Making the Most of Your Space: From Donations to Self Storage Units

Making the Most of Your Space: From Donations to Self Storage Units

Just because January’s almost over doesn’t mean you can’t still indulge in a New Year’s resolution. What’s that? You didn’t make any? Well, get on it! Why not resolve to get your home organized? It might seem like a tiresome task, but the truth is you’ll feel much better about the state of your home and, subsequently, yourself if you can look around and think, “This place looks great!”

So, first things first. Start dividing up your things into four categories: things to be kept, things to be tossed out, things to be donated, and things to be stored. As you do this, don’t get sucked into the “Well, I haven’t used this in three years, but I might use it this spring help mentality that’s probably how you ended up with as much junk as you have in the first place. If something has just been taking up space for more than half a year, it needs to get gone. Exceptions include seasonal wear and wares their expiration date is a year.

Bag and box everything accordingly, then survey just how much you’re going to put into storage. Look into climate-controlled storage this way you’ll have to worry far less about what can go into storage and what can’t and try to position the boxes and bags you’ll be storing in the manner they’ll sit in the storage unit. This will help you determine what size you’ll need.

Now, depending on how much stuff you have to get rid of (whether trash or donations) and store, you can rent a truck or small van and drop everything off in one trip. Dump the trash first, then bring the donations to your local Salvation Army or Goodwill. There might even be a drop-box around, but those are usually for clothing only. If you have housewares to also donate, you should just bring everything to the shop and hand it over to be sorted through. Finally, bring what’s left over to the storage center. Save this for last, because it will probably take the longest. When it comes to actually storing everything, store the boxes with the most valuable things at the back and the heaviest boxes on the bottom. If there are any items you think you’ll need to access more often than others, store them together and keep them at the front of the unit.

Now that everything you don’t want or need is out of your apartment or safely stored in a climate-controlled storage unit, it’s time to move on to the fun part of organizing your home actually organizing your home! This part probably doesn’t seem like fun, but think about it: you can incorporate your organizational plan into your decorating scheme, plus you get to buy stuff to organize with!