Thursday, November 5, 2009

The edge of storedge

At the recommendation of several fellow vandwellers, I obtained last month a storage unit. Got a small cheap one that I could afford, only $20/mo. I was advised that I'll need a storage unit equal to roughly 4 times the size of my van, because I'll need to collect about 4 times the crap that I'll actually use. Well I couldn't afford that so I got what I could. It has been very useful so far; I'm in the middle of my ceilng, counter, and sink projects, and it is VERY nice to not have to be tripping all over the materials in my van. They're in storage until I finish the project, then they'll go in the van, obviously.

But the storage is already packed to the gills. In a way, maybe it's good to keep it small, to not encourage me to acquire stuff I don't need.

There's a plastic fuel tank there, waiting to go in. It's not urgent now that I discovered my galvanized fuel tank is not so bad off. I wasted a hundred bucks buying it though. That plastic tank might be waiting a few years, clogging up my storage, costing me hundreds of dollars! Maybe I shouldn't have rushed out and bought the first one I saw, and it isn't even the correct one for the vehicle. So part of the problem with storage is that it can be a cost that creeps up, and also covers-- or even encourages-- costly mistakes. Why am I paying to store something I don't need and shouldn't have bought in the first place?

Once I get this ceiling in, I'll be very happy. I'm moving stuff around, putting in a countertop and sink, more cabinets, putting in conduit and proper outlets/connectors for my electrical cables, etc. It's a big project, and it is all interconnected so it has to be done together.

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