The piles are rising. Every time you come home, you bring another thing (that you probably won’t even use) with you. You’re running clear out of space. Instead of cramming, stacking and stockpiling, try convenient and affordable valet storage. What is valet storage?

It is a fast and easy way to store your belongings. Instead of packing up items and lugging them to a storage facility where you then have to spend time organizing everything, you can pack your things, have them picked up in 24 hours or less and have them hauled to the storage facility for you.

Oversized items, such as bikes, surfboards and furniture pieces, can also be transported to the storage facility. But it gets even better! Whenever you want to use a stored item, you can request it back and receive it via delivery in as little as 24 hours!

In a nutshell, all you have to do is pack. The rest — transportation to the facility, storage, and delivery — is no concern of yours! So pack…and then sit back and relax!

Your mind will be at ease knowing that drivers are trustworthy and that storage facilities are secure, clean, and climate-controlled. You know what they say: “Cluttered room, cluttered mind!” Why not free up some much-needed space in your home and clear your mind at the same time? Kill two birds with one stone.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to learn more about our valet storage service or to get started and schedule pickup.

Do you struggle with having enough room in your closets? Do you dread bringing your clothes back from the cleaners because you’re afraid they won’t fit?

The 80% rule has been applied to everything from hotel vacancies to logistics and applies to your closets as well. Simply put, if your closet is more than 80% full you are not enjoying or maximizing your closet they way you should be. Yes, your closet can be a place of pride and enjoyment! The goal for your closet is to have at least 20% of space open in your closet. Don’t think of this 20% as wasted or available space. This 20% will help you reach the goals of visibility and accessibility so that you can get the most of your closet.

Visibility: By having 20% of your closet open your mind will be able to differentiate individual items, (item on a hanger, shoes, etc.) instead of absorbing them as one big amalgamation of stuff. You will be able to take mental pictures of your individual clothes, shoes, etc. and your mind will put these pictures in a mental space or place. You will be able to remember your favorite items, where they are stored and what combinations you can create with them. This is especially important with teaching children organization, as a crammed closet can be especially frustrating, (every trip to the closet is a search and rescue mission versus having a clear mental picture, think of knowing their jackets are hanging on the left).

Accessibility: We all know how frustrating it can be when you know you hung your favorite blouse, but you don’t have any room to slide the hangers. With 20% of your closet space open you will never have this frustration again. Just grab and go. And, putting it back in its place will be a breeze because the empty hanger will be visibly waiting right where you left it. Accessibility and Visibility are key components to giving your mind the ability to relax and work with your closet.

Stow Simple can help you actually enjoy and maximize your closets. By using our innovative pickup and delivery storage system you can send your winter clothes, suitcases, and seldom used but essential items, (think gala dresses and accessories), on a climate-controlled vacation. When you need them you can schedule your items to be delivered back to you in as little as 24 hours. Believe it or not, you can store the entire contents of most closets in 5 bins!

Go online and schedule your bins and wardrobe boxes to be dropped off to your address. You’ll have up to two weeks at no charge to pack your items. Schedule your free pickup and we will take your items to our climate-controlled warehouse. Take advantage of our online catalog so you will know exactly what is in each bin. We will even take overhead pictures of your bins. Going skiing in Colorado? Order your luggage, ski clothes and accessories delivered a week before your flight so you can pack everything up. When you get back, we will take everything back to keep your home clean, organized and clutter free, all of this for as little as $25 a month. This is the easiest and best way to organize your home and closets without breaking the bank redesigning your closets or getting rid of things you need and love. We look forward to being your partner in living a clutter-free life.

Two years ago I received those dreaded words, “maybe it’s best if we breakup.” I was too shocked to realize that moment was a gift.

One day, I needed to move a few things from my small condo. I found myself thinking about my ex. I had to assemble a bike rack and was frustrated over a stubborn peg that refused to budge into place. I couldn’t seem to muster the strength to assemble it. And because I’m an independent gal, I was even more exacerbated that my thoughts were fluttering back to my go-to person, my ex, who would have normally been there to help.

The bike rack peg finally budged. Standing on the contraption with my entire body weight, the peg popped into place. The idea of Stow Simple didn’t come as easily, but the idea was slowly loosening itself in my mind after this breakthrough and breakup.

Wasn’t there a simpler way to make tiny space living easier? Could there be a way to assist independent-minded people in need of a helping hand with on-demand ease? What if there was a service like Amazon, but in reverse? What if I could go online and in less than 24 hours have someone take my stuff away?

Had I not gone through that breakup, I don’t know if I would have had the idea or the drive to launch Stow Simple. Ideas to build Stow Simple into a company with a strong community partnership like Miami Rescue Mission, locally focused, and family oriented began to emerge as a real business plan.

I’ve often been told that they key to life is gratitude, even in the most difficult of times. I try to return to this sage advice in my own life and business and yes, even through heartache. I see it in Stow Simple customers who find that moment when they stumble onto our services. I think of our first customer, Olga, an elderly lady who didn’t have the strength or the support to store things on her own. We were both grateful to find each other in that moment. I think of the businesses that lost their leases and in desperate need of convenient storage during a time of transition. And this Valentine’s season, I think of those couples in between moves and also moving on from each other.

