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How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

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Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#111

Post by zjaffee »

smadge wrote: post #91

The article presumed that the rise in the self storage industry is caused by overflow from the American dream and rampant consumerism, when I think it might be more characterized by the death of the American dream. How many people who rent self storage are homeless and storing their stuff away hoping they can retrieve it when they get back on their feet? How many people who rent storage units just can’t afford a hous…

I think there are a lot of factors at play. For one, there is an increasing demographic trend of people moving into cities, for people who grew up in suburbs and are used to storing many things for the long term could be large consumers of this sort of service.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#112

Post by draw_down »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #18
jamesbelucci789 wrote: post #3

Very simple explanation, living space for people has shrunk. Hard to store your holiday items or old equipment in the basement of your house, if you can't afford a house in the first place.

In 1950 the average home was 1,000 square feet and housed 3-4 people. Today the average home is 2,500 square feet and houses 2-3 people. Meanwhile, average apartment size is on the decline. http://www.wisegeek.com/how-has-the-average-size-of-american... https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/us-average-apart...

Who is average? What's the distribution?

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#113

Post by xefer »

Antimachides wrote: post #74
xefer wrote: post #21

One thing I've noticed over the years reading old wills and probate records (16th -18th century) is just how few physical possessions even fairly well-off people owned. Estate inventories often list individual coats, shirts, bedding, bowls, tools, etc. I think the material wealth we have today is so incredible we don't even realize how much we've accumulated and could probably do without.

Any examples? I'd like to see one.

Original documents are harder to reference directly but lots of old probate records have been transcribed; e.g.:

"The Probate records of Essex County, Massachusetts"

https://archive.org/details/probaterecordsof01dowg

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#114

Post by Antimachides »

xefer wrote: post #113
Antimachides wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any examples? I'd like to see one.

Original documents are harder to reference directly but lots of old probate records have been transcribed; e.g.: "The Probate records of Essex County, Massachusetts" https://archive.org/details/probaterecordsof01dowg

This is fascinating.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#115

Post by fegu »

sbinthree wrote: post #27
xefer wrote: post #21

One thing I've noticed over the years reading old wills and probate records (16th -18th century) is just how few physical possessions even fairly well-off people owned. Estate inventories often list individual coats, shirts, bedding, bowls, tools, etc. I think the material wealth we have today is so incredible we don't even realize how much we've accumulated and could probably do without.

Based on a phase I went through involving getting rid of almost all my possessions, you can get rid of ~50% of your stuff and barely notice. But that last 10-20% is so amazingly critical, you come to appreciate it and the work that must have gone into it more. That said, having things that are useful and last never gets old, just make donating something you do as often as shopping. Also that is a pretty strange but i…

A lot of divorced people know this from experience. I certainly do. Don't miss any of it.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#116

Post by dustycowboy »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #50
xefer wrote: post #21

One thing I've noticed over the years reading old wills and probate records (16th -18th century) is just how few physical possessions even fairly well-off people owned. Estate inventories often list individual coats, shirts, bedding, bowls, tools, etc. I think the material wealth we have today is so incredible we don't even realize how much we've accumulated and could probably do without.

Modern manufacturing is sufficiently weird that it messes with my sense of thriftiness. That it really is possible to manufacture new items less expensively than it is to repair them (especially counting my own time to do so). Like I can remember my grandmother knitting and darning socks. But she wished she had one of these sock knitting machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N7hsho4Sjg&feature=youtu.be... And no…

This reminds me of this quote from historian Carlo Cipolla in Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now:

"In preindustrial Europe, the purchase of a garment or of the cloth for a garment remained a luxury the common people could only afford a few times in their lives. One of the main preoccupations of hospital administration was to ensure that the clothes of the deceased should not be usurped but should be given to lawful inheritors. During epidemics of plague, the town authorities had to struggle to confiscate the clothes of the dead and to burn them: people waited for others to die so as to take over their clothes—which generally had the effect of spreading the epidemic." (Excerpt from Carlo Cipolla, 1994)

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#117

Post by gormz »

DanTheManPR wrote: post #10
jamesbelucci789 wrote: post #3

Very simple explanation, living space for people has shrunk. Hard to store your holiday items or old equipment in the basement of your house, if you can't afford a house in the first place.

That's exactly where I'm at. I downsized to a much smaller house, and I keep a lot of my uncommonly used and seasonal equipment in there. I'll be swapping out my snowblower for my lawnmower and grill pretty soon. I pay an extra monthly fee for the storage unit, of course, and it's not very convenient to have to drive a few miles to reach it... but my overall living expenses have been so dramatically reduced by living…

I don't really understand this though. You say you're in a house so I would assume you have a yard? Why wouldn't you just build (or buy) a small shed in the back. Storage units aren't usually much bigger than a normal sized shed and would fit things like grills, bikes, and snow blowers perfectly fine.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#119

Post by lazerpants »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #18
jamesbelucci789 wrote: post #3

Very simple explanation, living space for people has shrunk. Hard to store your holiday items or old equipment in the basement of your house, if you can't afford a house in the first place.

In 1950 the average home was 1,000 square feet and housed 3-4 people. Today the average home is 2,500 square feet and houses 2-3 people. Meanwhile, average apartment size is on the decline. http://www.wisegeek.com/how-has-the-average-size-of-american... https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/us-average-apart...

>Meanwhile, average apartment size is on the decline.

The number of new builds in NYC with 10x15 living/dining/kitchen (kitchens are always just walls in new builds here) is really disheartening when they're still all charging $2500+/mo.

Re: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry

#120

Post by blhack »

ethbro wrote: post #105
blhack wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People not living in storage units is definitely not a cost thing, it's a regulatory thing. If it were allowed, I would have absolutely lived in a storage unit through most of my 20s, and I think a lot of my friends would have too.

Agreed! I was specifically alluding to the fact that if we continue to pile up building regulations, but don't increase regulations on storage units, then a lot of people will only be able to afford living in "storage" units. To be fair, storage units with a communal bathroom and power are more than most folks had circa 1930.

I don't think we are far off from people living in "storage units" that are approximately the size of their VR play space, with the only addition of a bed, and commmnal bathrooms and refrigerators.

I actually don't think we are more than 5 years away from people spending more time in VR than they do in meatspace.

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