Monday, May 17, 2004
To keep or to not keep, that is the question
~~every mother's advice about packing light ~~


When we moved from Phoenix to Washington we sold our home and a HUGE majority of our belongings....almost all of our furniture as we felt it would be cheaper to come up here and buy new stuff instead of paying to ship our old stuff.

Rude awaking #1: I got sick and we were forced to spend our savings and the money we made selling all our cool stuff on the cost of day to day living.

Rude awaking #2: Wages are less than half up here in this little town as compared to Phoenix so we are earning less and still spending close to the same amount. Yuck.

Alas, this is not a woes is me story, it's worse. {small grin}

In our quest for things we can afford I've been hitting garage sales and this weekend we went together to an auction at a mini storage place. They had advertised that there were three units up for auction and in our ever present innocence we thought this sounded like a good idea. We showed up to bid and were the first people there. This town is one of those places where you show up and are expected to make small talk and daylight was a burnin' folks. We got to check the units out from the doorways and in one we could see a brand new freezer, in another a used washer and dryer and in the last all we could see for MILES was used Ford parts.

So....we bid $25 dollars each on the 10 by 20 units with the freezer and the washer and dryer thinking that we could sell those three items and surely recoup our investment. (Yes, I went in to this as an investment deal.) Being the only people to show up we got the two units, borrowed locks from our new best friends the owner's of storage place ~ and were graciously given 48 hours to clean out said stuff.



*********** I was seeing $$$$$$ signs everywhere! ***********

************ This was my get rich quick scheme! ***********

And then we began the heart wrenching task of going thru stuff that belonged to someone else deciding what is worth selling and what isn't.

My soul started feeling dirty.

For $25 bucks I had someone's life in my garage. The deal is that you must return photos and legal documents to the storage unit office and anything else is your to do whatever you want with.

Here's what I've learned:

Pack like someone else may see your stuff.
If you put stuff in storage pay for it faithfully.
Don't store your good stuff or family heirlooms.
If you do, for goodness sake tell your family.

And if you are wondering if it's OK to keep candy and candles in the same box outside for ten years...it isn't. Ever.

Also consider these thoughts when packing up your stuff:

Remember that hideous green plate your brother made in church camp the year before he was killed? Now some stranger is wondering why you kept it. That wedding dress you paid to have heirloom? A stranger is wondering how much to sell it for. The velvet Elvis picture? Hanging in a garage with a pink yard sell sticker. The sterling silver your great grandma passed down? At an antique shop getting appraised....

Finally, no really, finally:

Wondering about keeping those pictures from your bachelor(ette) party?

Burn them. Please.

{{{{{{ eeewwww, I didn't know they'd let men that hairy strip... I've also never seen a stripper. LOL}}}}}





ckays1967 at 9:30:00 PM PDT Link to this entry

This entry has 14 comments: (Add your own)
Wow - great entry. I've heard of these auctions but never checked them out myself. I love garage sales. How did yours go?
Comment from freeepeace - 5/29/04 6:47 PM



This was too funny! I had my stuff in storage before moving into my apartment. I talked to the manager before and he told me about the process (like this) of what happens to the stuff if someone defaults. It's really sad that people just don't care enough. But they are great places to find stuff. He said one unit went for something like what you paid because when you looked in the unit all you could see were boxes, which typically don't have a lot of valuables. When the new owners pulled the boxes out they found a big screen TV in the back! Talk about a good deal! :-) ---Robbie
Comment from krobbie67 - 5/29/04 8:23 AM



You're probably wondering where I've been, besides with my head in the clouds or up nether regions... my InfernalMachine would not load anything with images for 6 days! then... as you may have heard (hehe)... I got CABLE!! So, that meant swiping images left and right and writing, rather than reading. But here I am, again. I actually read this entry on the 18th, but 'puter shut down on me before I could comment with this:
hahahahaha! in a bittersweet kinda guffaw.
~~mumsy
p.s.--funny about the almost crossed in the mail poems, huh?

