Organization - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	0 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended				0 Months Ended			12 Months Ended	0 Months Ended		12 Months Ended	0 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Sep. 22, 2011	Mar. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2013 sqft State Store	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Apr. 02, 2012	Sep. 16, 2011 IPO	Sep. 22, 2011 Public Offering [Member]	Sep. 23, 2013 Distribution Reinvestment Plan	Dec. 31, 2013 Distribution Reinvestment Plan	Sep. 28, 2013 Distribution Reinvestment Plan Maximum	Sep. 23, 2013 Distribution Reinvestment Plan Maximum	Dec. 31, 2013 New Distribution Reinvestment Plan	Aug. 24, 2007 Strategic Storage Operating Partnership, L.P.	Dec. 31, 2013 Strategic Storage Operating Partnership, L.P.	Aug. 24, 2007 Strategic Storage Advisor LLC	Dec. 31, 2013 Strategic Storage Advisor LLC	Dec. 31, 2013 Strategic Storage Advisor LLC Strategic Storage Operating Partnership, L.P.
Organization and Nature of Operations [Line Items]
Date of formation of company			Aug. 14, 2007
Sale of common shares			$ 106,280,662	$ 113,943,394	$ 83,856,253		$ 289,000,000									$ 1,000
Number of shares sold							29,000,000	100,000,000								100
Common stock, shares authorized			700,000,000	700,000,000
Common stock, par value			$ 0.001	$ 0.001
Number of preferred stock, shares			200,000,000	200,000,000
Preferred stock, par value			$ 0.001	$ 0.001
Advisor purchased a limited partnership interest in Operating Partnership														200,000
Initial capital contribution														1,000
Percentage of limited partnership interests															99.28%
Percentage of limited partnership interests owned by noncontrolling owners															0.68%			0.04%
Shares offered in follow-on public offering	110,000,000
Shares issued pursuant to distribution reinvestment plan	10,000,000									400,000			400,000
Date of launch of the Initial Offering			Mar. 17, 2008
Date of satisfying minimum offering requirements and commencing formal operations			May 22, 2008
Initial offering termination date			Sep. 16, 2011
Date of commencing follow-on public offering			Sep. 22, 2011
Follow-on offering termination date			Sep. 22, 2013
Additional shares registered			15,796,431	12,311,983	9,045,444					4,400,000	51,250,000	51,250,000
Offering termination period									10 days
Total number of shares issued			54,100,000
Total amount of common shares issued			$ 549,000,000
Number of shares of common stock issued in a private offering			6,200,000
Share price of common stock						$ 10.79
Percentage owned by chief executive officer in Dealer Manager			15.00%														15.00%
Number of Class D Units issued by Operating Partnership in connection with acquisition of the Las Vegas VII and Las Vegas VIII properties		120,000
Conversion of partnership units, description			Finally, a limited partner in our Operating Partnership may later exchange his or her limited partnership units in our Operating Partnership for shares of our common stock at any time after one year following the date of issuance of their limited partnership units, subject to certain restrictions as outlined in the limited partnership agreement.
Number of wholly-owned self storage facilities			122
Number of states in which wholly-owned self storage facilities are located			17
Number of operation units			77,375
Net rentable square feet of the facilities			10,200,000
Noncontrolling interests in additional self storage facilities			3
Area of lease to single tenant			356,000