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Episode 314 – How to declutter a storage unit with Margie

Do you own a storage unit full of stuff, you can’t even remember what is in there, but pay loads of money every month for it? Declutter Hub member Margie was in that exact position. In this podcast, she shares her storage unit story right from the beginning and we couldn’t be prouder of her for all the work she has done. Keep listening if you want to find out how she did it!
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
Do you own a storage unit full of stuff? You can't even remember what is in there, but you pay loads of money every month for it. The clutter hub member Margie, was in that exact same position, and in this podcast, she shares her storage unit story right from the beginning, and we couldn't be prouder of her for all the work that she has done. Keep listening. If you want to find out how she did it,

00:38
you're listening to the declutter hook podcast bringing you tried and tested no nonsense, tips and advice from the leading experts in decluttering and organising your home. Now here's your host, Ingrid Jansen,

01:00
hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid. If you're new to the declutter hub podcast, you're so welcome. What you'll find is that we try and find the fun factor in the serious business of decluttering, and if you've been here for a while, you know exactly what we mean. So thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to get involved in conversations related to this podcast. It all takes place in our free Facebook group. So come and join our lovely, warm and supportive community. Go to declutterhub.com forward slash group to find out more. Well, hello, Margie, a very warm welcome as a guest here on the declutterhub podcast.

01:41
Well, thank you, Ingrid. It is my pleasure to be here today.

01:44
We are very proud of you for being so brave that you want to, you know, and you're like, I want to tell them what we asked you. And said, your story is so amazing. Other people need to hear this. Please come on the podcast and you thought about it, and you went, Okay, I can do this. Yeah,

02:02
here I am.

02:03
So tell us, and we are going to talk about storage units. But in your student storage unit in particular, what was the reason for hiring a storage unit in the first place?

02:17
Well, in 2021 we decided we were going to downsize from our four bedroom, full basement house to a two bedroom apartment with very little storage, and we wanted to stage the house so it would look beautiful for the people who wanted to buy it. And we had boxes and boxes and boxes. We had a so called office that was filled with sweep Boxes, boxes mostly with paperwork, my daughter's old drawings. We had the basement filled with boxes of just anything you could think of. And I just knew that we needed to get a storage unit in order to sell the house the way that we wanted to. So we did.

03:09
So was there not enough time to do some decluttering before, right? Or was there so much that you were like, I am decluttering really, really hard, but I'm not gonna make it if I want this house to look good for a house sale?

03:23
Yeah, it was both. It was, it was a lot of stuff, and it was not enough time, because it just as soon as we talked to a realtor, it was like, boom, boom, boom. We needed to get it done. And within a couple of months we, you know, we sold the house, so we didn't have any place to put it in the new apartment, right?

03:42
And you were very well aware when you decided to put it to storage, that at some point you didn't have room in the new house. So at some point, something had to happen.

03:53
Exactly. We knew that we were going to have to declutter most of the things, but paperwork I knew I couldn't just throw out. We had, you know, years of bank statements and just, you know, receipts and ridiculous things that I say because in my head, oh, I don't know how long I had to say this. And then it became a box, and then forgot about so that happened many, many times, and it was mostly paperwork, like I said, and memorabilia.

04:22
Yeah, yeah. So when you decided, okay, we need a storage unit, did you have a local place? Did you kind of shop around a little bit, or did you go, oh, there's a place there. And did you just randomly pick, like a size, thinking that will fit it? Or, how did that work? Well,

04:39
as far as finding the places, a lot of places near me live in, so in the suburbs of New York City, we have a lot of a lot of places. And I just went online and got a good price. And as far as the size I they have, like, a calculator, and you can figure out I have a 80 boxes, something like that. Yeah. Um, how is it? How are they going to, you know, fit. And we got the 10 by 10 stores unit, right? And it all fit in there,

05:07
right. Do you remember at the time, how much you paid for that? Was it, like a monthly fee? Or, yeah,

05:13
it was, it started at like 175 American dollars. Went up to 200 and something. It was, you know, they they put the price up every so often. And what can you do? Yeah, you're stuck, you know, yeah.

