I just finished this really interesting article on the New York Times website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06self-storage-t.html . It really was interesting to learn about the storage industry. I’ve heard a bit about it in the past 20 years as there has been a real proliferation of storage units in Calgary.
I’ve even used storage for my stuff when I moved in with my husband! We had two places, both full of our stuff. We moved into his townhouse, where the massive amount of duplicates just couldn’t compete. We knew we wouldn’t be living in the townhouse forever, but couldn’t bear to part with furniture and my things (which ended up in storage). It was the first time I had ever used storage, and quite possibly will be the last. It was totally useful when we used it, as we simply had no way to store everything in the townhouse and sorting through everything we wanted and didn’t want would have taken a while.
I find it intriguing how storage across North America keeps growing and growing, though. It sounds like most things in storage are not really worth the cost of storing! It would be fascinating to see how much stuff there actually is in storage. I’m sure there’s tons of gems of items, useful everyday items that less fortunate people could use and things that just deserve to see the light of day.
Now that I’m doing my own self-editing at home, getting rid of a lot of things I don’t use, need repair or just plain don’t want, things seem ‘lighter’ at home. And no, it’s not because things literally are getting lighter for the floors at my house. :) It seems good to have less stuff to worry about.
I’m now just about to go scan a bunch of things to decrease the vast amount of papers we have! Then I can recycle them, and have less ‘stuff’ in my house to clean and worry about.
