Almost all of us have been in a position where your home just doesn’t have enough space for you. We are experiencing some of that ourselves right now, and are working on ways to add more shelving around the house. But sometimes, that’s not an option for you. So today’s guest post from Alex (wife, mom and freelance writer) will give you a whole new option to think about…and one that I find really smart.
Hello, let me tell you a little about myself–my family has too much stuff. (I was inspired to write this after reading Christine Escobar’s “Green Mama Guilt” piece about using paper towels.)
Before my husband and I had children, we considered ourselves minimalists. We had enough clothing to get us through the four different seasons in Chicago (summer, cold, REALLY COLD, and slightly less cold), and our furniture and belongings were so loosely spread throughout our home that we could have been a museum, if museums were two-bedroom apartments that were furnished via thrift store.
Then we had kids. I’m sure you all know the rest.
The trouble started with the baby showers. We had two, because both my mother and my coworkers wanted to throw one. That meant we ended up with a pile of stuff, much of it we didn’t want or need. (We actually ended up with four different plastic baby bathers. Bathing an infant in the sink has now become scientific.)
That was fine, because we were able to return nearly all of it before the baby arrived. And, later, on our baby’s first birthday and first Christmas, we quietly made the gifts we didn’t need disappear.
Then our little Noah got older. He learned the concept of “mine”. And he started opening his birthday and Christmas presents himself.
Suddenly, we as parents had a dilemma — how could we stay true to our minimalist values without forcibly taking away Noah’s belongings? Both of us remember our own parents throwing away, donating, or selling our childhood possessions without giving us a choice in the matter. We weren’t going to do that.
So the stuff piled up, and when Noah’s sister Emily arrived, the piles grew larger. Our entire apartment felt like it ha been taken over by kid stuff. Parents across the globe know just what that’s like.
By the time Noah was four and Emily was two, I realized we had two options. The first was to move into a larger apartment — one where our kids could have their own playroom or basement. But that would take my husband and I out of Chicago’s center and put us in the suburbs, where we both would have much longer commutes and# less time to spend with each other and our children. There’s a lot of research on why commutes are bad for you, including the obvious environmental, health, and stress reasons, but Eric Jaffe’s article “Your Long Commute May Be Hurting Your Marriage” was enough.
So we had to pursue another solution.
Enter the storage unit…
Why a storage unit and not, say, a huge donation to Goodwill? For starters, we know a lot of our belongings are going to come in and out of our house every year. Christmas stuff alone takes up six boxes. Then there’s the summer swimsuits, the camping tent, all of the warm-weather items that need to go out of sight during the colder months so our kids won’t beg to play with the tent poles and break them. Keeping your things safe during the winter is important, especially since the storage units Chicago provides may be our only realistic respite from the elements.
Secondly, because we’ve found that the storage unit is a good initial step in getting our children to eventually part with their belongings. Knowing that we can drive down to the storage unit any time we want has helped both Noah and Emily (now in second grade and kindergarten) happily box up old art projects, outgrown toys, and other items that no longer fully fit in their lives. And yes, that means I have to make good on my word to go back for a toy “any time we want,” but I only once had to actually drive Emily over so she could rescue her Fisher-Price wheeled phone, which I assumed was a baby toy because of the wheels but is actually something she needs, desperately, to play “going to work like Mommy.”
Noah’s now old enough to get that he really doesn’t need his baby stuff anymore (Emily isn’t quite there yet), and we talked about this upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas season and how important it is to give to other people. Then he and his daddy took a special trip out to the storage unit and returned with two huge boxes of old toys and clothes for donations. I’m really proud that Noah is ready to start handling this important responsibility. Every year, my husband and I go through our belongings to make a charitable donation (in addition to a nice cash gift), and it’s nice that Noah is ready to take part in one of our most important family values.
So that’s how we solved at least part of the “too much stuff” problem. How about you?
Feel free to visit my disclosure page if you have questions about this post or any other posts on NOH.
