How much is enough?

One of the big items on a lot of our clients’ lists is ‘more storage’. They’ll tell us their cupboards are bursting at the seams and they have to park their car on the driveway because the garage has been converted into a storage shed. And I for one, can empathise!

Every November I join the national ‘Garage Sale Trail’ to sell unwanted stuff that we bought, thinking it was a good idea at the time. Out-grown toys, unwanted gifts and those retro collectables, which made so much more sense back when you were in a share house with uni mates – all this makes it into our garage sale in the hope that someone else will find treasure in our trash.

Even the most minimal zealot like Marie Kondo knows that, despite best efforts, unwanted stuff makes it into our houses and linen closets, wardrobes, garden sheds and garages. So how much area should you allow for storage in your house? I’ve heard all sorts of ideas on the magic number. Some use the 80/20 rule, some suggest 10%, the minimalists out there who live a spartan monastic type of life might suggest a single chest of drawers. Rumour has it Australian fashion designer Akiro Isogawa lives like this and, if Steve Jobs’ biopic movie is accurate, the Apple entrepreneur had a big house containing only a record player and a mattress.

For the rest of us with semi-hoarding tendencies it is helpful to ask: how much storage we do actually need? With the average construction cost of a custom-built home averaging out at $5000 per square metre (the high end edging closer to $10,000), and the average size of a new house in Australia being 235 sqm, at 10% this storage area will end up costing $117,500!

It seems silly to spend this kind of money on more storage when you could be renting a space at the local storage centre for $1/sqm/month. First and foremost, I think there’s the question of what items are essential in your life and used regularly. Marie Kondo urges us to discard any item that doesn’t bring us joy. I’m a bit more practical and if there’s something I haven’t used in a year, then out it goes. An example of this is my eldest daughter’s kayak. We had nice adventures on this back in the day and I was hoping my youngest daughter would get some use out of it but, alas, she’s semi-petrified of open water. Please come to my garage sale if you’re after a junior kayak in good working order!

What about rarely used essentials? Enter the “Make-Do Library of Things”. Brainchild of former Austinmer local Andrea Persico, the library of things is based on the sharing economy model. Previously located at the old Bulli lawn bowls building, they’ve found a new spot in the garage below the Coledale Community Hall. Need an angle grinder – they have three. Need kids party bunting – they’ve got it. And did I mention they take donations?

So have a garage sale, donate those once-a-year items to Make-Do and clear out your shed.

Just think of all that space you can create, and then fill with Christmas presents!

Visit www.garagesaletrail.com.au and www.make-do.com.au