Yahooooo...I'm storage less!

[revmclaren]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by GP6971 (a host of the General Discussion forum).

I finally cleared out the last of my stored crap. I've kept a storage unit since 1997. At one time it contained the combined households of myself, my sister, and my mother who passed in 2003.

A wonderful friend of mine who died from cancer held on long enough to clear out his storage units before he passed in 2017. He didn't want to leave the burden of them to his family.

I don't want to either, so that at least is taken care of. Being older and in bad health can set a fire under oneself.

Sunday...the yard sale.

[GreenWave]

1. Inspiration for us!

[Shermann]

2. I had a storage unit when I was in an apartment 15 years ago

I think I paid more in rent on it over the year and a half than the items were worth.

Sell that shit!

[kiri]

5. storage is awful when owner dies

Public Storage in NJ ripped us off for $24,000+

My brother was a pack rat and had 3 big units, but died suddenly without a will or anything. It was the height of the Covid pandemic---NJ barred out-of-state visitors from entering--even with a death certificate.

Public storage refused to help us, throwing up roadblocks, in fact kept raising the rates and fees. PS refused to let us show our credentials here to a local office for verification, insisting we had to to drive 7 hrs to NJ to their office to see if our bonafides were accepted! PS refused to accept notarized docs by mail, insisted on "in person".

Should we abandon it all or get to see if there was anything of value, $ or family?
Eventually, after 3 yrs we were able to gain entry, with a bolt cutter. Took lawyers.

We drove down and spent 4 days! sorting, getting help from recyclers, and throwing out 90%. Goodwill/Salvation refused everything. Landfill fees alone came to $900.

This cost $3000 directly to our helpers, about $6000 overall , but got us out of a $1000/mo Public Storage ripoff.

A horrible experience.

[Shermann]

8. Sounds like Storage Wars

Apparently, you had the option to just walk away but bet your chips in order to see the cards. That's a tough call.

[NJCher]

19. That is a horrible story

I wish you’d have posted about it because I live in nj, know the court system and the laws well, and I would have helped you.

Rip offs of estates are common and I’ve been the victim of one myself, fighting a crooked lawyer in Illinois. I won’t say I won but I stopped the bleeding. Took him through the state’s process. I have a legal binder 3” thick from that.

That is why we all need wills plus a plan. Two sign offs on a check; that sort of thing.

[Envirogal]

9. We all have too much $h!t

Paying to store excess stuff long term ends up costing way more than it’s worth…and the stress of it hovers over our brains knowing we have to “scale down” eventually.

I have quit buying so much crap that I used to and adopting minimalism has really helped me in so many ways—cleaner home with less clutter, clearing up mental anxiety, less stress, and saved money. There are so many ways now to thrift, share or repurpose what already exists that contributing to the US capitalism of overproduction, excess, and expense (credit card interest) is largely unnecessary.

Ben Franklin famously said, “a penny saved is a penny earned”.

[brer cat]

3. We cleared out 2 storage units when we moved six months ago.

It was a great feeling to see them empty!

[multigraincracker]

4. Back in the early 90s

I use to purchase units at action.
Amazing what I found in them.
One time I had loaded a unit into my truck and was headed home when a little mouse ran across my dash. Guess he was included with the rest of the stuff. After that, I was very cautious about what I brought into the house.

[Shermann]

10. Pet mouse as a free bonus! nt

[NJCher]

18. I don't have to go to public storage

For a mouse. My cat brings them in his kitty door, free of charge.

He’s real proud of himself for that, too. Struts around like “I’m the man!”

Anyway, I’m not sure I’d survive one running across my dash! Very funny story.

[AltairIV]

6. Good luck on the yard sale!

[niyad]

7. Congratulations! May the yard sale be very fruitful!

[Joinfortmill]

11. I'm pretty minimalist & all paperwork in place.

Very little for the kids to do. Last thing I'm contemplating is whether to donate my body to science. Not sure why, but can't quite get to yes on that.

[revmclaren]

12. My biggest project coming out of this is shredding

all my legal and personal documents. We live in a complex where people dig through the garbage to get whatever they can to make some money. And unfortunately I have saved hundreds of pay slips, work and government documents that in the past included a person's full S.S. number.

It's a good shredder but I'll probably end up with 4 large garbage bags of confetti.

[Joinfortmill]

20. I did that, twice, with no shredder. Huge job....

I tore everything into small pieces. I put aside anything with my SS# and flushed those small pieces down the toilet. In retrospect, a shredder would have been much easier. Lol.

[Upthevibe]

13. revmclaren.........

Awesome!

I know what a relief that is..........Hope the yard sale goes well.

[FailureToCommunicate]

14. While sorting thru stuff, did you find Rosebud?

When I tried it, I found too many "Rosebuds" and stopped sorting.

(Clearly I need an intervention to make it happen.)

[bleedingulcers]

15. What a tremendous accomplishment!

I can empathize with how hard this was, and how much you had to work to get it finished! You have every right to be enormously proud of this...

[ProudMNDemocrat]

16. When we moved to Senior Living in September of 2022...

I spent 5 months cleaning out my house of unused Books, CDs, Movies, clothes, household goods, decorations, furniture, fabrics, patterns, usable household items, and junk that compiled over 40 plus years. What we kept would be needed for our new living space.

Living with LESS is more! We even have our Funeral arrangements paid for now! LESS for our children to worry about!

[Old Crank]

17. A friend had a storage unit

For three to four monrths. During the sale of his house and buying a new one. That process helped as a partial declutter to get into the large unit. A good way to use a unit.
A brother in law wanted to store his tools in a storage unit. Mostly hand tools. That way he would be able to get them easily. I asked what the cost per month would be, around $150. $1800 per year. I said, keep a base set that you can carry around. Then rent as needed. You can rent a lot of tools for $1800, and increasing yearly.

[GP6971]

21. Locking per Host Consensus.

Belongs in the Lounge.