Avoid the crush and the cost of clutter! #GivingTuesday

First there was Black Friday. Then came Cyber Monday.

Doesn’t it seem ironic that these two days come after the one and only day of the year in the United States we’ve set aside for expressions of Thanksgiving and Gratitude?

Have you ever stopped to think about what happens to all this stuff after the holidays because we give out of a sense of obligation to people who really don’t need or want anything but our company and our positive regard?

I remember my grandmother talking about receiving a gift of an orange in her stocking. That’s all. Nothing else.
And, she was grateful for it. It was a rare and extravagant gift to receive tropical fruit in the winter during her childhood. I’m sure no orange ever tasted so good as the one she received on Christmas morning. In our grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ time, gift giving at the holidays was a small thing.

• It was a way to recognize the bounty of the harvest in the fall.
• It was a way to share with others a symbol of our love for them.
• It was a way to allow the gesture to be a reflection of all that’s been given to us.
• And, it was a way to celebrate the season.

But now the season of giving has turned into a series of meaningless gestures that make many of us feel poorer. We’re poorer today than in my grandmother’s time because after the holidays we have bills we can’t pay and/or closets of stuff we can’t use.

We help families of hoarders with the crisis of clean up

Here at PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services we’ve seen first-hand the danger of hoarding and clutter in homes when property damage happens from fire and smoke or water and sewage. We see how much the clutter imprisons our lives, and how much it can cost us when homes get damaged.

But, even if we’re not hoarders, massive collectors, or clutterers, many of us have solved the problem of having too much stuff by using off-site self-storage rental units. And this has created a problem of it’s own . . .

How big is the problem?

The Self Storage Association estimated that in 2013 almost 9% of all households in the United States rented a self-storage unit. That’s over 10 million households! 30% of these households will rent their self-storage unit for two years or longer. And, most of these households have basements, attics, and garages to store stuff too!

But at what cost?
In 2013, the self-storage industry in the United States generated more than $24 billion in annual revenue. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” It’s been the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry for the last 40 years. So much so that by the end of last year, there were approximately 59,500 self-storage facilities worldwide, with most of these, 52,500 facilities, in the United States. That’s a total of 2.3 billion square feet or 78 miles of self-storage space!

And, all that space and all that money is spent to store stuff that people aren’t using, and in many cases don’t even want anymore.

It’s a crush of stuff from a culture that’s constantly on the move.

The problem of our collective inability to let go of stuff has even been featured in a very popular A&E show “Storage Wars” where enterprising folks bid on forgotten and abandoned property in storage spaces.

Doesn’t this all sound just a little insane? $24 Billion dollars just to store stuff no one is using . ..

And so as you make your holiday shopping list to see who’s been naughty and nice, we ask you to consider checking it twice. Before you go out on Black Friday or sit down at your computer on Cyber Monday, you might ask Is there a better way?

Yes, there is a better way!

Alternative gift giving

Our business exists to solve problems . . . if you need help with compassionate hoarding cleanup, or just need to dig out from the crush of stuff call 877-750-7876
We’re here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – even on holidays!