Hacker News Reader

Comment by pglevy | Hacker News Reader

We call these "above-ground landfills." After watching (and helping) my parents shuffle stuff around these facilities for years, we drew a hard line in our household: no external storage. If it doesn't fit in the space we live in, we're not keeping it. Great article!

View on HN

My wife and I needed a storage locker due to a very slow house move along with her parents giving us some (wanted) furniture from their recent move. The spare bedroom we had been using as an office and storage space needed to be cleared out for a friend that was going to live with us for a bit. We just couldn't keep everything in our apartment and the house just wasn't ready for most of our stuff. I knew plenty of stories of people keeping storage units full of forgotten junk and I didn't want that happening with us. We made a promise to each other that we would get the unit empty within the month we finally could move into the house. The unit was of a decent size and only $20/month for the 2 or 3 months we had it so it was pretty inexpensive but we were pretty cash strapped at the time. The rate was going to jump up a lot more if we had kept it longer. We barely had enough to pay movers to help move the big stuff, we did all the small stuff ourselves. Intentionally, the storage unit was on the route between the apartment and house so it was easy to just pickup a few things at a time. Finally when it was time to move things in, we were able to get it done in about a week, right before the increased renewal rate was about to be charged. I was doing reno work for the landlord during this time so we technically had a house to live in but it's pretty annoying trying to live in a place while you're sanding drywall and replacing flooring.

Way to have a plan and stick to it. If it's necessary, good idea to set a deadline.

> our household: no external storage. If it doesn't fit in the space we live in, we're not keeping it

This assumes you can afford a space to live in that has minimally adequate space to store necessary posessions.

In many areas that is nearly impossible, it would cost millions for a house that can have enough sqft to keep the basic minimum sport/hobby/inheritance things one needs.

I guess it depends on your definition of "basic minimum sport/hobby/inheritance things." The point is to put some guardrail in place, otherwise you end up spending money for years on stuff you don't see except when you move it to a different bin. It forces you to make decisions.

Yeah I just don’t understand. I sold so much second hand furniture online. Each sale you get a little bit of adrenaline rush from a buyer handing you cash while you get rid of old stuff. (No adrenaline with electronic direct deposits.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com