Self storage soars as UK houses are too small

PasturesNew

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

... a hallway over 30ft long /12ft wide that you could easily use as another room.

At the peak of the last boom, right before the crash, I realised I couldn't ever ever afford a house, but I did manage to get my hands on an affordable mobile home ... which was only 30'x10'!

lostinrates

slipthru wrote: »

Surely we just own to much rubbish these days.

This, but also I wonder sometimes about all the stuff we are meant to always have in the cr in case of emergency...so much for travelling light to keep fuel costs down. and the stuff we should always keep in our handbags....I wonder if this is why men carry bags nowadays? Sometimes mine is so heavy I leave it in the car anyway. which makes ll the stuff I should have on me in case of emergency redundant.

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I did that for a year. Two of us, sharing a "large family flat". The living room was about 10 x 6, the kitchen a bit smaller, there wasn't a full-size bath in the bathroom, and the bedrooms were tiny - the large was 8 x 7, the smaller was less than that.

When I was living in a studio recently, it was that size - but no bedroom. Above me were mostly couples - and one couple even had two kids up there at weekends.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

This, but also I wonder sometimes about all the stuff we are meant to always have in the cr in case of emergency...so much for travelling light to keep fuel costs down. and the stuff we should always keep in our handbags....I wonder if this is why men carry bags nowadays? Sometimes mine is so heavy I leave it in the car anyway. which makes ll the stuff I should have on me in case of emergency redundant.

There is a lot of "stuff".

I hate handbags, but women's clothing so rarely has decent pockets. Blokey jackets have a big inside breast pocket, which women can't have because we have breasties. When I can I prefer to go out with just my keys and £5, just enough cigs and a lighter. That's me packed for a good night out.

Bonia77

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I believe so, yes.

The other two foreign teachers living in the town were sharing a small family flat - which lacked the second bedroom. So a 1 bed, in effect (and a small one at that).

I lived in Flat 98, Block 44 - and the town was only 45,000 odd people. Almost everyone lived in these post-war concrete blocks.

That's true for blocks of flats in Poland, never could understand why anyone would want to live in one! My parents could not have understood too, so self-built a 3-bed at the beginning of 80s. Now the arhitecture looks dated, but the house was completely renovated abound 4-5 years ago. This house was around 150 sq meters, not sure how many sq yards it is, but I think that most of the 3-bed in London are around 80 sq meter ;-) Our house was thought to be on a small side and most of my dad's family, why he had not built much bigger house ;-)


When discussing housing in countries like Poland (and probably most of East European countries) you need to allow for a strong dichotomy of housing: half of population will be crammed in 1-bed flats in towns and cities and another half will be living in quite generous houses. Also, self-building an average 3-bed house in Poland is actually cheaper that buying a tiny 2-bed flat :rotfl:

ninky_2

there a plenty of reasons people might use self storage other than homes getting smaller. people take gap years, get divorced, live in shared accommodation etc.

i thought what was interesting were the suggestions for what the 'storage' unit could be used for - band practice, gym, workshop etc. is that allowed? surely storage is 'storage' not live/ work space? if people are using it as such then no wonder it's popular since it's no doubt a fraction of the price.

frothey

nearlynew wrote: »

Isn't it ironic that in today's consumerist society when everyone has more "stuff" the houses to store it all in have become smaller?

Plus it's all "stuff" we don't really need - hence why it's going into storage!

PasturesNew

ninky wrote: »

i thought what was interesting were the suggestions for what the 'storage' unit could be used for - band practice, gym, workshop etc. is that allowed? surely storage is 'storage' not live/ work space? if people are using it as such then no wonder it's popular since it's no doubt a fraction of the price.

I've seen this mentioned before, must be just 1-2 of them, round big cities. Certainly couldn't do it where my stuff is.... and as my stuff is only available Mon-Fri 9-6pm and Saturday mornings, it'd mean mostly that there wasn't the spare time to do these things.

I would get free coffee at my place. I have a 4' square unit, large enough for a chair. I guess somebody who wanted some quiet space could rent one of these at £5/week, put a comfy chair in it - and go chill out for 2-3 hours and read a paper/drink coffee. I could see a lot of blokes doing that, cheaper than going down the pub on the way home from work - and you can say you stayed late at the office as you don't smell of beer. Bit of quiet man time.

olly300

vivatifosi wrote: »

Now that I do have a solution for. If someone gives you a new title that you then read and they don't want it back, give it to the local library! A good paperback will issue 50 times before it falls to bits or becomes unpopular, a good hardback even longer.

Luckily I know 3 book exchanges for commuters (2 train stations and a pub) plus the local charity shops are very happy to take them off my hands.

My main issue is people don't tell me they don't want the book back for ages.

olly300

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I did that for a year. Two of us, sharing a "large family flat". The living room was about 10 x 6, the kitchen a bit smaller, there wasn't a full-size bath in the bathroom, and the bedrooms were tiny - the large was 8 x 7, the smaller was less than that.

A bath!!

All the apartments I've lived in abroad and stayed in where you could actually live, have only had showers. In fact the only apartments I've visited abroad with baths had 3+ bedrooms.

Foreigners find it amusing that in the UK we have little houses and flats but have a bath in the bathroom.