Operation Empty the Storage Unit

We're in the middle of a project. If you look at the title of this post, you'll see what that project is.

A few weeks ago I started having thoughts that we needed to go through our boxes and suitcases that were still packed in the storage unit, seeing what we needed and what we didn't. Bryan came home from campus that very day and told me that he really thought we should sort through the storage unit, maybe even see if we could empty it.

When we independently have the same idea, it means we should listen to it.

So we began the process of emptying the storage unit. We have three reason for doing it. The first is that Bryan's job will move us, but they'll only pickup our stuff from one location, so eventually everything would need to be brought here anyway. This way we can make sure we're only moving the stuff we really want and not just the things we've forgotten about because they've been packed away for so long. The second is that the storage unit costs money that we'd rather spend on things like, you know, rent and food. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we were prompted to do it.

In the last two weeks I've sorted through every box of clothing the kids have outgrown and a few that they haven't grown into yet. I've gone through my own clothes as well. I've thrown out old magazines and reorganized yearbooks and pictures. I've emptied seven twelve-gallon storage bins that we've been hauling from house to house. I kept a lot of those clothes, but I realized we probably don't need to hang on to worn out onesies and duplicate items.

Our little apartment is feeling littler, but not in a bad way. I think once we finish the sorting and find homes for everything we'll be glad we did it. And we've liberated a few items that had been deemed too big and were left in the storage unit, my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and large Crock-Pot among them. We can fit more of our stuff because we hauled over a tall set of industrial-strength shelves and placed them at the end of our kitchen table. My shelf space has increased dramatically.

We still have a ways to go, and there are a few items that we're at a loss as to where we'll stick them. But we'll figure it out. This whole endeavor is kind of exciting, like we're working on a huge puzzle, trying to see what fits where. And I think it's good preparation for the many moves we'll be making in the next three years.