ClutterFreeBox

I love it when I find other companies that smush their name together like PixiesDidIt! It’s a small token of rebellion, like “Ancient grammar rules be damned!” (Okay, Kelly wrote “darned”, and Katie couldn’t stand being rebellious with such a non-rebellious word! And yes, she’s the one who insisted we smush our name together.) Well, ClutterFreeBox might not scream rebellion to you but it IS revolutionary. They’ve found a way for you to have an organized attic, somewhere else.

Why couldn’t I have known about this website before my husband and I merged our two apartments and were forced to get a storage unit? I think Katie might have heard about this way back when from Daily Grommet. So, I’m including the link to give them credit where credit is due.

I don’t know about you but at this point I only have a vague recollection of everything that is in there. It’s going to be like finding lost treasures when we finally move out of the city and go through everything in there. If I’d used ClutterFreeBox’s service, I could actually go online right now and see images of each and every box that I stored. Although, my husband’s ugly old couch wouldn’t have made the cut — I still can’t believe he talked me into keeping that thing.

Here’s how it works. You send them special, apparently patented, boxes with anything you want to store. You can list the contents on an index card they provide or just take a photo to be uploaded onto their database. Then you ship it to them by dropping it off at any FedEx location — my new preferred shipper since UPS took 11 days to deliver a 3-day package and has yet to reimburse me, seriously — or you can even arrange a pick-up by calling them. You can upload the pictures on to your account online, track what you have and when you need it from anywhere. When you want things back, you just go online and have them send you the box.

Shipping is $14.95 — but you can pay more for 2-day delivery. $1.00 surcharge for every box over 25 lbs. You can do month-to-month storage for $4.99-$5.99 a box per month ($60-$72 a year per box), for stuff you need more frequently like ski gear or woolens. Then there is annual storage for those things you’ll need once a year and costs $36-48 per box. They suggest your grandmother’s china but I think this is a crazy idea — what a pain to wrap it up and ship it every year. But, maybe it makes sense if you live in an earthquake zone?? To me, the annual storage should be for woolens or holiday décor. Then there’s the 5-year+ and that’ll run you $60-120 over a 5-year period.

Naturally as a practical Classic, the 5-year period package is the only one that remotely tempts me. I’d say likely ditto for Funs, Organic Structures, and then Smart Structures if they took the time to even focus on this sort of thing. The point is why waste your own valuable real estate on storage. Plus, once you put a price tag on each box, you’re more likely to get rid of things that really are not worth keeping.

Now, the only problem here is that when you store stuff, you’re going to actually have to think about when and why you’ll retrieve it. I say this because I’m pretty sure they can’t go INTO your box and pick out one item. So, if you’re a hurried Organic Freedom, you’re going to regret stuffing a pile of random junk into one box that happens to have a piece of artwork you want because they’re sending the entire box back to you. But, this might be a great idea for all that deep storage stuff like tax receipts and your unfinished novel. Classics and Funs, you were born to catalog so this service is for you if you can get over paying for it.