If you’re like me, last year’s packed up holiday decorations fit perfectly into the space allocated. When unpacking for this past holiday, I marveled at how I’d been able to get all those boxes into that exact space! Again, if you’re like me – this year, your spouse picked up just a few additional decorations – just enough to throw both your allocated space and your sanity over the tipping point.
So to save your sanity, and possibly your marriage, here’s just a few storage / make room tips:
- Pack some empty boxes on the shelf.
Whenever it’s time to reorganize the garage or storage area, we all tend to get rid of just enough stuff so that the remainder will fit exactly into our storage space – just. The problem – the next item you want to store pushes you over the limit.
So do what I do; when you’re in “purge” mode, insert a few empty boxes into your storage area. That way you get rid of a little more than you need to, but visually there’s no room left – you’re packed 100%. Then, when that inevitable next item shows up – just replace one of your empties with the merchandise! - Create a transition space. Because it can be tough to let go … Well, we’ve all seen the movie of a spaceship with an airlock – a small enclosure with two doors. The first door leads from the main portion of the ship into the air lock. The other door opens to the vast void that is outer space. The movie protagonist shoves their enemy (who was once a trusted and loyal friend), into the room and seals the interior door. They look their adversary square in the eye – consider the relationship that once was – but ultimately realize that the friendship and trust can never be recovered. They hit the button that opens the outside door and their adversary is sucked into space. Game over!
Well you probably have a few “old friends” that are now giving you some grief – an old coffee maker, a box of out-of-style shoes, tire chains that fit the car you got rid of 2 years ago. Time to pop them into the airlock. You can’t get rid of them right away – too emotionally jarring. So put them into the “air-lock”; this can be a table in the garage, an outside shed, the trunk of your car. After a few days, weeks, even a month, you realize that the connection you once felt was gone – you can now press the button (usually on garbage day, or the next time one of those charity pick up events rolls around), and the item(s) is sucked into space.
Of course, there are always those items that don’t fit your immediate area but still need to be kept. For that, of course, we recommend a clean, safe, and secure self-storage unit.