05:31
So you moved house. You were all like, happy, you you sold your house, you moved your new house. Was it niggling in the back of your head, like I have this torture that is sort out,

05:43
yes, well, right? So unfortunately, right around the time we were moving, my dad died, and so there was all the dealing with that we moved. We had to unpack everything. It was just a lot, yeah, and so I didn't, I did not look at it for an entire year. Yeah, we were just paying the money for a year, and that was around the time that I joined the declutter hub membership. Um, so, yeah, so, so then I, as far as you know, tackling this big job. I went first. I was taking six boxes home at a time, and I got up to 10 boxes home at a time, and would just go through them, especially the the easy ones were the paperwork, because it was a lot of shredding. But I found a $20 bill one time. I found a $50 bill one time and but then it once the sentimental items came. It took a lot longer to to go through and decide what I wanted to keep and what what should go

06:53
so did you have an original plan how long you thought it was going to take you? Were you like, Well, okay, of course, you know, you had the the house move, you had the unpacking that, unfortunately, you had your father's passing, so you kind of knew that was not to be held. But then you're like, right? I'm ready to do this. I'm going to set I'm going to do this in three months. Or did you have a plan? Well,

07:15
originally, when we first got it, I thought, oh, in a year, I'll do it definitely, you know, just, I'll say a year, but I don't think it's going to take a year, yeah, but once we started, it did take two years. I did think it would take a year, but it just, you know, things happen. And then in January of 23 I had a heart attack. Oh, that set me off for months. So, you know, we're always thinking the storage unit, the storage unit, the storage unit. Just want to get it done. Yeah?

07:45
Yeah, I know you did, and we're going to definitely talk about that. We're never going to talk about that. So, okay, did you start in earnest when you had recovered from your heart attack? We're like, right? Okay, this now is showing me it's more important than ever to get this done, because this is such a burden on me, my family, my finances, everything,

08:07
absolutely the money. I couldn't stand wasting the money I had the boxes in my living room, which is a small living room, so there was never a time where there was it was just boxes going or boxes coming, going through them. So I felt like nothing was tidy. So that was, you know, that's a bother. And also I felt like I just was, just couldn't wait to get it done. Just have this project, this big project, finally finished.

08:37
So you mentioned you started off with five boxes first. So he went to your storage unit every week, right? You would drive up literally, or every other week or two, but on a very regular basis, right back to your store. You didn't go, right? I'm going to get five boxes.

08:55
So my husband, the heavy lifter, yeah, would come with me, and I would point or I'll because everything was labeled. So that's, that's yeah, that that was smart on my part. Everything was labeled. That was in boxes. So I could say, okay, that's paperwork. Let me take all the paperwork, as much as I can. Let me take some of the memorabilia, some of the I waited till the end to do the photos. They're now in my office waiting to be done. But, yeah,

09:28
it's fantastic. So you, I think you mentioned something very key. The boxes were labeled. So you because in, you know, a lot of times what we see is stored unit that absolutely crammed to the pull to the full to the brim, cram to the rafters with stuff, but we don't know what it is. And then you have to do a kind of almost like a sword, by going through the boxes and going, Oh, well, let's take this one. It seems like a good box, and maybe let's, oh, no, I can't do that yet. But you knew that's a paper. One that's a paperwork one. So you were like, Okay, I'm going to take five of those paperwork Boxes, boxes you knew and learning in the club of membership, photos and memorabilia later. Let's get the paperwork first and and sort through them. So you brought them home, and then you had the task of opening the boxes, looking what's in there, what am I keeping? What is being shredded, what

