The storage business is booming!! The United States gets the prize for being number one worldwide for number of storage locations at 46,000. There are only 58,000 worldwide. That means people have a lot of things they have purchased and now need to have them stored. The reasons will vary. Moving, divorce, work, school, travel, the list goes on. The sidebar to this finding is the match in consumerism in the US and the need to purchase.
I was looking for information on storage facilities the other day and quickly found out that space is very limited. The location I visited was taking a waiting list. Every unit was full. However in a city where the mediun price of a home has broken $800k and a condo will only set you back half that, it is also a city where vacancy rates for apartments and condos are at .6%.
So, it should come as no surprise that the storage business is booming. It was explained to me that there are two primary reasons for storage tenants. First the folks who have been hanging on to the kids art projects or that old sofa and chairs, the dresser you had when you were a kid..whatever. Those folks can't let go of the material due to sentimental reasons. They will pay rent every month to store the items they are chained to. The other group are people who have cashed in big in the real estate market and can't find a new home in a market that had risen before the ink was dry on the sale of their home and now finding another is impossible. With such low vacancy rates for rent, they find themselves staying with friends or...(Gasp) homeless. It seems ironic that their possessions have a home but they do not.
I spent the day going through drawers and closets. A tiny locker in the parkade downstairs got a good going over as well. The efforts we put in filled our little car and off to do a charity drop. Liberating to have less stuff. The hardest part is committing to "getting the job done". Going through all the stuff I have moved 4 times and continue to move throughout my little condo can be daunting. You see, I keep moving it because I don't know how to part with it. It's true we all have issues with parting with our stuff that we worked, made money, paid taxes, went to the store, bought it brought it home. You get the idea? Every thing you store, weather it is in your home or in a storage locker was a calculated decision that resulted in the purchase.
Storing those old sofas are costing us lots of CASH.
A mindset shift is needed in some cases to fully grasp the acts of liberating unwanted, or unneeded items from your life. The shift from keeping, storing and paying can be made to Clearing out, selling and cashing in, or giving to people in need. Your ability to skip the storage locker trap can save you thousands and put a bit of cash in your pocket. The majority of people who do this will not even miss the stuff they sell. I never have.
Sell your locker and cash in. Don't be one of the 58,000.
Good luck as you lighten your load.
I was looking for information on storage facilities the other day and quickly found out that space is very limited. The location I visited was taking a waiting list. Every unit was full. However in a city where the mediun price of a home has broken $800k and a condo will only set you back half that, it is also a city where vacancy rates for apartments and condos are at .6%.
So, it should come as no surprise that the storage business is booming. It was explained to me that there are two primary reasons for storage tenants. First the folks who have been hanging on to the kids art projects or that old sofa and chairs, the dresser you had when you were a kid..whatever. Those folks can't let go of the material due to sentimental reasons. They will pay rent every month to store the items they are chained to. The other group are people who have cashed in big in the real estate market and can't find a new home in a market that had risen before the ink was dry on the sale of their home and now finding another is impossible. With such low vacancy rates for rent, they find themselves staying with friends or...(Gasp) homeless. It seems ironic that their possessions have a home but they do not.
I spent the day going through drawers and closets. A tiny locker in the parkade downstairs got a good going over as well. The efforts we put in filled our little car and off to do a charity drop. Liberating to have less stuff. The hardest part is committing to "getting the job done". Going through all the stuff I have moved 4 times and continue to move throughout my little condo can be daunting. You see, I keep moving it because I don't know how to part with it. It's true we all have issues with parting with our stuff that we worked, made money, paid taxes, went to the store, bought it brought it home. You get the idea? Every thing you store, weather it is in your home or in a storage locker was a calculated decision that resulted in the purchase.
Storing those old sofas are costing us lots of CASH.
A mindset shift is needed in some cases to fully grasp the acts of liberating unwanted, or unneeded items from your life. The shift from keeping, storing and paying can be made to Clearing out, selling and cashing in, or giving to people in need. Your ability to skip the storage locker trap can save you thousands and put a bit of cash in your pocket. The majority of people who do this will not even miss the stuff they sell. I never have.
Sell your locker and cash in. Don't be one of the 58,000.
Good luck as you lighten your load.