The business of storing stuff
behind you, and right in the middle of town.
‘‘My only problem here is most people who want to store stuff don’t want to pay.
‘‘When you say to them, this is high tech storage and they don’t give a s... because they are just storing s... anyways.’’
Interior stylist Kate Alexander, of Auckland-based Places and Graces, goes into people’s homes when they are getting ready to sell and says decluttering is a huge part of that process.
She has no problem with how much stuff people have, quite often recommending off-site storage, but says people need to be more organised. ‘‘We move into a house, we live a bit minimally and slowly over time we get more and more things and don’t question the things we have and they sit there and don’t get moved.’’
Alexander says the downside of off-site storage is you don’t see it so forget about it and hold on to things unnecessarily.
‘‘I go into homes where they’ve probably got three years’ worth of player of the day medals. It’s healthy to keep a space moving and off site storage helps with that.’’
Alexander says she goes through her own children’s bedrooms with them every six months to do a clear out to stay on top.
‘‘In the 50s and 60s you had less because things were expensive, so we definitely have more but it’s part of a discipline of actually going through and reviewing and doing a good old-fashioned spring clean.
‘‘Every so often I will take everything off the wall, off the shelves, and I put it away in another room and then I bring things back one at a time.
‘‘Sometimes I go ‘that’s just not working for me I’m not enjoying having that out’ so I’ll put it away in storage.’’
‘‘There are people storing golf clubs, surfboards, their bikes. They come down, go for a ride, come back, drop it off. Nothing comes home, there’s no clutter.’’ Steve Burmester