10:24
exactly? And I felt like, like, if it were 10 boxes at a time, I made it one box at a time. I made it one item at a time, yeah, because otherwise it's, it's just, it's so overwhelming, you know? So one, one paper at a time, one drawing at a time. You know, whatever I was, whatever I had in there, had a lot of my.my daughter's dolls and toys that we had just decided, well, we'll keep them, and she's 26 now, but I you know, we would keep them and eventually deal with it. And this was eventually, yeah,

11:03
exactly, exactly. So at a certain point you were doing so well you could go to a smaller unit. Right? When did you feel right? Actually, I can now, because it meant, of course, going and renting another one, hauling all this stuff from the big one. But did you feel the tipping point? Did you were suddenly like, hold on, a minute.

11:28
We had taken another 10 boxes out and and put it on the trolley. And we looked, and we thought, you know, it looks like we could move into a smaller one. And we asked the people who work there, because they have a better judge of how much you know can fit. And they said, Yeah, you can move. So we moved to a five by 15, and it was more longer one instead of a wider one. And and we, we, we saved money. That was my next question. Money, yeah, I mean, it still was expensive, but it was a nice chunk, yeah, that we we were saving, and then it just made me even more, you know, see, okay, this is what's left. I can do it.

12:17
Did you ever consider because you talk about, I went there on a regular basis to pick up boxes. Did you ever consider sorting in the storage unit? Or was that like, No, I that feels too pressured and too kind of almost cold, not only in temperature, but also in,

12:33
yeah, for me, first of all, I have a bad back, so I don't know how, how well that would work, but also it's just, I think I just felt more comfortable in my home going through having the basket, the the crates around me. This is for this. This is for that. This is for this. This is for that, shredding a lot of boxes and boxes and boxes of shredding. And so for me, it was better to be to be in my home. Definitely, I understand that, and because they were labeled, I could I knew what I was taking home. Yeah,

13:04
yeah, yeah. And there were shredding events in town, right? That could help you with the street. You did not shred everything yourself, right?

13:11
I did not shred anything myself. I do have a shredder, but we have many times during the year, usually in the spring, summer, fall, they have these shred free shredding times where they can have up to 10 boxes in some places, and they they shred it all for free. They take the boxes. And that's

13:30
wonderful. That's amazing. I have a ton more. I knew I was going to have lots and lots, lots of questions, so let's go for a break. And yeah, I have many, many more questions to ask you. So thank you so much for so far, Margie, and we'll see you after the break. Hello listeners. Welcome back. We're here for part two, where Margie is telling us all about how she tackled her 10 by 10 storage unit that was crammed full with boxes. And it's been absolutely fascinating. And I've got a lot more questions Margie. Questions. Marty, so thank you so much for for sharing all this information with us, because I think it's so helpful. And the first thing I want to ask you, were there any items in your storage unit that you completely forgot about that you are like,

14:16
Oh, this,

14:17
yeah, this went, uh,

14:18
when I got married and left the house 31 plus years ago, I boxed up my bedroom and I moved it from my home to the apartment, to the next apartment, to a house, to this apartment, to the to the storage unit, Never having looked at these things for 30 years, a lot of it was garbage, to tell you the truth, things that I I didn't know why I kept but there was jewelry, there were my own things from childhood, like paper dolls and little toys and things and and there were photos and. And I haven't looked through those photos yet, but I will. And some books had, I mean, my poor husband had carried this, you know, back and forth, just, I don't know, like I said, I had found money at some point, but I don't, I can't think of anything right now that was more surprised, but it definitely was things I had completely forgotten about, yeah, yeah, because

15:23
of, you know, that's life. You know, that happens and we box it up to look at another time, but, you know, the time was now for you,

15:32
yeah, I never thought when I was packing those things up that it would be 30 years later that I would be opening them. I mean, that's crazy.

