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!
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.
