Don’t store it — get rid of it

Now that we are in our little rental space, we are truly getting used to living with limited storage space.

And it’s pretty cool.

We are regarding our rented storage unit, not as the repository of our precious, precious belongings, but rather another place we have to clear out.  That is an onerous task, but one that will bring us more happiness in the long run.

Heck, it will make us happier in the short run, too.

When we first considered moving from 1100+ square feet to 500 square feet, I just assumed that we would always have to have a rented storage unit.

For our stuff.  For our Christmas decorations, extra dishes, linens.

Even after we moved to the rental suite, I wanted to use the storage unit as an extra closet.  I kept a few towels and sheets, and packed up the rest, planning that when the small amount of linen and dishes in the rental suite broke or wore out, we would replace them with items from the storage.  Planning that gradually the storage space would be emptied as we used up things.

Then, after putting one of our two sets of sheets on the bed, DH put his foot through the bottom sheet.

The idea of going up to our storage space and shifting a ton of boxes to find the right box with the extra linen in it was ridiculous.  I also knew that the “extra set” of sheets in that box wasn’t complete, either.  Stupidly, I had put away an incomplete set of sheets because …… never mind.  And so now I have a top sheet and two pillowcases and all I need is a bottom sheet.  Turns out that Walmart sells single sheets by themselves, and I’ll pick one up.  But the point is I will not be going in to that barrage of boxes, that cataract of cardboard, that mountainous morass of stuff just to get a single sheet.

Just like I won’t go in there to get a single wine glass when one breaks. Or one towel.  Or one saucepan (OK, likely won’t wear out or break, so why do I need those extras?).

And as far as Christmas decorations go, we will need more outdoor lights.  But for the rest, we will keep just a few of the most precious, and give the rest away.  We won’t need five big plastic tubs of Xmas cheer, one will do, and we can probably find a corner of the laneway (maybe under the stairs) to store it.

Everything “extra” will go, given away, donated, tossed.

These monsters have to be fed!

If we hadn’t started living this way, we would never have appreciated how nice it is to live with less stuff.  Now we love it, and will continue to do so.