Who will get what you have stored up?
—Luke 12:20
There’s a good chance that a self-storage building will soon be coming to a location near you. Before long they may outnumber McDonald’s. The largest building on my block is self-storage. I sometimes wonder what people are mothballing there, and why, and if those things will ever be used again.
Those who chart such things say that a hundred years ago the average American had seventy-two “wants,” with sixteen of them ranked as “necessities.” Today it has ballooned to 484 “wants,” with ninety-four of them considered “necessities.” If my grandma and I can be labeled “average Americans,” her “want” list was shorter than my “got-to-have-it” list.
Downsizing isn’t a bad idea. Neither is getting rid of stuff you no longer use. It won’t be long until everything you own will belong to someone else anyway.
A short want list is a big blessing.