The $4,000 shirt!! funny true story

[stretchmark]

My friend, Shay, is a simplicity advocate. She wrote the book http://www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com/index2.html and builds these really cool straw bale vaults that need no roofing wood or insulation because the straw goes all the way up to the roof.

Anyhow, I was hanging out with her the other day and she was telling me this story of a 4,000 shirt she was given by another friend of ours. She wears it to presentations she gives to provide people with an example of what having so much stuff can do.

Our friend, Rabia, lives in San Francisco. She has always lived in a co-housing type complex and always had a small space. She kept a storage unit for a couple of years and slowly over time went through it and got rid of everything except this one shirt, a shirt which ended up costing 4,000.00 over the course of it's life in the storage unit.

That sure helps with perspective!

[MommyErin]

Originally Posted by stretchmark

My friend, Shay, is a simplicity advocate. She wrote the book http://www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com/index2.html

I *loved* this book. I had it out last month from the public library and thought it was way cool. There were a couple of homes in there that I would totally dig living in. Let her know it's a fantastic piece of work!

[stretchmark]

Oh good. I didn't even know she was working on it when she was because it was a secret then it was like, my goodness you're talented!
It came just a few months after our house foundation was poured and the walls were erected or else I would have a smaller place.

[SoHappy]

I saw her speak in San Luis Obispo. She was hilarious.

[stretchmark]

That she is! I'll pass along the kind comments.

[miss_sonja]

how did the shirt end up costing $4,000? I'm confused...

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by miss_sonja

how did the shirt end up costing $4,000? I'm confused...

Because of the cost of the storage unit.

I wonder if the shirt was $4000, or if all the stuff in the storage unit was $4000. (If the former, wow did they have a storage thing for a long time.) Oh wait, it seems that the storage unit was kept just for the shirt? Yeah, pricey!

[stretchmark]

She kept a storage unit for a couple of years and slowly over time went through it and got rid of everything except this one shirt, a shirt which ended up costing 4,000.00 over the course of it's life in the storage unit.

She had a storage unit full of stuff in SF.
She cleared it out over time.
In the end, the only thing she kept was the shirt.
THe cost of the unit over the couple of years was 4,000.00. Thus, she spent 4,000.00 to keep one shirt because she decided she could live without the rest.

I have known many people recently who have kept storage units for 10+ years while they were moving or getting divorced. The point here is how having excess can lead to 4,000.00 shirts.

[laketahoemama]

That's one of my favorite books.

[hellyaellen]

that sure makes me wanna ditch my storage unit

i'm actually going to do that over the next 2 months. or at the very least ditch enough of the stuff in it to be able to size down.

so far its cost us $720.00

[Stone Fence]

I'm looking forward to this book. I reserved it from the library.

[mamaofthree]

I love this book! It is one of my favorites. it has been passed around to all of my friends and i have given it as gifts as well (once to Hathor the Cow Goddess!)
true inspirational. I love the piece on Brad Lancaster. We are working on a water harvesting system here.

ok back to the topic. LOL it is nuts how storing stuff you don't even remeber what it is can cost you. my brother and his wife lived with my folks for over 3 year and had all their stuff in storage... it cost them over $7000.00 tio store about $1000.00 worth of stuff. NUTS!

h

[nascarbebe]

we have a friend whose parents own a storage unit place and they make really good money. They're always getting all sorts of good stuff that people no longer want when they leave the storage unit or they just fail to continue to pay and they end up with people's other crap.

[Fujiko]

I luckily had this revelation *BEFORE* I got a storage unit. As my DD outgrew stuff like her basinette, baby clothes, baby toys, etc, we had nowhere to store them. I wanted to keep them because I know we'll be having more kiddos pretty soon, and I was already set. I considered renting a storage unit, but realized that we paid maybe $150 for all of it (craigslist/gifts) and that in two months we would pay more to keep it than to replace it. So yeah, it mostly went to friends or goodwill. (I'm not patient enough to put things on craigslist myself :S ) I'll just have to put a bit of work in aquiring it all again, which shouldn't be too bad now that I know about local used kids' stuff sales.