Shop Your Storage, Garage and Attic - Personal Experience and 10 Helpful Tips on Sorting Through Things in Storage

My stuff at one point was scattered back in the 90s: some things at my childhood home, a cousin's attic (who I paid a monthly rental fee), a boyfriend's mother's attic, and a storage unit at different times in my life. Yes, lots of stuff. What was common about all my things, there was things I had stored at each location that I didn't need to rebuy!

Fast forward decades later, this most recent relocation for our family was challenging.  We ended up with two storage units which meant household goods, keepsakes, and more would be in boxes and bins for a while until we could find a bigger space for them.  So here I was last year driving to storage units, opening them up and literally looking way up at all the stacked boxes and bins.  I had to climb on them just to get to the top!  

The wish to release all my stuff was heavy.  At times sentimental and other times increasingly frustrated and impatient as we waited to find a suitable home for all our goods--there was five of us (sigh).  I went from looking for bare necessities during these visits to turning them into junk dives.  Diving into what I thought initially was important, I would say, "This is nothing but junk, useless!  What did we need this for again?"  

After enough visits to those storage units, the money-saving mindset kicked in, "Go shop among the household goods and see what money you can save!" I got angry with myself for not thinking like this from the start and refused to rebuy another thing!  Later, the "what can we donate and what can we sell" mindsets kicked in!

During my unboxing, I found hand soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, furniture polish, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, toilet paper, you name it!  The money I saved in a single month was well-over $200 just in paper products, health and beauty supplies, and cleaning stuff!

If I hadn't changed my mind set and made the time to open up boxes rather than putting it off, I would have been spending more money that I really didn't have to spend on more household supplies.  What was disheartening for me was to see how much stuff I had bought for fear of running out around the time we were undergoing a national crisis.  Although I hadn't bought an excessive amount of the same products, I did buy enough variety that everyone in the household had more than one of their essential products and more than enough kitchen products.

So, if it has been a while since you checked your storage unit or even your garage or attic, do it!  I also found that there was a lot of items that had expired too.  Quick way to dive right in your junk:

1) Pull stuff out and organize them according to the labels.  If no labels, open it all up and then place labels or write directly on boxes and bins in large print.

2) Utilize that wall space more efficiently by removing all large boxes if necessary and taking that stuff to either sell, donate, throw away, or use.  Whenever possible, don't store large boxes or bins that you don't plan on going in near the front or center of the floor space.  Place in back or along the wall in the back corner.

3) Cut a path for you to walk as you move large boxes and bins out.  It just makes reading boxes and finding stuff easier.  

4) Brown boxes in storage for a long time not a good idea since they attract small spiders and other bugs--you will need to wash your fabrics and wipe off stuff inside.

5)  Keep bug spray, a dolly, a chair, step stool, and a garbage bag in your storage facility.  You will need it sooner or later.

6) Store empty boxes and bins somewhere close to the front if you know you will be moving sooner rather than later.  This way you can re-use those for the recent stuff you acquired at your current place.

7)  Leave the hoarders, sentimental, and argumentative relatives at home if they can't get it together to help purge.  You might even need a time out.  I know I did. 

8)  Don't over think what you have and when it is time to purge, set a time limit of how long you will be at the facility and share with your family what the focus is.  Avoid the temptation to want to have conversations about everything you pull out of a box or bin, "Oh this was Johnny's when he was 2...oh wow, look at this photo it was taken back when I was a kid..."  Put off those conversations for the ride home, "That was a great time, but we are only here at storage for two hours tops, let's save that conversation for the ride home, let's get what we came here for..."

9)  Play music while you work.  It eases the nerves a bit.

10)  If it's cold or hot dress for the occasion and bring water and snacks.

Happy shopping and purging!

Nicholl McGuire is the author of What Else Can I do on the Internet? and in addition to this blog, she also has a blog dedicated to organizing here.

Collect Stickers!

