Your husband’s idea seemed like a good one when he first explained.
He had seen storage shelves built above the garage door in several neighbors’ homes, so he proposed that he should make one.
With a plan that he downloaded from the internet, he went about collecting the needed materials from the local hardware store, he set up shop in the garage one weekend and completed the project that he installed above the single car garage door. Several trips up and down the ladder later the shelf was full of things that had been cluttering the area for years, and you now had room to park a third car inside, just in time for your oldest daughter’s 16th birthday.
Fast forward four years. With your youngest daughter ready to drive you again find that the garage is more crowded than ever. Your oldest daughter has gone to college 12 hours away, and in her absence you have again let the clutter collect. Once again, your husband assembles his tools, purchases the needed material and this time builds a larger shelf above the two car garage door. Fortunately, when you clean up the garage this time and move things into the new elevated storage space you only fill it half way. You and your husband joke, however, about how long it will be that this new space is filled.
When Is Enough Enough?
Americans seem to have an issue with storage. Although there are those individuals who purge and throw on a regular basis, a far greater number of us keep everything. We keep all of the papers from when our children were in elementary school. We keep all of the clothes that we hope to again fit in one day. We keep sporting equipment that has not been used in years. And, on the off chance that we ever have an empty storage containers, we keep those as well knowing full well that they will again serve a purpose.
In fact, until it comes time to hire a moving company and relocate to another home many of us never bother to go through the items that clutter our lives. Unfortunately, even when it is time to call a mover, some of us still keep our unused items and promise to sort through them at the new house. Nashville movers, Omaha movers, San Diego movers, and moving companies in every state in between have all helped their customers transport boxes that have not even been opened in years.
It should come as no surprise then that the storage and moving industries are vibrant parts of the nation’s economy.
- Numbers indicate that the U.S. has more than 50,000 storage facilities. to put this in perspective, this is more than five times the number of Starbucks.
- Estimates indicate that 33% of renters move each year.
- Estimates also indicate that t average 30-year-old has moved six times.
- Despite show after television show about hoarders and organizing teams that come into homes and spend an entire week decluttering homes, Americans still seem to be very fond of keeping more than what they need.
- More than 63% of Americans have moved to a new community at least once in their lives.
- Only 37% of Americans have never left their hometowns.
- Research shows that there are 300,000 items in the average American home.
- Estimates are that the average American moves about 12 times in a lifetime.
- Summer is one of the most popular times for Americans to move. In fact, in the year of 2016, 13.9% of moves occurred in the month of June. December was the least popular month to move, with only 3.3% of people selecting this month as the time to relocate.
- Packrats is a rather old fashioned term for what some now refer to as hoarders.
- About one of every six Americans moves every year.
- Considering that a Friday move gives people the weekend to complete their goal, it should come as no surprise that this day of the week is one of the busiest days in the moving industry, with 19.45% of the moves in 2016 occurring on Fridays.
- Everyone probably has at least one drawer, one closet, or one space in the house that is full of unused items. Any chance that you will declutter one of your this summer?
