Renting a storage unit for decluttering

[Pistachiomix]

Goodness. I have so much stuff I’m thinking about renting a storage unit, 2 of the rooms are just full of stuff like seasonal decorations/ clothes/ old kids stuff/ spare chairs etc.

I don’t have a garage or loft and the older the kids get the more stuff piles up and it’s harder to get through the older stuff. I try and clear stuff for charity and to chuck away but the kids are always in the way, clambering over me or pulling stuff out and then muddling up the piles, or playing with said object that’s going away. I have lots of new, great clothes for vinted / eBay but no time to list and getting lost in piles.

Because of this, I am considering renting a storage unit to declutter as I can go throw the stuff peacefully and hopefully make actual progress. Has anyone else done this before? I really can’t tell what size I need. Does 50ft sound too big? I’m hoping I can clear in a month or 2 max. TIA

It sounds like it could potentially just become another place to fill with stuff.

How old are your children?

Don't would be my advice. I did and it just became an extension of all the stuff we had at home and nothing got sorted.

I wouldn't bother. If you're prone to buying too much and keeping too much clutter, you'll just end up with a storage unit full of clutter, "out of sight, out of mind" and will start cluttering your home again. You need to tackle it head on and get rid, not just move it somewhere else.

that's not decluttering, that's just storing your clutter elsewhere! Ok, there's things you only use occasionally but "old kids stuff" just needs clearing out.

I think a skip might be more useful. I find that being at peace with the money spent/waste of money helps. Don’t think that you might sell stuff or that if you throw that chair away someone might need it and have to buy a new chair. If you have two rooms that are full of stuff and children clambering about then you aren’t in a position to put things on vinted. You need to get stuff out so you get your space back.

My main advice would be not to. Stuff will get dumped with good intentions, that never come to fruition.

unless you can be really really militant on it. we have one, it has our camping stuff and Christmas stuff in.
yes it’s a pain in the arse when we need it and we do have a bit of a cross over of stuff at home now. It’s tempting to keep things like out of season clothing in there, or stuff im going to sell on Vinted. The reality is that won’t happen, or I will buy more as I can’t be arsed to get it out.

I considered this as I dont have a spare room or any space i could use. I decided against it though as thought it would end up full of stuff rather than helping.

I am currently working on 15 items a day for this month. Yesterday was a kallax box full of kids tat. Reduced by at least 2/3.

15 items is pretty easy, anything counts, just get it out of the house.

Did you post about this last week op?

don’t do it.

you are simply moving the problem from one place so another.

in 5 years time you will find that you’ve spent thousands of pounds storing your old junk and you will be thinking about getting another unit.

If you can sort stuff to go into storage, you can sort stuff to throw / donate / sell.

Don’t kid yourself that this is a solution. It’s a procrastination at best, a bigger problem down the line at worst.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.

Please don't take this as a criticism because I know how hard it is to achieve anything when young children are around but is there anything you can do to prevent them? It would be cheaper to book the children into after school activities than to rent a storage unit. If they are pre-school, could you book them into child care while you sort your things?

Maybe dump everything into one of the rooms and put a temporary bolt on it so they can't get at the stuff. How old are your children?

Is it possible to designate one room a child-free zone, dump everything in there and dedicate time alone in there going through it all? You can prepare with boxes, tape, bin liners etc so the kids won't know what is leaving the house.

Join one of the decluttering threads?

I have also been tempted by the storage unit idea but I think it only makes sense if you can go there very regularly.

You’ll find you will be paying fur that storage unit much more than what’s inside is worth. And you won’t clear it out in a couple months. You’ll just add to it.
Only tackle the clutter when the kids are not there and get a friend to help you when motivation flags. Like ‘Sue please give me two hours of your time and I’ll make you lunch’. I paid for a decluttering expert when I was downsizing from my five bed detached to a three bed terrace. She sold anything decent (for a cut) so that helped pay for her services.

Oh god no, don't do it!

The worst thing you can do when trying to declutter is get more storage, you'll just end up with more clutter to fill the space.

Have a look at Dana White's books/blog on decluttering, she really helped me shift my mindset.

Why not just bin it. If you don’t need it in your house, you don’t need it. One small box of baubles is all you need to keep for Xmas. If you want more than that each year buy fresh holly and eucalyptus etc at the time

Honestly if you put things in storage where you cant see it you wont sort the stuff, you will probably just keep adding to it and it will be too easy to just get another storage container and fill that up too

The stuff you have to sort try to break it down instead of putting it in piles for people to destroy and muddle up, then pick one category each week to tackle

Start with clothes, sort into donate/sell, take donations straight to charity shop the day you sort it or book a collection charity to take it from you, if you want a bit of cash for some clothes find one of those places that pay per bag/per kg etc because realistically your never going to get round to uploading it to vinted and if you do upload it and it doesnt sell for months then its still taking up space

Then move on to the spare chairs, unwanted furniture, see if a local charity usually places like british heart foundation will come and collect these, facebook marketplace is always a good way to get rid of furniture too

Old kids stuff, just donate any good bits, take the rest to the tip, if the kids have outgrown these things then you dont need to keep any of it

Just keep working one category at a time so it doesn't get too overwhelming 🙂

Are the kids old enough you can send them out for the day whilst you tackle things? Or do it whilst they are at school?

How would renting a storage unit to store your excess clutter help with decluttering???
You're just moving your clutter elsewhere.
A better solution would be a proper clearout and a skip.

What will happen is you'll fill the storage with unsorted clutter. Your house will then have room for more clutter. Hire a skip instead.

Get rid of all the clutter, straight from your home.

Skip, tip, weekly collection for rubbish
Local charity shops, Anglo Doorstep and Freecycle for donations

DO NOT get a storage unit. Why would you move everything twice? Just be ruthless now.

Sort a system of piles/bags. I have a huge woven zip up bag under the stairs that takes all donations. When full, I book a collection and put a new bag out.

Do look up how much storage units cost (the proper price, not the 1p a week for the first two weeks price). Calculate 18 months worth of storage. Believe me, it WON’T be a month. You will put it there and promptly feel less urgency to sort. Are you really going to schlep over there on a freezing winter day to an unheated, kettleless storage unit and sort? Really?

Put that money aside to buy/replace anything that you throw away/donate and later need.

I will absolutely guarantee you, you will be better off. And clutter free.

Hoarders love storage units.
They can then fill them up with their crap and add more crap to their homes.

Just get rid of your crap! Either sell it or donate it or just chuck it out.

BTW this was the advice you got on your other threads about your hoard.

Op, why do you have piles? I think that’s a problem if the kids disrupt them. Would it be possible to get stuff out every day - even if it’s just one item to avoid the piles. Do you have a car - could you put charity shop stuff in the boot so it doesn’t become a pile.

Dana K white offers good advice and a process for getting rid of things one item at a time so that you don’t have piles everywhere.

Or you could hire a declutterer / organiser to help you. I’m sure that would be cheaper than a storage unit. I also think it would be so much effort to put things in the unit you’d be better off spending the time really tackling an area. For example if you thoroughly decluttered your bedroom could that be the temporary home of your piles to do when dc are in bed.

Don't. Something will happen and you will end up procrastinating. Then after paying for the storage unit for 20 years you order a skip and put everything there. Sort at home. It is possible.

You have to physically move it all into boxes or containers in order to put it in storage, you might as well sort it instead. It’s literally the same amount of work.

Ive heard hoarders make the argument that they're not hoarders, its just a storage space issue.

Honestly this is a dreadful idea op...just shifting the problem around