Our attachment to objects starts young – At age 3, some children who can barely recite their ABCs have the uncanny ability to distinguish between their (own) favourite soft toy and an exact replica. Meanwhile at age 23, we find ourselves spouting reasons to keep our favourite home t-shirt even if it has 5 holes and has faded to a whole other colour. For intelligent beings, human sure make some strange decisions.

But the truth is that we all attach an emotional need to specific objects. While there is nothing wrong with feeling the fuzzies, this trait more often that not leads to a cluttered household and most of us end up with stacks of boxes that collect more dust than memories. Let’s have a look at the different reasons why human beings keep such items even though it goes beyond all reason to do so. How many of these resonate with you?

1. Nostalgia – We keep our secondary school badges, notebooks or other childhood items
   on a shelf somewhere because they remind us of a simpler time. Yet, the fact that we
   almost never look through them always escapes our rational mind. We tell ourselves: “If I
   throw this away now, i’ll never get it back” and with that, the top shelf of our cupboard
   gets taken up indefinitely.
2. Guilt – We keep all the souvenirs from friends, families and our own vacations because we feel guilty discarding them. We think about the fact that another individual went out of heir way to pay $2.50 for a figurine of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and thus feel like it is wrong to throw it away. Before we know it, we have miniature versions of all 7 Wonders of the World on our table, while also wondering why there is no space to get any work done.
3. The ‘What If’ – We tell ourselves : “I should keep my old laptop just in case the new one breaks down”, or perhaps we recycle a gift with the intention of giving it to someone who would “appreciate it more”. Let’s be honest – these ‘what ifs’ almost never happen, and oftentimes we end up storing these items in places we can never quite remember. That is, until 3 years later when we stumble across a box full of outdated technology and cobweb filled items that are now too aged to pass on to anybody else.

So how do we strike a balance between knowing when an item is worth keeping and when these attachments are simply taking up space in both our homes and our lives? Perhaps the answer lies in being able to look at these objects from a distance. You’ll be amazed how the action of removing these items from their previous home (ie YOUR home) can help in this decision making process. By collecting all the items that fit in the above 3 categories and moving them to a new environment such as a self-storage facility, we start to see these objects in a different light. Those that are worth keeping might suddenly have a higher
value and seem deserving of a proper home, while others might just come across as objects that once had meaning but no longer serve you any purpose. You now know which ones to keep and thank for their positive memories, and which ones to say goodbye to.

The icing on the cake is that by removing these items to a self-storage facility, you now have created (or recovered) space in your home that can either be used for new things or better yet, to help you live life simply. By making regular trips to the facility for such item reviews, you now minimise the chances of living in a cluttered household and can live with confidence knowing that the items worth keeping, are stored safely.

Getting a unit is really simple: Choose the location, pick a unit, reserve a storage and move in! Don’t miss your chance to preserve your most-precious items. Enquire now to find out more.