I was planning to share my finally finished bookshelf but then I decided I needed to make a confession after reading Laura’s post today, entitled Shoving things behind your couch is not dealing with your clutter.
So.
Here it is…
Can you tell what it is?
It’s an extra 50 square feet.
Yep, a storage unit.
I never thought I would be one of those people.
I looked down on the practice as a waste of money and not learning to live with the space you have.
I still sort of think those things, but I also have some other thoughts:
- We are living in a small apartment (640 square feet).
- We have no attic.
- We have no basement.
- We have no garage*
(*Well, the building does but we’re not supposed to put things in it).
We’re tired of spending so much time and energy trying to fit too much stuff in too little space. We want to use our apartment for living, not for storing. Don’t get me wrong, we are still purging, but we’re spending a little money so we can spend less time and energy. For now, it’s working for us.
Some examples of what we’ve stored so far:
- Beach items
- Christmas decorations
- Extra dining table for large sit-down meals
- A couple pieces of furniture we love that don’t fit our current space but are discontinued
- Items we only use a couple times a year, like the huge suitcase in the photo above
My thought is that we’re either going to end up purging most of the things we don’t need OR turning it into a seasonal storage where we can swap out actively used items for those that we won’t need for a while.
What do you think of our decision?
We are lucky because our apartment has two storage spaces in the building. One is off our balcony (it’s a huge balcony at 25 sq ft…maybe) and pretty much all it holds is a small chest freezer and cleaning supplies. The other is in the basement and recently had a water issue…which was a mixed blessing. We lost some stuff, but not really anything of value. My goal is to reduce to the stuff in the basement space to the off season set of tires for the car, Christmas decorations and baby stuff for baby #2 if we ever decide to have baby #2 (there is a time limit on that stuff. If there is no baby #2 in the works by a certain date, we’ll give it away)
I don’t think you’re crazy. We’re living in 940 sq ft and it’s a tight fit, so I can’t imagine what 640 sq ft would be like. I like storage, as long as the stuff being stored has a purpose as is used…if that makes sense…
I think living in such a small space you would definitely need a storage locker especially like you say for all the seasonal stuff. I am completely fascinated with tiny NY spaces and think you are doing a fabulous job
Have a great weekend!
Laura
We have a lot more space, but more people – and we’re similarly limited in storage space. Not as severely, but what we have is NOT functional. We had a 10×10 unit that we’re moving down to a 5×5 in, but we’re keeping it for the reasons you described above. Mainly seasonal for us because there just isn’t a “right” place to put those things AND live around/near them. Replacing them every year would be extremely cost prohibitive. Etc.
I am fascinated by the space you live in and think you do a lovely job at it!
I’m going to repeat bullet #1 for you. You live in 640 square feet. I think you’re doing ok!
I would also think you would need some extra storage! I am in the process of purging my storage closet also… I also want to make it mostly seasonal storage.
Thanks again for posting such great posts! I know I have been a horrible commenter lately, so I wanted to say HI
I think you’re doing great! Right now we’re living in less than 1100 square feet with 6 people. If we didn’t have my parent’s attic for the kids’ clothes we’d either have to get rid of clothing when they outgrow it (extremely cost prohibitive since all of it’s been given to us and we’d have to replace it when the next child got to that size) or get a storage space.
It’s frustrating to have to live around your extra stuff, especially when it’s stuff you really can’t justify getting rid of.