My kids used to have a CD set that featured talking animals on various adventures in the jungle. Each one was meant to teach a life lesson, and I remember the one on accumulating too much stuff (versus using your surplus to help others) very clearly. They kept repeating: "The more you have, the more you have to have to take care of the things you have." How true.
Here's a piece from MSN Money that talks about this issue and how our growth in "stuff" has led to a growth in the need for a place to store it:
Consider this: The self-storage industry grew from about 289 million square feet in 1984 to nearly 2.2 billion square feet by the end of 2007, according to the Self Storage Association.
And it probably wouldn't surprise you that the spike in storage happened to coincide with one of the most profligate, credit-crazy times in America.
It's not that people shouldn't pay for storage if they need it. But these uneasy economic times demand a long, hard look behind those corrugated doors: Can we afford the storage lifestyle?
Obviously, there are certain times that people need to pay for storage. In particular, times of transition (divorce, move, summers while in college, etc.) offer a fairly good reason for renting storage facilities. And, in many cases I'm sure, renting storage is a cheaper option than say building a new garage on your property. But really, do we all need to store the massive amounts of "stuff" that we seem to accumulate? As I said in Save $3k Per Year or More by Throwing Away Stuff, simply eliminating our extra stuff (which we could sell, btw, to make some extra cash) could save us a boatload every year.
I can sympathize with over-stuffers since we fight it as a family too. We're currently going through our house and cleaning out stuff we've accumulated but no longer use (giving it or throwing it away). There's a bunch of it. But al least we've kept it under enough control that we've never had to rent an outside storage facility.
For us, the openness in the house is much better when the extra stuff is gone (we're already seeing this in a small measure.) And since we could be selling our home at any time, having a less cluttered appearance will help our home show better. That said, we are sure to look for new homes that have enough "storage space." ;-)
How about you? Anyone out there also struggle with too much stuff.
I've never really understood storage facilities for most people. I mean, what are you going to do with the stuff if it's always in storage?
Posted by: plonkee | July 15, 2008 at 08:45 AM
I've never had a storage rental. Recently, I got rid of a good portion of my possessions and found this to be a much harder task then actually acquiring them.
Posted by: Tim | July 15, 2008 at 10:02 AM
We used a storage unit during our brief (1 1/2 years) stay in one of our moves. We were living in an apartment, which was quite large for an apartment but no room for appliances, etc. The trouble with moving so often (an occupational hazard, it seems) is one house/apt needs some items, the next one doesn't. We have not needed a storage unit for the last ten years because we had a garage/basement. In spite of continually trimming down the possessions, we seem to never trim down enough - whatever that means. Renting a storage unit, in my opinion, should only be done after careful consideration of the cost and the "why." When are you going to empty it? "Someday" is an expensive answer.
Posted by: pastor's wife | July 15, 2008 at 11:18 AM
I have a neighbor who started a storage unit business in February of '07. His occupancy rates are good and he's looking at doubling the number of units. The bank loves him, and they've valued the current number of units at double the cost of building the business. Since their valuation is based on the number of units, when he adds more units his equity will soar. There's no shortage of stuff that people want to put into storage. Amazing.
Posted by: CG | July 15, 2008 at 11:41 AM
I have a neighbor who started a storage unit business in February of '07. His occupancy rates are good and he's looking at doubling the number of units. The bank loves him, and they've valued the current number of units at double the cost of building the business. Since their valuation is based on the number of units, when he adds more units his equity will soar. There's no shortage of stuff that people want to put into storage. Amazing.
Posted by: CG | July 15, 2008 at 11:45 AM
My community has a Yahoo Group "Kingman Feecycle". You post a description of your "stuff" and someone who wants it (there's always someone!) comes and gets it. You don't have to haul it away to Goodwill or put it in a landfill. Works well on a still-limited basis.
Posted by: Kevin | July 15, 2008 at 01:04 PM
I am amazed that people rent auxiliary building to store their junk. Which is what most of it is, really.
I've been purging dvds and books that are readily available everywhere. If I can go pick it up at the library or have it sent from Netflix anytime I want, I don't need my own copy.
Posted by: Cath | July 15, 2008 at 06:50 PM
When I moved overseas to work 2 years ago I put about 1000 lbs of stuff in storage. My company was paying for it and I thought I might use it later. This was a waterbed, computer desk, some computer equipment, dresser, bookshelves, tv, dvd player, stereo and other stuff. It costs $50 per month to store. Well now I'm looking at clearing all this out and will donate almost all the stuff and throw out the stuff nobody wants! Why? Because I don't know when I'll move back and don't want to spend the money storing this stuff. The value of the stuff is about $1000 so I've already 'paid' for the stuff by storing it! It's a pity I didn't decide this two years ago but I'm a bit sentimental sometimes and am also a packrat- something that runs in our family!
-Mike
Posted by: Mike Hunt | July 16, 2008 at 06:54 AM