15:41
So the million dollar question, how did you keep going? Because I've seen the pictures of your storage units, and I think even many of us in the membership took an intake of breath and went, that's a big job. How did you do it? And you've had so many setbacks. Your dad passing away you need to unpack. You had a heart attack. I mean, how did you manage to keep going? I

16:08
was determined, committed. Did, like I said before, I did not want to have this, this hanging over my head. You know, it was just so many, so much money and and I just wanted to get it done, because I I'd have it. When I was in the house, I was thinking, I have all this stuff in the basement. I have all the stuff in the office of the room of doom. When am I going to get to it? But the problem with me is that I'm a perfectionist, so I always thought the stars have to be aligned for me to do this project. Instead of thinking of it as one box a week or something like that, I thought, Oh, I have all this in the basement. I have to get to it someday, someday, someday. But if I had only gone through it over the years a little at a time, I wish I had done that. That's what if I could go back. That's what I would have done, yeah, and I wouldn't have had the storage unit,

17:07
yeah, yeah. So was the money that you spend on it in the end. Was it worth it? Are you glad that you were able now to take your time to go through it and make good decisions, instead of in a rush when you were trying to sell your house, just all chucked it away, and always have that feeling, that niggly feeling, like, was it worth it?

17:28
This is a very good question Ingrid, because I'm still struggling with that answer, yeah, it was a lot of money, yeah, at the same time, I don't know that we would have sold our house with all that clutter there. At the price that we got, we got a very nice price for our house, and it was completely decluttered, yeah, um, staged. I have to say, I did it myself beautifully. But was it worth all of that? It's it's hard to say, Yeah, it's hard to say,

18:04
yeah. I completely get that. So I know you set out originally, boy, not, not going to take me a year, but at some point you kind of started setting self deadlines, didn't you, I and then you kind of still went over so did it? Even then in the end, when you kind of saw the finish line, did it take you longer than expected? Or were you like I've learned to manage my expectations. I learned to keep myself some give myself some grace, and that pressure of the the deadline is not helping me. I

18:36
think around the beginning of January of this year, 2024 i i made an end of April. I thought, I'll be done by. I looked at the math and of the boxes and but it didn't work out. I said, Okay, now May, now June, now July. So it was the big it was like the sixth of August, I think. And it's okay, you know? I I had to do what I had to do and and I finally emptied it, and I took a picture of myself in the empty unit. My husband took it because I was so proud and just accomplished, and just as a weight off my back, you know,

19:20
yeah, yeah, yeah. So your husband helped you with all of the the kind of carrying back and forth. Did you have any other help, or were you the one who did all of the boxes? Well,

19:34
my husband was the muscle. He did not have a lot of things from his childhood. He had a box we went through. He kept a few things, yeah, um. I'm the one who kept, who kept all the memorabilia and the ticket stubs and the brochures and the vacation souvenirs and so many things. Yeah,

20:36
yeah. I get that. I get that. So if you look back now on your I mean, you know, you couldn't have made it you you had to have a storage unit. You didn't know how long time it was going to go. But would you have done it looking back now, would you have done it differently, like from I would have gone up to 10 bucks from the start, 10 boxes from the start, or I would have done that category first. Or are you like, looking back going, No, I did. I did do it in the best possible way for me.

21:05
I think I did. Because, like, you know, I keep saying about the labeling. When I took the six box, if I had taken 10 first, I think that would have been just too much, because I think I started with five and then six. But when I after, I got rid of so much of the things that could be shredded and easily taken care of, decluttered, then I said, you know, let me, let me take 10. And as far as what I did in what order, I think that I I think that I did it, and I did think of of the, you know, declutter hub telling me, you know, wait for the memorabilia, wait for the sentimental items, because those are the hardest and and it was easier to just get rid of the other stuff first. Yeah,

21:52
yeah. So, would you recommend other people to get a storage unit? I know it's a really normal question together today

22:02
as a last resort, and for a very short time, yeah, like I can imagine if you have to, if you do have to move, but you have, I guess if you're in my shoes, you might have to do what I did. But if you're moving from one home to another, and you want to stage it, and you know, you're going to have the room in your next house or home, maybe put it in there for a few months, but that it adds up, baby, yeah,

