Storage Wars.
We have too much stuff. I’m not saying YOU do--although it
appears that Americans, in general, have too much stuff. Most of us can just
look in our basements, garages or attics (please don’t look in my closet!) to
see that it’s true.
Did you know there’s actually a trade association for
operators of self-storage facilities? You know, those one-story concrete
buildings dotting the landscape with acres of bright blue or orange garage
doors confined behind chain link fences and razor wire? There are now roughly 50,000 of these places
in the United States, which the Self Storage Association says generated nearly
$22.5 billion in gross revenues last year. The association reports that one in
10 US households rents a unit in a self-storage facility—a 65 percent increase
over the last 15 years!
Yuuup! He's King of the Castle |
Yuuup!* We recently rented a nifty 10-by-10 space so we
wouldn’t look like hoarders when our house went on the market. This adventure
also included rental of a U-Haul on a 100-plus degree day. If you think packing
your station wagon for family vacation is a treat, see how you and your partner
do finessing (cramming) your kids’ old
beds and sports trophies, 30 years worth of Christmas decorations, your mom’s
antique desk and about a million books in this little concrete slice of hell. It
was a flashback to the stack my beloved dubbed “the wall of shit” last time we
moved. Let’s just say that after you finally agree on the best way to create an
aisle down the middle so you can access the boxes you’ve shoved to the back, you’ll
be glad your love seats are in storage.
*If you aren’t familiar with Dave Hester’s signature bidding
style, you haven’t seen A&E’s Storage Wars. Like many other so-called
reality shows, it’s paradoxically tacky and quite alluring, especially if you
love those personalities we might charitably dub “characters.” It’s not nearly as
nauseating as the same network’s Hoarders and there are no mental health
professionals involved… although it probably wouldn’t hurt.
I told Mark that we need to tackle the basement. C'mon, I said, let's pretend we're moving and be ruthless. He doesn't want to join in my reindeer games. Ever.
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