Thank you for playing and giving your feedback!
A lot of the items, like the key and phone, are locked there so that the story could progress.
A lot of the progression in the story at the start with the running around was so that I could show off a couple rooms to spark the exploration. If you have the key to the storage room though, you could explore the room before we got to the spooky part, and I don't want to ruin to progression for anyone!
-Jhonxay Games