 Since I was a child, I have collected stickers. I loved the fun, rolling eyes ones, scratch and sniff, Garbage Pail Kids, puffy stickers, and the ones that would show up in the mail, in a box, or given to you by a teacher or friend!  Now I design them!  

Nicholl McGuire author of What Else Can I do on the Internet 

and Stillness Gifts shop owner.

My name is Nicholl, the owner of this blog and contributor.  Check out my newest venture, an online store I manage and contributed designs. Feel free to show your support and purchase stickers and other artwork at Stillness Gifts!

Thanks so much for stopping by this blog and feel free to subscribe today!  We often post things to inspire you to break mundane routines online and offline by allotting a bit of free time to explore interesting things in life you may have never done or use to do but forgot all about!  So shop my store, bless someone with a great gift, and raise those energy vibrations!  Have a great day!

Stillness Gifts

Personal Experience with Organizing Community Yard Sales

One of the highlights of my stay in Colorado was participating and shopping in a small community of neighbors who had organized yard sales.  They had one yard sale per season for years: summer, fall, spring. When I lived in California, neighbors had their yard sales year-round sometimes every weekend.  My experiences were great meeting everyone!  

How I was approached the first time in Colorado about a yard sale was via a flier on my door informing me of the neighborhood committee planning to have an upcoming yard sale sometime in the spring and would I and my family like to participate.  Then another flier that listed dates which were from an upcoming Friday to Sunday in June soon followed weeks later.  So for three days we set up in the morning and closed around 2 p.m.  During this time, we visited one another's front yards and garages.  We exchanged information about ourselves and met other family members and pets.  One of my sons started sign twirling in costume to increase traffic to our community.  While other sons saw what he he had been doing and offered assistance, so they took turns after 30 minutes or so twirling with face masks--they were hilarious!  There was music playing as people shopped, stopping at each driveway or front yard.  There was a little dancing which raised the mood even more.  Also, good food and drinks were available for a small fee.

In California, I was a shopper, but I got to see how some of the neighbors organized their yard sales.  They simply posted an ad and signage well enough in advance to let everyone in the community and surrounding areas know that they would be having a yard sale.  The turnout was impressive!  I recall neighbors moved their cars elsewhere so that driveways could be used.  When other special events come to a neighborhood, home owners will rent out their driveways making it easy for vistors to walk to nearby entertainment.  In Colorado, a church that was having a local event, partnered with a business not too far away, to have organizers park in their parking lot so that visitors had somehwhere to park.

The cost to organize a small community yard sale is not expensive.  Display your event old school style on a large posterboard for twirling or posting in the front yard.  Hang fliers up around the neighborhood.  Drop off fliers at your neighbor's doors and request on the flier that they make copies.  Keep cost low by printing in black and white and don't use your printer at home since the cartridges are sometimes more expensive than just taking your digital file to an office supply store or anywhere that prints copies. The food and drink that was served was also offered for a reasonable fee to visitors.  The neighbors, who set up tables and chairs and sat out their wares for sell, enlisted the help of relatives.

My sons who were under the age of 10 at the time, earned well over $200 at the time in sales that isn't including what I and their brother made.  They sold toy figures, games, clothing, etc. I had houseware and decor.  Their brother had a little bit of everything including his own gaming console with controllers that he could have sold for higher than he had, but I digress.

So if you are bored and looking for something fun to do, consider organizing a yard sale in your community and if they are unresponsive to your first inquiry, there is always a meet up for those who are interested in the local flea market or swap meet.

So let's do a quick recap: take the time to communicate your intentions of organizing a community yard sale and you can do that by sharing a flier with your neighborhood.  Next, follow up with a date and time when the yard sales will be occurring in your specific community.  If there are issues or concerns, meet in-person to go over things like parking.  Consider getting the word out both on and offline to the broader community about your community yard sales and enlist the help of others to generate interest and to help with set up.

Happy selling!

Nicholl McGuire is the author of What Else Can I do on the Internet?