How Much Storage Space will I Have?
When you are touring retirement homes, trying to make the decision of where to live in the final years of your life, there are so many questions for which you want answers. Big questions about cost. Little questions about the meal schedule.
Some questions sound a little trivial but turn out to be very significant. This is one of those.
How much storage space will I have?
It is not nice to arrive at your new home and discover there is no place for your favorite chair or your printer. And with such a small closet, what will you do with your out-of-season clothes?
One person realized the day she moved in that her closet was large enough for her summer clothes, but what about her sweaters and coats and flannel sheets? She was told that there were storage units one could rent, a mile or so down the road. Since she had no car and had not counted on this extra expense, that did not sound like a happy solution. And she had not even yet remembered her vases and seasonal decorations. Neither had she discovered that her bookshelf was three inches too long for the wall where she needed to put it.
Her predicament illustrates the importance of asking all the petty questions when you are choosing a retirement home and having a measuring tape in your pocket when you are selecting an apartment. Remember that you are trying to choose a place to spend the rest of your life. Regretting your decision will be worse than inconvenient. In some buildings, all apartments are basically the same size, but in better places you will have a choice, and the choice will involve cost. Be sure to notice: the relationship between the size of the rooms and the monthly cost of apartments, and don’t forget to ask about the existence of extra storage. Better still, insist on seeing the space.
Most high-end retirement homes have cubicles, just down the hall, one per apartment, for possessions needed or valuable to the owner but not in use at the moment. This cubicle should be accessible and locked, with a key in your possession. Your heavy coats can be there in a bin all summer, along with things like blankets and your little artificial Christmas tree.
Of course, a storage bin down the hall doesn’t take the place of an adequate closet, There are homes in which a reasonably priced apartment includes a walk-in clothes closet, cupboards above and below the kitchen counters, a pantry for food items, and cabinets in the bathroom for towels, toiletries and items you use at the sink. (Don’t forget to think about a convenient place for extra paper products.) And, if you are really lucky, you may get a coat closet near the door. And the shelf above the hanging rod may be the only place you have for things like jigsaw puzzles.
The existence or not of these facilities must inform your choice of a home, and afterward help you pack to leave your bigger place.
You will discover, of course, that there are items you like but do not need. Getting rid of these is probably not a question of if but when and giving them away before you go will improve your smaller space in the retirement home. However, you genuinely need space for a few items that you value only for sentimental or psychological reasons. Displayed in your new place, they will be comforting links to people you love and the significant life you have lived. Hopefully these are small things and there is a cupboard where you can keep them safe. If they warm your heart and make you happy, then take them.
Thank you!! Our stuff is a very important part of us, so we have to think of space to store the things we think we have to have. Great advice!! So good to hear from you!!
Important question!!!!!!
Thanks-