Now that the “holiday season” busy-ness is over, I’m thinking about how to approach this project for the new year. Huge gains were made in 2008 towards getting rid of the storage unit. However it is still there, rent payments are still going out every month, and all the junk is just sitting there on the cold damp cement floor. It is difficult (but not impossible) to get there in the winter because of the snow and ice build-up on the walkway. One key success I had last year was getting all the big stuff moved out, so the remaining stuff is in bankers boxes or small furniture that could be moved by me alone with my car. Many trips, but do-able without renting a truck or getting people to help me.
Therefore I see two ways to approach it. One is to wait until the Spring thaw to get back there and continue going through boxes, throwing things out, separating things to sell or give away. The landlord will get another 4-5 months rent out of me this way. On the positive side it would give me a chance to focus now on reducing the stuff I have piled up here in my rented bedroom.
The other way is to just haul everything out of there and stop renting the space by the end of January. I’ll still have to sort through the boxes, but at least I wouldn’t be wasting money on storage rent. Not sure where I’d put it all, probably would have to talk my hosts into letting me use a corner of their basement. I fear becoming overwhelmed by having all this junk with me in one location. Having it stored somewhere else seems to make it easier to deal with - bringing 1 or 2 boxes back and dealing with it a little at a time.
After thinking about this dilemma for a long while, sometimes I step back mentally from it and realize how crazy it is to be in a position where I have to make these kind of choices.