22:32
yeah, especially the money, isn't it? It's the money that adds up so much. So you had a plan and you but you joined the dick so why did you join the decollete hub membership? So you're currently still a declared hub member. We're delighted that you're with us. Why did you join the digital trap in the first place? Well, I,

22:52
like a lot of people, I listen to your podcast, and I actually only listened to a few of them when I said, you know, let me investigate this online. And I said, I'm just going to join for a month and see what it's like. And I was pleasantly surprised at the number of courses, how in depth they were, even if I thought, Well, my you know, my kitchen's Okay, I did the roadmap and followed the order that you say, and I, I tidied and decluttered even more than I thought, because when we moved from the house, I had decluttered a lot, but and the sentimental course, of course, of course, I've listened to it, I can't tell you how many times, and the paperwork course, courses that just that those were The most important to me, but so when I joined for the month, I ended up joining for the year, and now it's been two years. I just, just last week, renewed my membership for another year, because I want, unfortunately, while I was decluttering all these boxes, things went by the wayside. And so it's not as tidy as I'd like. So I want to go through the roadmap again. And you know the live Q and A's, I can't say enough about them, even if you don't think it's going to be something that applies to you, you get a little nugget. It's, it's, you get to hear what other people are going through you and Leslie are hysterically funny. So it just, it just keeps you wanting. As soon as they come up, I'm watching them, and I just, I, like I said, the courses, I can't believe how in depth and how much you get into the meat of of each little thing and the quick wins. There's so many little things that you can do that, like, like, say, batteries, or something that maybe you never thought about decluttering or organising your batteries, but you tell how to do it, and it's like, Oh, of course. And then I've done several success sessions and. And I think that's really great for bringing people together. And one, everybody's doing something different, but you you feel that, that camaraderie with the fellow members. And you know, so I'm a big believer in the declutter hub, and I was not paid to say that. Oh,

25:20
correct. Correct, verify this mark is here for our free will.

25:27
Thank you so much, and I appreciate you saying that as well, because sometimes people do think that we that if people say nice things, that would honestly we don't pay for anything that Mark is here because she really wants to be out of her own free will. So can I then give a summary saying that the declared membership has helped you tremendously, while

25:47
going absolutely process, yes, and even like the things like the collapsible crates that you you talk about, especially Leslie loves them. I got them. They helped so much. You can, you can stack them. You can put put things out of the way, but then when you want to use them, I'm looking very New York. I just realized with my with my hands all the time, the collapsible, collapsible crates on the floor. It just a little thing like that. But there's so much more than that in the in the membership.

26:19
Thank you, yeah. Oh, we appreciate that you logged your journey as well, didn't you? We have? Oh, of

26:26
course, the forum, the membership forum, is great. I posted every time I took a picture when I was leaving, what was left, and would say, you know, today I did this, and sometimes I write a little blurb, and sometimes I just write a little, a little sentence, but I just and people are so kind and writing to me and giving me, you know, people were very good at helping me along so that in and I may I say that I was the member of the month July, And that floored me, and I was so honored. And so many people came and wrote on the forum to me, and it was very, very sweet. So the I think what's good about the forum is that you can write or read a little a lot, one one day you don't do it, another day you do. And it's so interesting to read other people's progress and what they're doing. Yeah.

