Empty Nesters and Self Storage
Life is full of changes; from moving into your first apartment, to getting married and purchasing a larger home, to the kids heading to college and leaving you with a ton of extra space. The need to reassess your belongings is an event you’ll undoubtedly face at one time or another, but especially when your children leave the home.
“Empty nest syndrome” occurs when older adults go through a period of grief and loneliness once their grown children head out on their own, leaving the home feeling empty and too quiet. While this time can be challenging for parents, it’s also a good time for rediscovery. You can learn new things, travel more often, and create new spaces within your home.
One of the very first things that empty nesters need to do is to decide what they want to do with their homes. Do you want to stay in your current home or are you ready to downsize to a smaller home, condominium or apartment? Regardless of whether you decide to stay or go, the next step will be going through the items in the child’s bedroom. Consider this a rite of passage for both you and your child. Work together to decide with to do with items in the room before the child leaves for school, and then after the child is gone you can delve into the de-cluttering project. Ultimately, it’s your house, so it’s your official decision if the furniture or items should stay in the room, be donated or placed in storage.
Need Extra Space for Household Storage?
Once you have sorted and organized the child’s belongings, the next step is to decide what to do with the empty bedroom space. The room can be turned into an office, craft room, exercise room, or a TV room. Move all of the items out of the child’s room and sort them into boxes like you would for any other re-organization project: keep, store, toss, donate or sell. Renting a self storage unit is a great solution for household storage of all those items from your child’s bedroom. While you or your child may cherish many of the items you’ve gone through, the fact is there might not be enough room in the home to store extra furniture and all of the smaller boxes of projects, trophies, stuffed animals and toys that the child has accumulated over the years.
Renting a self storage unit gives you a place to store these precious items until you or your child might need them again someday. You can also keep their furniture in storage, just in case the child returns home after graduating from college. A self storage unit will also help you stay organized and will allow your child a chance to reclaim their belongings when they have a home of their own.
Remember, there’s no need to rush the re-organization process. Work on the project a few hours a day until it is complete and you are satisfied with your new extra space, whatever you decide to use it for! Stop in to one of the National Storage convenient locations today for all your household storage needs!