It’s time to say No More.
This morning, on my walk, I passed a couch sitting out on the boulevard. It looked perfectly fine, but day after day, I’ve seen it sit there through rain and sun, waiting for someone to claim it — though I suspect it will end up on the back of a trash truck.
That couch made me think about all the stuff — let’s call it what it is, crap — we keep piling into our lives. We fall in love with crap, and some of us will at least get rid of the old junk before buying new junk. But many of us just move it around or stash it away. Which brings me to the booming business of storage units.
When I was a kid, storage facilities were rare. Today, they are popping up all over the place, and Americans rent them for all sorts of reasons, often tied to what we’ll call the 4 Ds:
Downsizing. Families moving into smaller homes often rent a unit to hold onto items they don’t use, paying rent month after month for boxes they’ll likely never open again.
Decluttering. Instead of getting rid of excess, people simply move it out of sight. Ask the average storage renter what’s inside their unit, and most can’t tell you.
Divorce. When households split, possessions get shuffled into storage until new living arrangements are sorted out.
Death. Estates often rely on storage while families figure out what to do with generations’ worth of belongings.
As of April, one in three Americans rented a storage unit. The U.S. self-storage industry generated more than $44 billion in 2024, with more than 52,000 facilities operating at an astonishing 96 percent occupancy. Most apartment landlords would kill for numbers like that. And it’s easy money for the operators — locks on doors, no plumbing complaints, no heating bills. Just rent checks rolling in.
But the bigger issue is us. We’re buying too much crap. We don’t need bigger closets or offsite storage. We need discipline. We need patience.
Take my leather couch. I didn’t buy it on a whim. I visited the store several times and walked out. Each time I asked myself, Do I really want this? Is this worth the money? Finally, after weeks of consideration, I bought it. That’s the difference between an intentional purchase and an impulse splurge.
Too often, we buy emotionally. A house, a car, a pair of shoes — all purchased in the heat of the moment. And then what? Closets overflow. Shoes pile up. Walk-in closets are now standard, where just decades ago a simple reach-in closet held everything, you needed. Now it’s a walk-in closet full of clothes that nobody is wearing.
I remember 2 pairs of Florsheim shoes that I wore for 20 years. I shined them, resoled them, and alternated them to make them last (this pair for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and this pair for Tuesday, Thursday). How many people today can say they’ve worn the same shoes for two decades? That’s the difference between buying quality and buying crap that quickly wears out and gets thrown out.
So, here’s my challenge: the next time you want to buy something, wait. Walk away. Come back a week later. Ask yourself again. Do that two, three, even four times. If you still want it, then maybe it’s worth it.
And if you’ve already got things rotting away in a storage unit, be honest: do you really need them? Or could you give them away, sell them, or pass them along to someone who would actually use them?
The point isn’t just to downsize. It’s to appreciate what you already have and resist the urge to drown in more things. Life isn’t better with more crap. It’s better with less.
Those are my thoughts. I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if this message resonates, share it with others and say some wonderful things about The Financialoscopy® Movement.
