We are being buried by our possessions. Why else would the home storage products industry make 4.36 billion per year?1 That's not counting what we pay for self-storage units, other organizing products, books, magazines, and even consultants called "professional organizers" to help us weed our possessions and organize the leftovers.
Why do we put up with inconvenient and uncomfortable homes? How many of us have possessions simply because we haven't looked at them with a critical eye and asked ourselves why we still have them? Not only are we 'material' and buy into the idea that 'things' will make us happy, but we never get rid of anything whether it succeeded in doing what we bought it for or not. In fact, "80% of what we keep we never use."2 Given the size of the 'organizer' market we must be on the verge of being buried alive by our possessions. We are obviously not doing ourselves any favors. If you analyze your space and its contents unemotionally, "it costs an average of $10/square foot to store items in your home."3 So if you are thinking of moving just because you think your house is too crammed and cluttered, you're making a big mistake.
"The Self Storage Association (SSA) represents the $22.6 billion (annual revenues) self storage industry in the United States that comprises 51,223 primary facilities with more than 2.2 billion rentable square feet."4 So some people are paying for storage rather than move, but they are still probably losing money because of possessions they may not even want anymore!
It's obvious to me that we all want more space! What I call, 'room for oxygen.'
1 (statistics from the web site by Professional Organizer Jamie Novak
2 The National Association of Professional Organizers - (Barbara Hemphill, Agency Sales Magazine, 4/1/03
3 The National Association of Professional Organizers
4 From Jeri's Organizing & Decluttering News: Self Storage - A Growing Business
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