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They give examples of people needing space to make furniture, or fixing motorcycles in their storage units. Things which you can't feasibly pull off in a studio

They give examples of people needing space to make furniture, or fixing motorcycles in their storage units. Things which you can't feasibly pull off in a studio apartment. That makes sense, and I'm glad there is a solution for activities like that. I think most people just use storage facilities to store junk they don't want to throw away, which is a different thing, and often unrelated to the size of your home. Some people just expand to fill all available space. Most of my neighbors park their cars on the street, despite having two-car garages, and 2000 square foot houses. Their garages are full of boxes, to the point where you can see them leaning up against the frosted glass windows. My grandparents bought the house next door to the one they'd already filled with junk, and filled that one with junk too. I don't think it's necessarily the cost of rent or the size of apartments that proliferates self-storage facilities, I think acquiring junk and being afraid to get rid of it is a different (perhaps especially modern) problem that would exist regardless.

HPsquared 3y ago
I do the same with hard drives.
squidfood 3y ago
When we recently looked into self-storage to store our junk, the high prices per cubic foot (in a very HCOL area) made us recontextualize our junk in terms of how much rent each item was paying to live with us. Far more in rent over a few months then just buying a new one of whatever it was, when we needed it. We got rid of a lot of junk.
- arethuza 3y ago
  About ten years ago we were selling a property and decided to "declutter" to make it more appealing - we put lots of stuff in storage. After a few months we had sold the property and then looked at the stuff we had put in storage and 95% of it was junk....
  - wiredfool 3y ago
    8 years ago, we moved continents. Some stuff got shipped, some stuff stored that was too precious to sell but not precious enough to ship. Yeah. 8 years of storage for what's now a bunch of kids toys, 120v tools, and some random furniture that we're never going to ship, some handmade stuff. Anyway, we're going to have an epic yard-sale this year when we actually make it back.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      >epic yard-sale Which you'll probably find is more trouble than it's worth but at least it will get stuff out of your hands. Going to make a serious effort to get rid of a fair bit of stuff this summer myself.
      - wiredfool 3y ago
        When we left, the community had a pretty good yard-sale culture. We won't make back anything like what we paid for the stuff or the storage, but we'll not have to deal with the storage costs any more. Otherwise, the tools, books and toys will go to the local thrift stores. And the crap goes to the dump.
- ghaff 3y ago
  To the degree that people get a storage unit to store things that they don't really have a future plan for using/displaying/etc., they should probably reconsider. It's mostly paying money to kick the can down the road and even potentially make it someone else's problem.
- rcarr 3y ago
  > Far more in rent over a few months then just buying a new one of whatever it was, when we needed it. I remember reading an article once that said exactly the same thing. The economics of it just don't add up for most people. Anything over 6 months to 12 months and you're generally better off selling or even giving cheap stuff away and then repurchasing later if you need to. Storage gets expensive pretty fast. The guy working at the storage centre said most weeks he'd either end up emptying an abandoned unit or see someone removing most of their stuff and throwing it into a skip.
  - biomcgary 3y ago
    My wife uses the local thrift shops as "storage" for a very large fraction of our household goods. The shop will send someone to pick up our donations for storage for free. When we "take stuff out of storage", it isn't quite what we put in, but usually close enough and a nice change of pace. And the storage fee is very modest.
- antisthenes 3y ago
  Yeah, people just need to have less shit. The most valuable things I own as a homeowner are my collection of tools for home improvement, but even their value pales in comparison to the value of the property itself. I'm very glad I don't have a hoarder mentality.
ghaff 3y ago
>Some people just expand to fill all available space. Yeah. There are a lot of people who use storage units (or attics or garages) to store stuff that they have no real plan to ever use. And, at some point, it gets sufficiently out of control that dealing with it becomes such a big project that it's easier to close the door and forget about it. I do use my attic as something of a staging area for moving things out of the house (as well as for bulky stuff I do use but not frequently). But I try to be deliberate about winnowing things down over time.
rcarr 3y ago
> Most of my neighbors park their cars on the street, despite having two-car garages, and 2000 square foot houses. I've been seeing more and more of this in my area. Big houses, massive empty driveways, cars parked on the road. Slows the traffic down and causes jams everywhere. Infuriating.
inconceivable 3y ago
i noticed that real estate listings for residential SFH's in my area almost never show pictures of the garage. which is weird, because that's basically there's only two reasons i'd want to buy a suburban house - for work space in the garage, and the backyard. everything else can be redone pretty easily. maybe not cheaply, but pretty easily. you can't really make new land or add a 2-3 car garage for 25 grand. where/how many outlets? is there a giant vertical beam in the middle or something? horizontal beam for hoisting/hanging things? is it insulated? finished? rafter space? flooring? cabinets? suitable for a mini split AC? what kind of water heater are we talking about? vent holes near the eaves? is the electrical panel a dangerous antique? so many questions... i guess not many people agree with me. luckily i can still just use my parents garage when i want to do some project work, but that's still 30 minutes away. and interest rates are probably not coming down any time soon, so oh well.
- Retric 3y ago
  It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop because home prices are generally based on affordability. You refinance when interest rates drop and actually save money, but your stuck paying a giant low interest loan with little recourse.
  - antisthenes 3y ago
    > It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop The current situation shows that there are caveats to this strategy. For example, rates are high, but prices are still lagging (they will drop eventually, when people begin to realize no one wants to buy their overpriced house with a 7% rate) Also, rates could stay high longer than the average person stays in a house.
    - Retric 3y ago
      Prices near me have dropped quite a bit especially if you include inflation in your comparisons. Though home prices are very local and your income isn’t guaranteed to keep up with inflation.
EatingWithForks 3y ago
I think this is more of an underaddressed mental health issue [compulsive hoarding]. I definitely don't think it's a modern problem in that people definitely had compulsive hoarding issues in the past, but people were generally too poor/impoverished to be able to afford to keep much (so keeping everything you can compulsively is arguably rational behavior).

