Garage Storage? (Howe: new home, construction, living)

[motown mary]

Since there aren't usually basements in SA houses, where do you store stuff? Mostly in your garage? Can your valuables take the heat? I am thinking with heat & humidity, things like photos and papers will be damaged. We have a lot of boxes & coming from Michigan, we aren't sure if they are going to be safe in a garage under extreme temps.
Where do you store your Christmas decorations, kids clothes, etc.???

[gwrober]

Have you noticed there are a million trillion storage units around here?? :P As soon as I get an attic fan, our stuff is going up there. We used a garage unit for awhile, but it was mostly temporary while our house is on the market.

[Chaka]

kids clothes/toys go in the attic until they're needed again, tools/construction stuff in our newly restored carriage house. Everything else we try not to store. Pictures and stuff are in places where they will be looked at (ie in albums on bookshelves or getting there).

We have zero storage space in our old house. It helps us to not accumulate stuff that needs to be stored.

[djw]

That's one of the things I have LOVED about being military and moving every 2-3 years...no STUFF to store! The trick is to purge purge purge!! Clothes don't fit, I give 'em away. Photos, scan 'em and go digital. Old toys, off to Goodwill. Change of decor, time for a yard sale! And freecycle has become one of my favorite sites! I don't do cold weather - so there really isn't a "winter" wardrobe. Really important documents get scanned and the rest get shredded.

But to answer your questions, what little bit of seasonal stuff I do have goes in the garage or under the stairs.

[sapphire]

I'm with you, djw! The only things I don't purge often enough are clothes. But I do need to do some spring cleaning soon and get my drawers and closets thinned out. Life is so much better without all the "stuff" we spend time and money storing and worrying about. There is something freeing about "less stuff." Just let it go!

[gwrober]

That's a lesson we're learning as our house is on the market - stuff goes into boxes, and we don't miss it! So it goes!

[jnmac]

I've noticed garages seem to be smaller here (or maybe just the ones I've seen) so our two car garage has really become a one car garage/storage facility, but no I probably wouldn't store any important paper stuff out there. However, I did put our christmas stuff on shelves in the garage.

[mojokitty]

We have a HUGE space under our stairs that holds our christmas decorations, etc. I love it! Our garage mostly holds my sons outdoor toys, lawn and garden equip. etc.

[KY Filly]

We have a "rule" in our house that "if we haven't used it in a year", we don't need it. So typically we give it away or toss it. Like others I found that when we put our house on the market in Louisville we did a tremendous amount of purging. We hadn't even kept our own "toss if after a year" rule! So as we decluttered our house to get ready for putting it on the market we purged a tremendous amount of STUFF! Actually it's very "freeing" to simplify and also felt great to get organized.

The house we just sold didn't have a basement, although most in KY do, and we really never missed it. Unless a basement is a finished living area I think they are just junk collectors. So our new home in S.A. won't be much of a change for us as far as storing things. Christmas dec. can go in the garage (or attic) as well as yard stuff. Other than that we will have plenty of storage in the new place. I've also found that making a committment to properly organizing "stuff" takes up much less space.

I love the idea of scanning documents into the computer - I think I'll do that too!

[sapphire]

We have that huge space also! That's where our Christmas and Halloween decorations go. That's really about all that we store anymore. That and books, but I re-read my books, so I don't feel so bad about those!