How to Cut Down on Clutter Sans Crying or Moving

If you’re a parent raising your kids in a small space, you know it can get pretty messy pretty quickly. Spaghetti-O stains on the carpet and modern art masterpieces on the wall are one thing, but the excessive accumulation of stuff is a whole other monster to slay. By the time the third birthday rolls around you typically have enough toys to start your own toy donation organization and run it solo for a year. Consider this doesn’t even factor your massive amount of crap that packs every closet space and cabinet nook possible. I wouldn’t go as far as to contact the makers of the show “Hoarders” for help, but there are a few logistical problems you may run into that are worth figuring out before you even admit you might have a clutter problem.

No matter what, if you’re confined to a small space and have no room to expand, then I highly suggest looking into a self storage facility. These places are cheap, easily accessible, and as secure as a Zurich bank, relatively speaking. You don’t have to worry about not having enough room in your apartment to fit the things you actually need in life.

The benefits of self storage show through when you compare it to the option of simply hauling your crap out to the dumpster or donating it to Goodwill. Simply put: kids are flakes. When I was a youngster I told my mom I had no interest in my loyal teddy bear anymore and wanted her to toss it out. My mother, the wonderful long term thinker that she is, decided to just stow it away. Three months later I rediscovered my best friend hiding in a kitchen cabinet and we haven’t parted since (he sits on my desk.) Your kids will be the same way. They won’t care about all those toys until they’re gone, and then you’ll have to explain to your traumatized child, albeit irrationally, that you threw their cherished toys away.

If you have enough old toys to fill a storage facility and continue to live in a small apartment, then maybe you should reconsider your lifestyle as well as that of your kids. But more likely than not there’s plenty of your own junk that you’ve kept holding onto out of uncertainty. In the storage space left over you’ll have plenty of room to really make a dent in your living space.

This way, in six months, instead of breaking your kids heart over his lost Optimus Prime action figure, you can be the superhero instead.

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