Paying for storage facilities might seem like
an easy solution when you’re in dire need of short-term space.
Perhaps you’ve seen the TV show “Storage
Wars”. That is when folks get
tired of paying rent to store unused items so the stuff is sold again, and then
sold again to retail therapy victims at flea markets or thrift stores.
What's it all costing you?
The storage unit price is
determined based on a few factors, including:
- Size of the unit
- Location of the storage facility
- Other special features such as climate control and an indoor storage unit versus an outdoor unit
How much is a storage unit? According
to CostHelper, a provider of consumer information, the average national storage
unit costs are:
- $40-$50 per month for a 5-by-5-foot unit
- $75-$140 per month for a 10-by-15-foot unit
- $115-$150 per month for a climate-controlled 10-by-15-foot unit
- $95-$155 per month for a 10-by-20-foot unit
- $170-$180 per month for a climate-controlled 10-by-20-foot unit
- $225 per month for a 20-by-20-foot unit
Storage units can be as
inexpensive as $25 for a small unit in a smaller population area like Plano,
Texas, or as expensive as $538 per month for a large unit in Los Angeles. If you rent a 10-by-15 unit that’s
on the low end of the national average — so, about $75 per month
— you’re spending $900 per year on a unit. And that price doesn’t include
any other taxes or fees the facility charges.
(https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/why-still-wasting-money-storage-units)
Even if you’re not a diagnosed hoarder, you
should learn to let go of more things to make room in your life — and enjoy your
wallet expanding.
Retail Therapy is not a healthy financial plan!
You don't need to be a PhD economist
consulting the retail sector to understand that we are bombarded every day by
marketing messages urging us to buy, buy, buy. And we do. Way, way, too much
for most of us.
Take, for example, clothes. The U.S.
apparel industry today is a $12 billion business and the average
American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. The dollar figures are of little significance since it
accounts for just 3.5 percent of a family's expenses, on average. What is
significant is whether that money is spent on need or waste. The answer
is, largely, waste. In 1930, the average American woman owned nine outfits.
Today, that figure is 30 outfits -- one for every day of the month. But, in the end, we generally wear only
our favorite few outfits.
How many unworn items do you have in your
closet?
We spend money on stuff, then we spend
money to warehouse and organize the stuff we spend on. Then we pay to discard
it. Then we pay to maintain the landfills where it sits for ever and
ever.
And then there is the time required to
maintain all that stuff. That big house doesn't clean itself, after all. Either
you must work more hours at a paid job to pay someone else to clean it, or take
your own time to clean it. All those 30 outfits must be laundered and ironed.
Or, you take all the stuff and stuff it into closets, garages, drawers, attics,
etc. You then lock the doors and hide the keys. Wouldn't you be embarrased if someone accidentally looked in there?!!
Clutter is just another word for deferred
decisions.
Before more time passes, try making a
plan. Whether it’s setting aside a weekend to sort out your things or accepting
that there might not be a place for some of your property and it’s time to
donate it, give it to a family member or sell it — action will yield savings
and probably some relief, too. You just have to make time for it.
Feeling ill-equipped to perform a certain
task is one reason people procrastinate, according to Psychology Today.
Therefore, if you are finding it hard to imagine how you’re going to get rid of
a unit’s worth of stuff — perhaps all by yourself — then it’s easy to
understand why you might want to put it off. It’s overwhelming.
The solution is to just dive in and do it.
You can use a cognitive coping self-statement, sort of like “The Little Engine
That Could.” Try giving yourself a pep talk in the vein of “I think I can.”
Positive affirmations like this can help take the fear out of the task and
eliminate your need to procrastinate — and spend unnecessary money on storage
fees.
Next time you go shopping, ask yourself
how it really makes you feel. Now think of your closet, drawers and attic.
Are they full? How does that make you feel? What about your bank account? Does
the balance evoke comfort or anxiety?
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