Cranky house

[bill_schubert]

Dana has a friend who wants to get rid of a storage shed and she sees all kinds of wonderful things she can do with it.  The thing would take up about a third of our back yard, require leveling (really a slab) and would not have electricity.  But it would be a place she could put her stuff.  How wonderful to clean out and put it in a storage shed.  Translation: I could have a place to put more stuff.  It is a constant fight for me to have less storage space.  Stuff will fill any available space so less space means, eventually and through enormous amount of worthless conflict, less stuff.

I told her no slab ("we could use bricks"), no shed.  She has little concept for engineering and space.  I can look at something and usually tell if and how it will fit.  This is putting a huge shed on a sloped piece of land (sloped in two directions, no less).  The front of the building would end up with steps just to get to the door.  Run and rise. It would be either an exceptional piece of engineering or a disaster and at the very best it could possibly come out it would be a place that she could dump more fossils (and this part of the country is littered with fossils all of which are cute in situ but not in our house).

So she's mad at me and will be mad at me for a while.  In her head this is just a wonderful idea.  "The will bring it over and set it up!!".  I recognize it for the disaster it is but will never get any credit for that.

Comments

[texasts.livejournal.com]

I feel you, brutha.

[stainsteelrat.livejournal.com]

That sounds familiar.

[susandennis]

I'm sorry it's not a fun atmosphere but you are right. Hang in. Free shit is a killer.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good reason to say no.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I'm on your side with this one. It's bad enough having storage filled with useless stuff inside the house. And even worse than a giant shed taking up a big chunk of the garden is those storage unit things. Apart from a few specific cases like if you have to store stuff between moves, they are a horrendous cash suck. I've never known anyone who a) ever goes to one to get anything out or b) having decided to get rid of the unit, has ever done anything with the stuff inside but throw it away.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we rent a small storage unit too. All her stuff. She was raised in a manner that resulted in her valuing stuff and seeing some of it as a reflection on her. In a way it fills a hole. She had a hard childhood and is now married to someone who sees stuff as stuff. The local Goodwill picked up some amazing things from me when we downsized none of which I miss. Nearly my entire life fits in my office and, at that, I intend to have a purge week after next. So I feel for her and allow the storage space for a couple of large things she can't let go. But I do have boundaries. So she will resent me for a while but will, one way or another, get over it.