MORE
SPACE FOR STUFF

Topics: Appetites; Contentment; Foolishness; Greed; Lifestyle; Luxury; Materialism; Money; Possessions; Prosperity; Riches; Satisfaction; Stewardship; Stinginess

References: Exodus 16:11–31; Amos 6:1–7; Matthew 6:19–21, 24; 25:14–30; Luke 12:15–21; 1 Timothy 6:10; James 5:1–6; 1 John 3:17

People in the United States possess about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the home. This self-storage space is in nearly 40,000 facilities owned and operated by more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, including a handful of publicly traded giants such as Public Storage, Storage USA, and Shurgard. So reports the Self Storage Association, a trade group charged with monitoring such things.

According to a recent survey, the owners of one of every eleven homes rent a self-storage space. This represents an increase of 75 percent since 1995. Operators of self-storage facilities report 90 percent occupancy, with average rental of fifteen months. In 2004 alone, there was a 24 percent spike in the number of self-storage units on the market.

As the amount of storage space required by homeowners has grown, so has the average size of the American house. The National Association of Homebuilders reports that the average American house increased from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004.

So let’s get this straight—houses get bigger, average family sizes get smaller, yet we still need to tack on almost two billion square feet of extra space to store our stuff?

—Tom Vanderbilt, “Americans Are Storing More Stuff Than Ever,” Slate.com (July 18, 2005)