Storage Awareness

Two years ago, my house sold incredibly fast. Great news… except it meant I had to move on a very tight timeline.

I’ve always thought of myself as a minimalist. Well… mostly.

Except when it comes to clothes and running gear.

The big furniture wasn’t the problem. That was easy. The real challenge was the flotsam and jetsam of closets and drawers. You know the things. The “maybe someday” clothes. The race T-shirts. The random bits and pieces that represent earlier chapters of life.

By the end of the move, what was staying had been whittled down pretty well. But the remaining odds and ends were simply packed into two storage units with the very logical plan of sorting through them later.

There was even a two-year storage unit “sale,” so I prepaid.

Plenty of time, right?

Well, it’s been a fast two years! This week, I finally opened the bins and started going through everything.

Clothes I hadn’t worn in years. Race T-shirts from events long past. A few items I’d saved because they reminded me of my time in the Navy and other earlier chapters of life.

Standing there, I asked myself a simple question.

If someone opened this storage unit and tried to understand who Bonnie Dudley is today, what would they learn about me?

The answer surprised me.

Nothing.

Some things will stay. I have several boxes of documents that truly need to be kept and organized properly.

But the clothes I’ve been saving “just in case”? Those can go. If my weight fluctuates again, I’ll buy new clothes that fit the life I’m living at the time.

The race T-shirts were a little harder to pry out of my hands, but I’ll keep a few favorites and donate the rest. The memories don’t live in cute logos or moisture-wicking polyester.

Clearing that storage unit reminded me of something I often see in coaching conversations.

We all accumulate things, commitments, and even identities that once served us well but no longer support the life we’re living now.

Letting go doesn’t erase those chapters.

It simply creates space for the life you’re living today.

Sometimes awareness shows up in ordinary places. A conversation. A decision. Or a storage unit you haven’t opened in two years.

When it does, you get to choose what moves forward with you.

And what doesn’t.