Thursday, August 9, 2007

Too Much Storage Space?

Valet Organizers deluxe walk-in closet

Kevin Meyer has an amusing post entitled Less Storage Space Desired. Here are a few tidbits:
My mother in-law's great passion in life is looking at houses. . . . She's all about the multiple huge closets, walk-in pantries, attics and crawl spaces, sheds and oversized garages, and any other designed-in nook and cranny that can hold... stuff. What stuff? Holiday decorations, clothing, books, nick-nacks, and assorted memorabilia long since forgotten. In her opinion the more storage space the better, and the ultimate home would have a door to an alternate dimension holding another couple thousand square feet of open space (preferably with built-ins) within the confines of the house. . . .

I . . . am impressed with small closets and no pantries. The less room there is for storage, the less that will be stored. The less that is stored, the less cash that gets spent on stuff that might expire, go out of style, or disappear into boxes that may be next opened by archaeologists.

. . . the great benefit of flat screen TV's is not the great picture quality but the fact that clothes can't be stacked on top of them.

While I've seen some spaces that are truly short on storage, I've seen many more where the storage is filled with things that don't really enhance the lives of the owners. So when any of us complains about lack of storage, it's good to step back and consider if the problem is truly with the storage (as it sometimes is) or with the masses of stuff we're trying to store (as it more often is).

[Via Australian organizer Lissanne Oliver]

[picture from Valet Organizers]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link! You might also like to read another story about the mother inlaw...

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2006/11/oprah_dr_phil_a.html

And your photo...

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2007/03/heavy_heads_of_.html

(sorry... but couldn't resist!)

Kevin

Anonymous said...

I agree. People who know how to organize make wise decisions.
Having a huge space won't be enough if we don't know how to organize our things.

Anonymous said...

True. Extra space has nothing to do with our ability to make room for more things. Having the time to organize and remove unnecessary things is more important.