Storage will always be a problem for renters, and our villa is a rental. The house we moved from had a large crawl space, which we did not use, and lots of attic space. Funny how quickly an attic can fill up. After all, you’re taking stuff up there only one box at a time. When it came time to move, I spent two afternoons pulling the stuff back down and then vacuuming the entire area. Not fun.
Much of what I pulled down went to auction or into the dumpster. Actually, dumpsters, plural. The city we lived in dropped off a 3-cubic-yard dumpster, which I filled, and later another, which I also filled. Some of the items I tossed probably could have gone to the auction or a yard sale, but it was January, and I didn’t have the patience for any of that.
Our villa has a one-car garage with a single shelf on each side, extending the full length of the garage. A lot of storage space, but nowhere near enough. So, multiple trips to Lowe’s for plastic storage shelves that couldn’t be more than 14 inches deep, or the car wouldn’t fit in the garage!
If you’re going to be buying new beds when you move into your villa or apartment, consider one that has storage space underneath. One of our beds has just such a thing, and we’ve put its storage space to good use. The other bed has about 3 inches of clearance underneath, and probably will be replaced in the near future.
The lesson to be learned here is, as I’ve written before, downsize BEFORE you move, and bring bookshelves with you, if you have them. Unlike moving from one house to another, moving to a villa/apartment will most likely be about a four-month process to get completely settled in. Even with tremendous planning, you’ll probably be making multiple trips to Goodwill, a consignment store, or the local landfill after your move.