Comment from merelyp - 5/20/04 4:32 PM



I don't know whether to laugh or cry...
Comment from karensull12 - 5/20/04 2:55 PM



LOL.. this is a great entry. But I can see the non-humor in it because my boss had the unpleasant opportunity once of buying a house that had been abandoned by a family on drugs. She was horrified to find that the woman - the mother of two small children - had left behind baby clothes and baby pictures, baby books, and other things that my boss was heartbroken to see left behind. To make matters worse, it was the grandmother who sold the house, and when my boss offered to send her these things, she said to just put them in the trash. How can people leave those things behind?? So sad.
Comment from slowmotionlife - 5/19/04 8:19 PM



Here's a dumb question:

How did these people's belongings end up going on the auction block?

I mean, if they could no longer afford to keep their things there, wouldn't they remove AT LEAST those things they definitely didn't want to lose?

I mean, yes, it's tragic that they've lost things they seemed to want to keep so badly...but like the rest of us, not paying the rent usually means something bad will happen sooner or later.

I'm not trying to be unsympathetic here, believe me, but I'm just wondering how they LEFT their stuff there to begin with.

Given what I've read so far, I wouldn't feel guilty about going through their stuff or disposing of it. You have the legal right now to do so, and there comes a point at which you have to take care of yourself first.

Patrick
Comment from pattboy92 - 5/18/04 3:53 PM



Quite the learning experience! Some smart advice, too!
Comment from babymae1966 - 5/18/04 11:49 AM



My husband is such a packrat that at one point, he had three storage units filled to the ceiling. Need I say that clutter is one of my pet peeves, and with his hoarding, I get peeved a lot. It's strange to sort through other people's things. When I cleared out my parent's house, we had a company do a tag sale of what we didn't want. Seeing other people sort through my family's stuff was even stranger.
Comment from sistercdr - 5/18/04 7:01 AM



If I need storage for my stuff that means I have to much stuff. My suggestion? Have a garage sale before you need storage. :-)
Comment from dbaumgartner - 5/18/04 3:28 AM



I hope we dont come to a point where we have so much stuff that we would even need a storage place unit. I can see how it may be useful in a pinch when moving unexpectedly and it be very tempory. A flylady.com rule for declutering your home and your life is.. if you dont love it and dont really need it, get rid of it. If you have more than one of a certain thing, get rid of the extra, why hold on to things that are going clutter up your life. lol now that i have said all that I am looking around thinking ok maybe I should take my own advice.
Comment from hunybea4him - 5/18/04 12:21 AM



My sister recently lost a bunch of her stuff in storage. It's sad. But your entry was great! Lisa
Comment from cw2smom - 5/17/04 10:25 PM



Barb.... Thank you for the comment. I did leave out the fact the woman almost cried but the payments on all three units were almost a year behind. She HATED having to sell the units but needed to rent them out to people who would pay. She also said not one of them had responded to her letters or calls so she had no choice.

;(
Comment from ckays1967 - 5/17/04 10:03 PM



I could write a book on this entry. I was manager of three storage places and held auctions on a regular basis. Every time I'd rent a unit I'd go out of my way to tell those renting the unit to THINK CAREFULLY about what you put inside the unit. I told them horror stories of how unexpected things came up and people lost every-thing they had: heirlooms, wedding presents.new furniture, expensive jewelry, pictures, sentimental things that could never be replaced. Holding auctions was part of my job so I held them. It was terribly hard to see people I'd come to know and care about, crying, standing heartbroken before me and I couldn't do a thing. I hope a lot of people read this entry of yours, and my comment as well. A lot of this hearbreak could have been avoided. I even suggested to the new renters that they ask relatives permission to keep their "better stuff" until they got on their feet. I am moving right after June 1st and will be storing almost everything we have. Having been a manger I'd like to point out the importance of contacting the manager when you can't make a payment. Too many people avoided me because they were embarrassed and kept telling themselves they'd get the money. They weren't able too and lost it all. If they'd contacted me I could have worked a payment plan out for them. There are some owners who won't do that, but most will. Avoiding payment gives the impression you don't care. Owners's reaction is...if they don't care enough about their own things to contact me, why should I care about them losing them. **Food for thought.** Barb
Comment from barbpinion - 5/17/04 9:52 PM



Well, Christina, you really MIGHT have made a decent investment, if you can get over your squeamishness about what you now own! Sounds cool and sad all at the same time. You can't help but wonder about the people whose lives contained this STUFF... Lisa :-]
Comment from mlraminiak - 5/17/04 9:51 PM