Storage

I have been thinking a lot about storage lately.

I have had things in storage for six years now. Since starting college. In 2004 I spent the school year in a dorm. Shortly after that my parents separated and just after that I moved in with Scotty's parents. Some of my things were at my dad's house, some things were in a storage unit my mom rented, and some things were where I was staying. From there, we moved to an apartment for two years. Stuff remained scattered. There was a lot of furniture in the shared storage unit, making it not practical to get to boxes. This time last year, Scotty was laid off from the charter school he had worked for, and we moved back to my in-laws' house. Some stuff remained in my mom's unit, some stuff was unpacked and most stuff went into a new storage shed we put up. Eventually the storage unit got emptied out and now everything is either in this room or in the backyard shed.

That's where we're at right now. Most of this stuff I haven't used or seen on a daily basis in six years. It's just been moved along as I moved along. I feel as though I can't really take stock of what's mine. There are books and clothes I have probably forgotten I owned. Maybe it will make it easier when we move out. Much of it can go to Goodwill by this point. But it's just one of those things that sits there nagging at me. Hey! Don't you wish you had someplace to put this stuff? Aren't you looking forward to having a house and taking a few days off work and sitting down to go through everything? Won't it feel great to walk through rooms and banish empty boxes to the garage or recycling? Won't it feel so good not to trek to a hot storage shed in the middle of summer and dig through dusty boxes full of crud? Won't it feel good to know what you own, and have enough room for everything for once in six years?

Yeah, it will, but it hasn't happened yet. It will be almost spring before we have a down payment saved up, assuming we keep saving at our current rate, and who knows, with the market as it is, if we'll actually get approved. So then if we can't buy, it's renting, and moving, and that old refrain of not wanting to unpack because it's not a permanent place. Meh. Whether we rent or not, I've already decided that the only boxes in the place will have holiday decorations and spare computer parts in them.

No more boxes.