My back hurts today. I slept wrong or something. Getting old I guess.
Anyway I was at the storage place this morning and this guy pulls up in a minivan. Not a truck or a uhaul just a minivan packed to the ceiling with clothes and trash bags and one of those lamps that has the beads on the strings. You know the ones. 90s style. His name was Dave.
He gets out and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days. I asked him if he needed help and he just started talking. His wife kicked him out two nights ago. He has been sleeping in the van. He doesn’t have a job right now. His brother lives two hours away but he doesn’t want to show up there with a van full of junk. He just needed somewhere to put his stuff so he could figure out what to do next.
I gave him a unit for half price for the first month. I don’t care. The owner would probably be mad but whatever. The guy was sleeping in a minivan.
He didn’t have much. A few bags of clothes. That lamp. A box of cds. A fishing pole. He kept apologizing like his stuff wasn’t nice enough for a storage unit. I told him man we store everything. We store rich people’s boats and we store broke people’s trash bags. It’s all the same to us. It’s just stuff.
He cried a little. Not like sobbing just eyes watering while he tried to talk. He said he felt like he could finally breathe because his stuff was somewhere safe. He said the van felt less heavy. I know what he meant.
He drove away and I haven’t seen him since. Hope he is okay.
What Storage Actually Looks Like in Real Life
I told that story because that is what storage actually looks like. Not some commercial with a happy family moving into a clean house. It’s Dave sleeping in a minivan. It’s my cousin Lisa crying in her garage. It’s people in the middle of the worst days of their lives just trying to hold it together.
And here is the thing I have learned from watching all these people. The stuff makes everything worse. Whatever you are going through the stuff just piles on top of it and makes it heavier.
- You lose your job and now you have to look at your office stuff every day
- You get divorced and now you have to look at their stuff every day
- Your parent dies and now you have to go through their stuff every day
It never ends. The stuff is always there reminding you of what you lost or what you have to do or what you haven’t dealt with yet.
Getting it out of your house doesn’t fix the problem. Dave is still sleeping in his van. Lisa is still divorced. That lady with the wedding dress is still divorced too. But at least they aren’t looking at the stuff while they are trying to get through the day.
That is all we are. We are the place where you put the stuff so you don’t have to look at it.
What Actually Happens Inside These Four Walls
B&D Self Storage is just a building. Concrete floors. Metal doors. Some lights that buzz a little. But it is also the place where hundreds of people have parked their lives for a minute while they figured things out.
I have seen people store stuff for a week and I have seen people store stuff for five years. I have seen people come back happy and ready to start over. I have seen people come back sad because they are finally ready to let go of whatever is in there. I have seen people never come back at all and eventually we have to auction their stuff off which always feels weird because that was someone’s life you know?
But that is the job.
If You Are Reading This Because Your House Feels Heavy
If you are reading this because you are thinking about storage just come by. Or don’t. But if your house feels heavy right now if you walk into a room and feel tired for no reason if you are avoiding certain areas of your own home that is the stuff talking. That is the weight.
You can put it down for awhile. That is allowed.
Come see us at B&D Self Storage. Bring whatever. We don’t judge. We just open the door and you put your stuff in and you leave and you don’t have to think about it until you are ready.
That is the whole thing. That is all it is.
Alright I am done. My back still hurts. Gonna go find some ibuprofen.
Let me know if you want another one on a different topic. I got a million of these stories.
Last Thing and Yeah I Know I Ramble
Look I know this whole thing is just me talking about Dave and my back and whatever. But that is kind of the point. Storage is not complicated. It is not some big strategic decision you have to make spreadsheets for. It is just a place to put your stuff when your life is too full.
I have been running B&D Self Storage for a while now. Long enough to know that most people who walk through that door are not having a good day. They are not here because they are excited about organizing their garage. They are here because something happened. Something ended. Something started. Something got too heavy to carry alone.
And that is fine. That is what we are here for.
We got all sizes by the way. Little ones for a few boxes. Big ones for a whole house full of furniture. Climate controlled if you are storing stuff that can’t get too hot or too cold. Month to month so you are not locked into anything. Drive up access so you can park right at your door and unload.
But honestly the size does not matter. The price does not matter. What matters is that you walk out of here feeling like you can breathe again. Like you are not drowning in stuff.
So yeah. Come by if you need to. Or don’t. But if your house is heavy and you are tired of looking at boxes or furniture or just too much crap, you know where to find us.
We are open most days. I am usually here. Come say hi or don’t. Just get your stuff somewhere safe so you can focus on whatever comes next.
Alright for real I am done now. Gotta find that ibuprofen.
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