Feature image credit: AnneBrannen.com

We’re gearing up for #MinimalMonth here at Boxman – a time to be taking stock of what you’ve got, what you don’t actually need, and what might be better stored away for a later date. The idea that life could be better with less is one that we’re seeing a lot of in the news at the moment (big thumbs up to James Wallman and his Stuffocation book!), and it’s one that we feel quite close to here at the Box Room. So we put together a few ideas to get things going – a few signs to look out for that you might be suffering from ‘stuffocation’ yourself.

1. Family members have no place to call their own…

Slide the ‘before and after’ bar on the image above. If your mutt is as miserable as this one, it might be time to get your declutter on.

OK, so this has as much to do with being tidy as being overwhelmed by stuff, but being able to tear yourself away from all the useless stuff you only think you need simply means there’s less stuff to tidy away.

Take a leaf out of this dog’s book and go minimal. Clear some surfaces, keep a few good records within reach, and make sure you’ve got a sofa big enough to sprawl on. If you’re not sure you’re ready to do without, Boxman can look after your potentially precious knickknacks until you’ve made up your mind.

2. Your kids have so many toys they don’t even recognise when they disappear

Dilemma:

Getting kids to part with their toys is never easy. It’s as though they have a strong emotional connection with every single thing they were ever given, from the bicycle in the garage (understandable) to the Pez dispenser under the sofa (less so). But what if their stuff just started disappearing? How much would they notice?

Solution:

Hide a bin bag in the attic. Every week, while they’re at school, pop one disused toy into ‘storage’. See how long it takes them to come looking for it. If it hasn’t been asked for after two or three months, it’s probably worth disposing of. If you’ve got a lot of toys and very little room to hide it, try on-demand storage. We can keep it all hidden away for you, and the second they notice those missing Frozen dolls, jump online and call them back.

3. ‘Storage rage’ becomes a thing in your life

4. Your attic looks like it has been rented out to a storage company

There’s something very cathartic about putting a Sunday afternoon aside to declutter the attic. We went through the process only last week, and – lo and behold – we discovered a perfectly useable room beneath the mess. We’ve since started using it as a room to put the family dad in – he tends to make a lot of noise when he’s left to his own devices.

To be fair, a lot of the stuff we found in the attic had to do with valuable memories that we’ll want to share with the kids when they’re older. School reports, things we collected on family holidays, autograph books from the last day of college – all of these things could do with being stored somewhere less damp. We’ve not recommended Boxman to you yet, have we…?

5. Your wardrobe is causing you first world problems

If your wardrobe makes you cry because you have too much stuff in it, it’s probably time to take a long, hard look in the mirror… if you can find your mirror beneath all of your other junk.

6. Your furniture doesn’t do what it’s supposed to anymore, because it’s doing the job of storage

…or vice versa. There’s nothing wrong with having a coffee table that opens up into a kind of treasure chest, but when you’ve got so much of something that you’re having to sleep on it, you’ve got to start wondering whether it might be best placed out of the way.

Take the bed in the picture, for example. Sure – it’s an amazing image, but practicality clearly isn’t a high priority here. And don’t get us started on the damage this sleepy reader must be doing to his precious library. If you love books as much as we do, and can’t bear to part with them, then you’ll agree that there are better places to store them than beneath your prone and sprawling body.

Keep an eye open for our books storage post, which we’ll be publishing during #MinimalMonth. Long live the separation of books and sleeping states!

7. There are still moving boxes littering your apartment two months after you arrived

Moving house is full of little frustrations, not least the never-ending presence of moving boxes that litter your new home for months after your arrival. They won’t unpack themselves, and yet you can’t seem to find the time or inclination to do anything with them. What’s the answer? Well, you could sculpt the boxes into a living room fort and be done with it, or you could face up to the fact that the stuff in those boxes clearly has no lasting effect on your life. Dumping it altogether is one option, or you could lock it up out of the way until you’ve got the time to make a proper decision.

Better still, you could use on-demand storage as a central part of moving house. Simply load it all up, send it away and call it all back box by box when you’re ready for it. An uncluttered apartment from the word go! What a time to be alive.

8. When it’s time to put stuff away, you have no idea where ‘away’ is

As children, we’d put stuff away in the first draw we came across. Whether it was the right drawer was neither here nor there. We always figured we’d work out where ‘away’ was by the time we were adults… but, no.

When you find that your apartment is littered with stuff that has no obvious home, it’s probably time to declutter. Either you’ve got too little space or you’ve got too much stuff, and something has got to give. We can’t grow your apartment for you (especially if you in London), but we can help you with the stuff part of the conundrum. If you’ve got homeless possessions that you can’t live without, give Boxman a call. We’ll keep them comfy and dry while you look for a home that they can call their own.