'Embedded' storage: When our belongings own us
Posted
Feb 11 2008, 12:21 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Got stuff? Need storage? You're not alone. Our houses are getting bigger and our families are getting smaller, yet we just don't seem to have enough room. The contents of nearly 11 million American households are spilling over into rented storage space, according to a storage industry group.
From no-frills concrete cubbies to upscale "storage condominiums" (complete with clubhouses!), we're anxious to store stuff -- so we can buy more stuff.
An Illinois woman cleared a bunch of collectibles out of her home to make it more saleable -- it took two storage units to hold it all -- and promptly started accumulating more things, according to a New York Times article. Now she has three units and an as-yet-unsold home.
Wonder if she's still collecting?
Storage units with mezzanines
Some folks are buying storage condos measuring as much as 2,000 square feet to hold art collections, sports cars, boats, winter gear, recreational vehicles and other goodies. The condo purchase price is anywhere from $57,000 to $200,000 depending on location and on whether or not you want touches like a "built-in mezzanine."
Of course, there are also monthly fees. You think that clubhouse vacuums itself?
One man interviewed in another New York Times article said he likes hanging out at the storage condo with his kids because "our house is a toy box, and this is much quieter."
Wow. His house is too full of junk to relax in, so he has to go to another place, full of his other junk, to get a little peace.
Who owns whom?
'Embedded' storage
Traditional storage users are still out there, such as the folks who are between homes or who are going through divorces. Housing covenants may prevent you from parking an RV out front. Folks who already have two cars -- or a bunch of stuff -- in their garages need to look elsewhere to store, say, a couple of snowmachines or a classic auto.
But overall, the market has changed. A spokeswoman for a storage-unit chain describes a clientele that has "truly embedded storage into its lifestyle."
One woman interviewed by the Times had somehow managed to avoid thinking about the cost. Recently her husband brought to her attention the fact that they were paying just over $4,000 a year for two storage units full of stuff like "a papier-mâché candy dish, LPs by Cream and the Ventures, a computer printer, a ceramic figurine of a gnome atop a turtle, bolts of taffeta from a long-abandoned pillow-making hobby, and stacks of 25-gallon tubs filled with old files and five years’ worth of paperwork."
In hindsight, the woman admitted, "It's probably wiser to eliminate things."
Give it up, already
Am I alone in thinking there's something deeply creepy about this relentless need to acquire and this apparent inability to discard?
If you have so much stuff that it's driving you out of your house and into, well, the place where you store the rest of your stuff, this could be a sign that you need to throttle back a little.
Hey, I'm as guilty as anyone else. My bedroom is jammed with paintings, prints and boxes of sports-related ephemera (mostly from small colleges) that I received in the divorce settlement. For two years I've suffered from a dual delusion: that I could sell this stuff for big bucks, and that I would start dealing with it during the next semester break.
A couple of weeks ago I forced myself to acknowledge that most of the artwork has modest value at best, and that the bulk of the sports stuff is unsaleable. I realized that not only did I not want this stuff in the first place, I'm tired of being ruled by it. When you can't walk a clear path in your own room, it's time to make changes.
So I'm creating a plan to rid myself of all the junk via art dealers, craigslist, Goodwill and the recycling bin.
It's either that or rent a storage unit.
