“Everybody’s gotta have a little place for their stuff. That’s all life is about. Trying to find a place for your stuff.” The late comedian, George Carlin, was well known for his comedic skits regarding our stuff. Apparently the comic kept everything, so much so that his daughter Kelly Carlin donated his things to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. If you are a comedy buff, a visit to this center in Jamestown should be put on your radar as it hosts an annual comedy festival and is also Lucille Ball’s hometown.

When my friend Taty visited from Mexico, we traveled the Northwest collecting computer donations. After several days, she asked me what was the purpose for all of the storage facilities we passed during our travels. My answer — people in America have a lot of stuff. “That many people pay to stick their things somewhere else?” she asked, looking incredulous.

“Uh huh. We have developed a subculture around people and their stuff in the U.S. There are even several television shows on the subject — ‘Hoarders’ and another titled ‘Storage Wars.’ It’s safe to say Americans are known for consumerism.”

I confess that I watched “Storage Wars” for several years, but “Hoarders” was too creepy for me. The goofy characters in “Storage Wars” intrigued me, particularly how much they paid at auctions for storage unit contents and how often they bought absolute crap.

Weird things do interest me, including the number of storage facilities that exist in our valley. Their abundance struck me years ago, and new businesses continue to be opened. I stopped to visit with David Elbrader, the manager of the U-Haul facility located on Pole Line in the former K-Mart.

Dave informed me their attractive facility opened three years ago and was already at 90 percent occupancy. It is the only climate-controlled property in the valley, and U-Haul has opened similar properties throughout the country in closed K-Marts.

I assumed most of the storage units were rented by people with too much overflow at their homes and businesses, but Dave said over half of their rentals were for people who needed short-term transitory storage. U-Haul tries not to auction people’s belongings for failure to pay their rent, but does hold approximately three a year for delinquent accounts and often sees repeat “characters” bidding at their auctions.

Storage units dot our landscape like mushroom colonies and more are being built, but Dave didn’t think we were unusual in that regard. The Nov. 19, 2021 issue of The Week discussed this subject in an article titled, “Why I’m not throwing out my stuff.”

The author, Sandy Hingston, first published her story in the Philadelphia Magazine and it was adapted into The Week. Key points made by the author were that, “Boomers have accumulated an astonishing amount of junk. … We should toss it in the trash, but that would mean discarding memories, too.”

Ms. Hingston marveled at the number of acres of land in America devoted to storage units. She reported the industry is worth $39.5 billion annually, and that more than a 10th of American households rent self-storage units at an average cost of $89 a month. The author said the industry got its start in Texas (where they don’t have basements) and has expanded throughout the country even though the average size of single-family houses has grown from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,687 in 2015.

Apparently I’m not the only one intrigued enough to generate a story about stuff. I don’t rent a storage unit, but my house is filled to capacity with things, so much so that if I buy something new then something old has to go or else I’d have to get a storage unit.

Having represented too many people in recent years whose homes have sadly been destroyed by fire, it has made me aware how much Americans value their stuff. Not from a materialistic standpoint, but because our belongings are part of the web that holds intimate memories together.

When everything you own is destroyed by fire it is a terrible shock to one’s psyche. Logically, we know we can’t take our stuff with us, although the pharaohs and others have tried over the centuries. For most Americans, keeping a place for our stuff (even the homeless) is paramount until death do us part, and unless human nature changes, and so long as Americans excel at consumerism, expect the storage industry to flourish.

Jesse Robison is a Pocatello native educated in Idaho. He works as a mediator and insurance claim consultant, but his passion is public art. Robison has spearheaded art improvements throughout Pocatello, including the Kizuna Garden located at the Pocatello airport, and serves on the Bistline Foundation.