Storage

   I finished cleaning out our 10X10 storage unit today and everything that had been in it is back in our house. We had had the unit for about a year, in an attempt to make our place look less cluttered as, at the time, it was on the market. Unfortunately, the house did not sell (perhaps it was not meant to) and so no need for the unit and the accompanying cost.
   We are currently faced with a home we can barely move around in and there is much purging to be done. The fact of the matter is that whatever we had in the unit was in there for a year and, essentially, we didn't miss it. You would think the decision to get rid of much of it would be easy. This is not the case, however.

...almost there...

   In spite of the fact that we were able to get along without the belongings we'd been storing, I think we both felt that we still had them, and they could be accessed at any time and so, because of this, they didn't seem any less important than much of the other stuff we had retained, but still didn't use either. So, many decisions to be made.
   Storage is kind of a funny thing. There is an ad right in the storage loading bay that says something to the effect of "I don't know if storage is COOL but it's the next best thing!" Now, prior to actually having things in storage, I would never have thought of storage as being cool, either. Oddly, though, I had that exact same feeling, that this was kind of cool, as I began transporting items to the unit. Part of it, I'm sure, was that I was creating space at home. The other part was that it almost felt like moving into a new neighbourhood, with new neighbours. Pretty consistently you run into other people moving their belongings in or out of their units, some units are set up simply as storage while others are a combination of storage and small business. Unit renters are either in transit in the hallways or ensconced in their units, working on laptops, doing inventory. All of this in an atmosphere of peace, quiet and solitude.
   You often find yourself wondering what the other people's stories are, why the need for storage, how temporary is it, did it have to be moved in an emergency? One of our favourite TV shows to watch is "Storage Wars". The show involves a regular cast of bidders who travel around to different storage businesses and participate in the auctioning of storage units which have been abandoned by their owners and defaulted on. The winning bidder then gets to go through the unit and, hopefully, find things of value. It is always interesting to see what's in the units as the bidders are only allowed to view the unit for about five minutes prior to the auction and are not allowed to enter it.
   As interesting as it is to watch, what gets lost is the human story behind each unit. The rest of the world gets to see what once were people's private possessions hauled out for full display. You wonder why the units were defaulted on, there is generally enough wealth evident that keeping up on the rental payments shouldn't have been an issue. Were there deaths, divorces or just plain money mismanagement? Drug deals gone bad? Just forgot to pay the bill? You also wonder how agonizing it must have been for people to have had to have left all of that stuff behind. And then, possibly, to watch it get auctioned off on TV, having the bidders commenting on its worth or lack thereof.


Done

   As I said, storage is interesting.
   It occurred to me today that a storage unit would be a great place to write. Just move in a lamp and a desk and a comfy  chair and go to it, distraction-free. It would be just like having an extra room in the house, only in a different part of the city. And it wouldn't even have to be a 10X10, you could probably get away with an 8X8 or 5X5 even! All this with the proviso that your writing will earn the extra $160-$200 a month you'll need for the unit!
   Hopefully we will have no need for a storage unit again any time soon. If we do, though, I will enter into the arrangement with not nearly the trepidation I did this time. And, if there is a next time, I'm gonna rent 5 extra square feet and write a novel!
   Like they say, storage is cool.