27:21
So would you wholeheartedly recommend to others that they should join the membership is that

27:29
absolutely yes, you can tell already, absolutely yes it was, it's well worth it. And I would suggest on an annual membership, because even you know, you might be able to get everything done in that year depends on what. It depends on you, but, but there's always something that the new Q and A's so there's, it's not just a static thing. You all you, you offer more courses and different and all on the different, what are they called? When masculine and yes, and you offer the master classes, so there's always something new in the membership. Yeah. Well,

28:06
you've done absolutely fabulous I mean, and I think what was so nice, Margie, is that, I mean, so many of our members are doing such a fabulous job, but you loved it so well. And I think because it was the same room from the same angle. Really see the boxes just go down and floor space appear. And then there's a photo of your trolley with your 10 boxes. And then, you know, and then the the smaller photo of the smaller unit. So we were all following your progress, you know it? Yes, it took you two years in the end through all kinds of circumstances. But because you kept posting on the same kind of message board, it was really like people could go back to the beginning and go, Oh, wow, because at one point I went, have you actually looked back at the beginning and see how far you've come? Because you always forget Leslie are great believers in taking pictures of the situation where you are, and every time kind of taken, give a little picture to update yourself, because you forget how fantastic work you've done.

29:13
I I look at those first pictures and I can't believe I did it. But like you said, one thing at a time, one little chunk at a time, and it's done. And I pass the place, the storage unit place, and I think I'm never going there again.

29:37
Well, congratulations on your amazing work, and you're honestly, like, a wonderful so positive, such a big job, such a big project, and and how you did it, just chipping away at it time and time again. It's just a fantastic, you know, example of, you know, taking small. Steps forward and not burning yourself out by hauling 35 boxes home and then being completely overwhelmed. You had the time, you know, the money you had, maybe fortunately, you had the money to pay for resorts, and so you could take your time, and you could do it the way that you did. But I think everybody was is immensely proud of you, and I'm sure your family must be absolutely yes

30:25
as well. Yes, very nice not to have boxes in the living room. Yeah.

30:30
Well, well, good luck on your continuing journey. You are staying with us for another year, which is amazing, and you can now again, instead of having that kind of horrible room somewhere else on your mind, you can ask, okay, I'm going to now go through the roadmap again. I'm going to follow the steps. I'm going to tweak things along the way. Now here, because, you know, everything is in one place. Yeah, you've done it before, and you know how to break it down into small, manageable chunks. And it's been absolutely fantastic to follow your progress.

31:03
And just lastly, the what I have left from the storage unit in my office now, because I could fit it, are the photos. So I'm going to do the Photo master class and get make sure that I get my photos in order to so that's something that I've been looking forward to doing and that I can do it soon.

31:22
Yeah. Well, it's incredible. So listeners, have you got a storage unit and you're like everything Margie says sounds so familiar, but I'm inspired. If she can do it, I can do it. Maybe you want to go at it alone. Maybe you want to come into the membership as well, and get the support from me and Leslie. If you want to learn more about the membership, go to members.declutterhub.com, to find out all of the details. But Margie, thank you so much for sharing your story and being here. It's been fabulous.

31:54
Thank you. It's been a pleasure and a really nice time. Thank you

31:58
Excellent. Well, listeners, thank you for being here and we'll see you next week.

32:08
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hub podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us in your podcast player so you don't miss an episode and we'll see you next week.
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Recent Posts
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Emma Sharples says:

17 March 2025 at 8:23 AM

Hi Ingrid and Lesley,
I am so happy I’ve found you both and this detailed, helpful and informative podcast.
I absolutely eat sleep and breathe everything in the de clutterering world.
Having made the decision to start my own business as a PO, you have given me extensive advice and guidance through this podcast and social media. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and well done 🤩💖👏
You’re keeping it real, authentic and fun. Love love love listening to you both and your guests.
Many thanks, Emma Sharples

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  17 March 2025 at 2:58 PM
  
  Hi Emma, such lovely feedback to read! Many thanks for listening. Warm regards, Ingrid
  
  Reply
Episode 314 – How to declutter a storage unit with Margie

Episode 370 – Grief and Clutter with Emma Gray

Episode 369 – 10 items to declutter from your home office

Episode 368 – Organising tools that work with Get Organised HQ

Episode 367 – Are labels like ADHD, Autism and OCD helpful when decluttering?

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