave those outside. You really can’t. The electronics in them. The circuit boards. Moisture gets in and they’re done.

I know a guy who left his salt cell outside. Froze. Cracked. Four hundred bucks.

Another guy left his heater uncovered. Snow got in somehow. Ruined the control board. Big repair bill.

These things need to be inside. Somewhere dry. Somewhere it doesn’t freeze.

A storage unit works perfect for this. Climate controlled if you want to spend a little more. But even just a regular indoor unit keeps them dry and safe.

The Spring Feeling

I’ll tell you what’s nice.

That first warm weekend in April or May. You’re ready to open the pool. You drive over to your storage unit. Five minutes. Grab your pump. Grab your hoses. Grab your cleaner. Everything’s right there. No hunting. No digging.

You get home. Hook it all up. It works. No cracks. No leaks. No surprises.

You’re swimming by lunchtime.

Your neighbor is over there dragging frozen hoses out from under his deck. Cursing. Running to the store. Spending his whole weekend on stuff that should have taken an hour.

You wave at him from your pool. Feel a little bad. But also feel pretty smart.

Look

I’m not saying you have to rent a storage unit. If you’ve got a clean dry spot in your basement or garage that works great. Use it.

But if you’re like me and your house is full and your garage is full and you’re tired of tripping over stuff all winter, it’s worth thinking about.

We’ve got units at 3D Self Storage Small ones. Cheap ones. Month to month. You can come check them out. See if it works for you.

Or don’t. Leave your stuff outside again. Maybe you’ll get lucky. Maybe you won’t.

I know what I’m doing this year. Learned my lesson.