Posts Tagged ‘self storage’
Too Much Stuff! Our New Love Affair With Self-Storage
I have changed the headline. Alternet is all about America – but this is a cultural issue that affects all human beings – we like to accumulate stuff. We are all “pack rats”. And when we go through “life events” it was takes longer to get things sorted out than we originally hoped. And at a time of emotional upheaval, security becomes important. Stuff seems to offer continuity. It appeals also to the instinct that if we have already bought something, we should not need to buy another of the same as long as the first one still works. Though books, records and CDs are another matter. And in my case colour slides.
And who has the time to sort through 40 years of slide trays and boxes, selecting and then scanning images to be burned to a disc? Yes it would save a lot of space and if I indexed the discs (another non trivial task) I might even be able to retrieve an image to be used – somewhere.
And how many “lifestyle” shows are there now that take people through the emotional traumas of finally sorting out all that clutter? In general, American homes have been getting bigger. But I am amazed at the number of closets in my “new” townhouse. Which is 35 years old. And the amount of stuff that the previous owner simply abandoned, and which I now have to deal with before I get my stuff out of self storage and into the new place.
And I have already mislaid my steel tape measure that I took there on my first recce, put away safely somewhere and now cannot find. But I need before I go to IKEA and get some more stuff.
And in the blogroll there is a web site about nothing but stuff
Stephen Rees's blog 