Shelving Strategy

October 9, 2010

Americans spend a lot of money on mini-warehouse storage. Mostly, we store junk. We pay $100 a month to store stuff worth less than $1,000 at a yard sale.

There is a reason why George Carlin's monologue on "stuff" has had over two million views on YouTube.

My new house has an unfinished basement. It's big: about 1900 square feet. Two rooms are being used to store stuff.

My wife is the world's greatest packer. She can get more stuff into a minivan or moving van than anyone I know has ever seen. She is filling the rooms with stuff. We shut down three mini-warehouse rooms. Two to go.

It has taken $1,000 in shelving. She buys these units at Lowe's.

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If you don't have a basement, what about your garage? If you get efficient shelving, and you put shelves against every wall, you can probably save the cost of a mini-warehouse for a year. Figure one shelf per month's rent. In a year, you start coming out ahead.

If you still can't fit in the stuff, park the cars outside. Maybe this won't work in North Dakota, but it will where it's not too cold in the winter. If you must buy fabric car covers, that's cheap compared to mini-storage.

For 275+ more tips, go here:

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