HPsquared 3y ago

I do the same with hard drives.

squidfood 3y ago

When we recently looked into self-storage to store our junk, the high prices per cubic foot (in a very HCOL area) made us recontextualize our junk in terms of how much rent each item was paying to live with us. Far more in rent over a few months then just buying a new one of whatever it was, when we needed it. We got rid of a lot of junk.

arethuza 3y ago
About ten years ago we were selling a property and decided to "declutter" to make it more appealing - we put lots of stuff in storage. After a few months we had sold the property and then looked at the stuff we had put in storage and 95% of it was junk....
- wiredfool 3y ago
  8 years ago, we moved continents. Some stuff got shipped, some stuff stored that was too precious to sell but not precious enough to ship. Yeah. 8 years of storage for what's now a bunch of kids toys, 120v tools, and some random furniture that we're never going to ship, some handmade stuff. Anyway, we're going to have an epic yard-sale this year when we actually make it back.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    >epic yard-sale Which you'll probably find is more trouble than it's worth but at least it will get stuff out of your hands. Going to make a serious effort to get rid of a fair bit of stuff this summer myself.
    - wiredfool 3y ago
      When we left, the community had a pretty good yard-sale culture. We won't make back anything like what we paid for the stuff or the storage, but we'll not have to deal with the storage costs any more. Otherwise, the tools, books and toys will go to the local thrift stores. And the crap goes to the dump.
ghaff 3y ago
To the degree that people get a storage unit to store things that they don't really have a future plan for using/displaying/etc., they should probably reconsider. It's mostly paying money to kick the can down the road and even potentially make it someone else's problem.
rcarr 3y ago
> Far more in rent over a few months then just buying a new one of whatever it was, when we needed it. I remember reading an article once that said exactly the same thing. The economics of it just don't add up for most people. Anything over 6 months to 12 months and you're generally better off selling or even giving cheap stuff away and then repurchasing later if you need to. Storage gets expensive pretty fast. The guy working at the storage centre said most weeks he'd either end up emptying an abandoned unit or see someone removing most of their stuff and throwing it into a skip.
- biomcgary 3y ago
  My wife uses the local thrift shops as "storage" for a very large fraction of our household goods. The shop will send someone to pick up our donations for storage for free. When we "take stuff out of storage", it isn't quite what we put in, but usually close enough and a nice change of pace. And the storage fee is very modest.
antisthenes 3y ago
Yeah, people just need to have less shit. The most valuable things I own as a homeowner are my collection of tools for home improvement, but even their value pales in comparison to the value of the property itself. I'm very glad I don't have a hoarder mentality.

ghaff 3y ago

>Some people just expand to fill all available space. Yeah. There are a lot of people who use storage units (or attics or garages) to store stuff that they have no real plan to ever use. And, at some point, it gets sufficiently out of control that dealing with it becomes such a big project that it's easier to close the door and forget about it. I do use my attic as something of a staging area for moving things out of the house (as well as for bulky stuff I do use but not frequently). But I try to be deliberate about winnowing things down over time.

rcarr 3y ago

> Most of my neighbors park their cars on the street, despite having two-car garages, and 2000 square foot houses. I've been seeing more and more of this in my area. Big houses, massive empty driveways, cars parked on the road. Slows the traffic down and causes jams everywhere. Infuriating.

inconceivable 3y ago

i noticed that real estate listings for residential SFH's in my area almost never show pictures of the garage. which is weird, because that's basically there's only two reasons i'd want to buy a suburban house - for work space in the garage, and the backyard. everything else can be redone pretty easily. maybe not cheaply, but pretty easily. you can't really make new land or add a 2-3 car garage for 25 grand. where/how many outlets? is there a giant vertical beam in the middle or something? horizontal beam for hoisting/hanging things? is it insulated? finished? rafter space? flooring? cabinets? suitable for a mini split AC? what kind of water heater are we talking about? vent holes near the eaves? is the electrical panel a dangerous antique? so many questions... i guess not many people agree with me. luckily i can still just use my parents garage when i want to do some project work, but that's still 30 minutes away. and interest rates are probably not coming down any time soon, so oh well.

Retric 3y ago
It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop because home prices are generally based on affordability. You refinance when interest rates drop and actually save money, but your stuck paying a giant low interest loan with little recourse.
- antisthenes 3y ago
  > It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop The current situation shows that there are caveats to this strategy. For example, rates are high, but prices are still lagging (they will drop eventually, when people begin to realize no one wants to buy their overpriced house with a 7% rate) Also, rates could stay high longer than the average person stays in a house.
  - Retric 3y ago
    Prices near me have dropped quite a bit especially if you include inflation in your comparisons. Though home prices are very local and your income isn’t guaranteed to keep up with inflation.

EatingWithForks 3y ago

I think this is more of an underaddressed mental health issue [compulsive hoarding]. I definitely don't think it's a modern problem in that people definitely had compulsive hoarding issues in the past, but people were generally too poor/impoverished to be able to afford to keep much (so keeping everything you can compulsively is arguably rational behavior).