As the saying goes, “if I were a betting man,” or if I was trying to make a killing in the stock market, I would invest in the makers of Ozempic. It’s 2024 and I’m hearing Big Pharma whistleblowers speak about the long range plan for pharmaceutical companies to get half the population on Ozempic, including children. Not for diabetes control, but for weight loss.

And if we look at “trends” in other areas of our modern lives, I would also speculate that a great low maintenance, passive business to get in on is owning Public Storage.  Why? Because more and more people have more possessions than what they can keep in their homes. Apparently, in 2024, 25% of the population has a problem with clutter. And for those who can afford it, they try to conceal some of that clutter in storage units. If one is lucky enough to have a 2-car garage, that gets filled up first and then an off-site location is needed.

Not to be judgy, what is the ideal purpose or reason for having a storage unit?  I can think of many legitimate reasons for renting out a storage space. Even I shared a storage unit in my twenties when I camped out every summer in New Mexico for nearly a decade. We kept the camping gear close to where it was going to be used instead of schlepping it every year from Los Angeles.  Some people need to store business-related supplies, while others might need temporary storage while moving.  Some people might downsize and need to store things before they sell or give away furnishings, etc.

And yet, there is an alarming number of people who just have stuff they never use, but they have a tortuous time parting with anything.  This is the issue I’m addressing here. Often, the things they are storing do not even have much value, or the cost of storing them dwarfs the replacement value.  People are literally storing junk, and at what cost?   If nothing else, the sheer expense of storing junk should be a motivator to get rid of things, but that is not necessarily how the scattered mind thinks.

One sad story comes to mind regarding someone I know who stuffed her two storage units so completely and to the ceiling, that she could not even get inside the units to sort things out or find anything when she might have used something. One time she was almost crushed by trying to squeeze between the boxes. It then became imperative for her to rent out yet another storage unit, just to use it as a staging area so she could pull things out of the other stuffed units and have a look at what was in all those non-descript boxes.  And this brings me to the main point I want to make, which is that even if you want to take advantage of every square inch of storage space, you really should leave aisle space and have a method to how you store things. In other words, even a storage unit needs to be organized.

How about numbering your boxes with a master list noting what is in each box? How about clearly labeling what is inside each box so that you don’t have to open any to remember what is inside?  How about continuously shifting the things you are least likely to need to the back of the unit and keep the items you may use in the front of the unit.

After having grown up in an earthquake zone, I am also in the habit of leaving breakables (like fine china) on or near floor level and not in a high cabinet or on a high shelf. You can apply the same logic to a storage unit or a home closet.  Whenever I do my taxes, all receipts go in a box that is labeled for the year. When I introduce a new box to the closet, the newest receipt box goes furthest in the back and the oldest tax box comes out, with the plan to shred its contents soon thereafter.

  • If you must use a storage unit, do yourself a favor and place things in it in an organized way and keep track of what is in each box.
  • Make sure you can get to things by allowing for a passage way between boxes.
  • Use clear plastic containers, so you can see better what is inside and plastic will be more water proof.
  • Keep heavy items on the floor level and lighter boxes can go on top. Most of this is common sense, but if there is a hasty, emotionally charged reason for leasing a storage unit, it would be easy for someone to just throw things in it with the procrastination mind-set that you will “deal with it later.”

 

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Tao of Organizing Blog Series