I am bad: look at my lovely Michael Teperson bag in its lilac dustcover just flung on top of Godknowswhat, my Pierre Hardy gladiators just peeking out, squished beneath a Liberty shoe bag. This, I must admit, is the condition of the New York storage container I had back in March, just before I left for California.
The container was too small to allow me to pull cases out to repack them each time I dropped by, so I just lobbed stuff in there as I moved out of my apartment. When I got back, I hauled it all out and moved to a unit with shelves so I could at least get stuff in and out.
I braved the storage facility yesterday and, after a four hour forage, I managed to retrieve a capsule winter wardrobe. I also managed not to drop anything on me this time, which is A Good Thing, as I am still nursing an unhealed hairline fracture above my ankle from the beginning of August when a crate came crashing down from on high
I do feel daunted when I go in there: it’s a small sized room with a shelving unit, and it’s at least three quarters full. Where did all this stuff come from? I lived in my own home in London for eight years and have those contents in storage over there. How can I have so much here?
Most importantly, over the course of a year will I have paid more than the contents are worth to store them?
But then I started rationally examining everything and it’s not quite as bad as it seems. I’ve avoided buying any big ticket furniture over here, and much of the stuff has come from England gradually over the past 2.5yrs, so it’s not as though it’s all duplicates of things I already owned.
And, once you discount the huge case & garbage bag that contain towels, linen, duvet & pillows, the very large box of kitchen equipment, wellies, the floor length evening gown hanging from the ceiling, the two boxes of beauty stuff via work, approx a hundred coathangers, a stack of Vogues, the printer, my wine, a crate of cables & wiring, books, and a few large lamps, mirrors & fans, very little of what is left is what I would class as miscellaneous crap. Of which I usually have a lot. In fact, this time, I only seem to have one small box of it.
Pleasingly, I have also filled an enormous case with clothes, books & shoes for The Salvation Army, and a trashbag with knackered old shoes. The former because no one needs to keep airport novels or clothes they are too old or fat for, & the latter because it occurred to me that I really am too old to wear shoes once the heels have broken down, or the toes become scuffed beyond repair, just because they are comfy, designer or gorgeous. Or a combination of all three.
Maybe I am finally shedding my squirrel tendencies.
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It’s amazing how much stuff one can accumulate in such a short time! Being somewhat of a nomad myself, I have piles of stuff stored everywhere..NYC, my parents’ house, my grandmother’s house, and my current living space (a shoebox apt) in Tokyo is overflowing with more stuff.. how does this happen??
Sounds like exactly the kind of position we university students find ourselves moving in and out of dorms each year. Twice a year I find myself wondering how in the world I accumulate so much STUFF!
It is really quite a marvel the amount of material that compounds in our lives. Oh and trying to streamline the “stuff” levels for living abroad is an even greater challenge for sure.
Had to make use of those air-tight vacume bags that shrink things when I moved to Italy.
You’re brave for venturing into storage unit territory! I’m too afraid of the attic…
I have a tiny flat in London (with a veiw of a brick wall) just so that I can walk to work in the city. Having been there for 3 years (all my own furniture too) I get terribly frustrated with lack of space. I think when you live small like that you HAVE to be ruthless — I don’t even have a linen cupboard — so all my bedding is vacuum packed and in a trunk that doubles as seating in my lounge. The solution to small living is to only buy expensive things that you know you will love FOREVER and go cheap and cheerful with the rest — so you don’t feel so bad when you’re bored with it and hoes in the charity bin! My winter clothes live in an enormous suitcase under my bed in the summer — it’s like the princess and the pea!
That cupboard is.….Impressive? I struggle for words to describe it. Much as I hate to be dull and practical you could go to the dreaded Ikea and for not very muchm money (though admittedly mental torture is involved in going there) you could get a glamorous ‘Sex in the City’ style wardrobe fittings with shelves and baskets and hanging and everything to transform the cupboard of doom into the cupboard of joy. I could come over and help you if you want?
Oh, LLG, I know that feeling well. Only our storage facility is in fact the room in our flat which has no real purpose beyond housing my sewing machine/work station, a rack of clothes, a fridge and the back door. The rest of the room is filled with stuff I constantly mean to sort and recycle. But who knows when you might actually need some of it!
Your picture made my incipient O.C.D. hum so loudly!
If anyone ever needs help alphabetising their storage just let me know. Sad to say, I would actually find it fun..
Lived out of storage for 5 years. When I finally moved into my own place-moved storage into my living room and realized I hated nearly ALL of it. You are tres smart to limit what you keep. And it sounds like you are rotating by season/need. BRAVO! I don’t regret storing my pots/dishes/appliances. As all are VERY top of the line, storage fees were worth having my All Clad & Le Creuset back once I had my own kitchen!!
I do empathize with the constant struggle. Now that I have no excuse for storage, I have a pile of things in the corner that I really-don’t-need-and-really-should-put-in-storage-but-no-longer-have-storage-so-I-really-should-get-rid-of…you get the picture.
Its hard to store the things you love, and then determine what you need to get rid of. Like it or not, our lives are made up of lots of ‘stuff’. Good for you for tackling this task!
When my fiancé and I combined both of our 4 bedroom homes into mine, we both had to pair down our possessions. We kept a storage facility for a year as we determined what to sell. We now have a small storage area on the property for things such as seasonal home decorating items and small pieces of furniture. I’m forever giving items to the Salvation Army (they pick up right from my door, how much easier could it get?!) as they wear out or we tire of them. Whew! You’ve inspired me to sort my clothing closet in October!
I’m contemplating a move for work to the east coast next year; let’s see how insane I become trying to pack my home!
holy crap (no pun intended!)! that looks like an awful mess to have to clean up. i completely understand accumulating all this “stuff”, i have way too much of it! though it sounds like you did a good job cleaning it.
It sounds like you are. Paring down storage space contents can be overwhelming but also liberating. And it’s a voyage of discovery! I bet you unearthed things in there you’d forgotten all about.
I had a storage space for years. In 2005, I sorted through all the contents with the rule that anything I hadn’t thought about or missed in the last year was to be disposed of. Most of the stuff was donated or trashed, since I’d completely forgotten most of it!