Are You Hoarding in Self Storage: Recognize the Signs and Get Help

Hoarding is a debilitating disorder that can take over your life, cost you money and add more stress and harm to your life and your family than you may even realize. That's why it's so important to try and notice the signs of hoarding if you're suffering from the disorder yourself. One major symptom many hoarders suffer from is running out of space for their belongings and relying on one or more self-storage units to house the rest of their items. 

If you continue to collect more objects while letting go of few, and you have a need to add more storage to your life over the years, there's a chance you have a hoarding problem that could be lowering your quality of life. 

Below are simple steps you can use to evaluate your life and reduce your hoarding tendencies if you have them. 

Evaluate Your Home and Storage

Start by looking around your home as well as your Rock Safe Self-Storage to see what types of objects you're holding onto. Are the objects useful, or are you keeping them because they have sentimental value for you? While it's common for most people to keep a small number of sentimental objects, such as home videos or photos, you may be suffering from hoarding if you have rooms of sentimental items or storage units. 

Consider how often you utilize the items you have in storage as well. If they're used frequently you can likely justify having them, but if they haven't been used in years you may be hoarding excess you don't need. 

Now consider how much space your items are consuming. If most of your home is consumed by your objects scattered about, and you have one or more large storage units filled with similar items, you likely have a hoarding problem. Don't worry though, all of us at Rock Safe Self-Storage is here to help. 

Talk with a Qualified Psychotherapist

If you determine that you're suffering from a hoarding disorder, the best thing you can do is sit down and talk with a therapist about your stored items. Find out what healthy storage is, and draw up a plan for how you can improve your own storage. Try and set up a plan to tackle your excess items, and schedule follow-up appointments with the therapist to help you execute that plan. 

Organize, Let Go, and Downsize

If you have one or more storage units in Arroyo Grande, CA, or surrounding areas that are filling with items you don't have a use for, it's a good idea to try and clear them out or downsize them. Sort your belongings a little at a time, and throw away non-usable items while donating or selling the remaining items to rid yourself of all but what you will use. Follow this process a little each week until you eventually clear out your storage so that you can get rid of the unit, or so that you can downsize to a smaller unit. 

Beating a hoarding problem will help you improve your life, save you money and could even improve your relationship with other family members. It's not an easy process though so don't rush yourself. Focus on making slow and steady improvements and you'll be surprised at your success.