By Silvia M. Camps

Have you ever watched a simple project drag into one that takes all day simply because you can’t find all the pieces you need to finish it? From a quick construction project to an arts and crafts project with the kids, it’s impossible to get anything done when you can’t figure out where anything is! Here’s the secret: you can get more done by staying organized.

Get rid of unnecessary clutter around the home. There are plenty of items that you only use one or two times a year. Why use up important storage space in your home for those items? Instead, transfer them to a storage facility. They’ll be easily accessible of you need them, but you won’t have to worry about tripping over them when you’re searching for something else.

Rotate items by season more easily. How long does it take you to swap your wardrobe from winter to summer? What about your kids’ toys: do you have trouble rotating them so that they have a decent number to play with without being overwhelmed by too many choices? Instead of trying to hold all of those things inside your home, get organized! Transfer boxes of unused items, from holiday decorations to seasonal clothing, to a storage facility until you need them again.

Leave your in-home storage free for items you use regularly. Your home only has so many closets. Chances are, you’d like to actually be able to park your car in your garage. Instead of cramming those areas full of things that you don’t use very often–or perhaps don’t use at all–move them to a storage unit. You’ll be able to make better use of your existing space while still having those important possessions where you can access them when you need them. That means that when you open a closet or a cabinet, you’ll be able to go straight to the item you need instead of digging around for it, pulling out piles of things you don’t need as you search for the one you do.

Organizing your home and moving rarely-used items to storage can transform your life, making you more productive and freeing up both your time and your space for other things. Why not give it a try? Contact us today to learn more about how our valet storage works.

One of the most difficult aspects of Christmas decorating involves locating all your ornaments, garland, wreaths and other similar items. Here are some hints for storing holiday decorations  you can use that will help you avoid scrambling to find what you are looking for.

Storing Christmas Lights

If you’re like most people, you’ve been frustrated in the past by tangled Christmas lights that took forever to unravel. This problem can easily be solved by wrapping your lights around an ordinary clothes hanger. You can then hang this hanger from a clothes rod, or place rows of hangers inside a cardboard box.

Protect Breakable Ornaments

Smaller ornaments will fit nicely inside a standard egg carton. It is also easy to stack multiple egg cartons inside a crate or plastic tote so that all your tree decorations are in one location. Larger ornaments should be stored in plastic containers designed especially for that purpose. If you only have a few larger ornaments, it may not be worthwhile to use a plastic container, in which case you can wrap ornaments in tissue paper and store inside cardboard shirt boxes instead.

Christmas Tree

If you have enough space to store your tree fully assembled, you can save yourself a great deal of time putting it together. If you must take it down and store it, a Christmas tree bag can be an ideal solution. Made from heavy canvas, this bag prevents damage due to moisture or exposure to UV rays. An alternate solution would be to stuff individual branches inside very tall cardboard tubes, which could then be stacked in the rafters of your garage in order to save space.

The key to keeping your Christmas decorations well organized is to purchase containers that will allow you to keep items that belong in different areas of your home together. An off-site storage unit will make it easy for you to keep all your decorations neat and well organized until it is time to use them again. And if you don’t want to haul your holiday stuff, Stow Simple is happy to pick them up and store them. We’ll deliver them back to your door when you need them next year.

The holidays have come and gone and the last thing you want to deal with is how to organize, declutter, and re-pack all those decorations. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to save every ornament, keep every strand of tinsel, or store every supposed keepsake. That’s why we’ve created 3 questions to help you declutter, and even dump some of your holiday stuff so that you don’t end up an episodes of Hoarders. Are you ready? Here’s what should ask yourself when organizing, decluttering, and storing holiday decorations:

1. Is it Useful?

If the item does not serve some kind of obvious purpose then you can get rid of it. If it is not useful you can donate it or throw it away. Once you’ve decided has a purpose, then designate a place to store the item. Label everything, or keep your decorations in their original packaging so it’s easy to tell what the item is.

2. Does it Work?

Have you ever strung up a whole strand of Christmas lights only to plug them in and find that they no longer work? If your lights are on the fritz, fix them before storing. And if you haven’t used something in a couple of years, consider donating the item or throwing it away. It may sound easy to throw it in a box and deal with it next year, but space is precious. Kick the clutter and give yourself the gift of more room.

Packing Tip 1: Wrap your lights to cardboard 

When taking down your lights, wrap them around a piece of cardboard or a wrapping paper tube to prevent them from getting tangled in storage. Tape the ends to the cardboard with masking tape to keep them secure. Next year you’ll be thanking yourself.

3. Does it make you happy?

This may be the most importation question. Ask yourself, “is it beautiful or meaningful?” If it is, keep it (even if it doesn’t pass rules #1 and #2). If it isn’t, throw it out.

Packing Tip 2: Number Your Containers

Another trick, for those with multiple containers of holiday paraphernalia, is to number and color code your containers. Do you have one container for outdoor holiday décor and one container for indoor decorations? Number them 1 and 2 and make a list with the corresponding numbers and details of what is inside each container. Instead of keeping the list to lose in your house, tape the list to the top of container number one. This is nice for those with lots of holiday containers.

Packing Tip 3: Store It

Yes, storage means boxing it up then hauling everything to the basement, crawl space, closet, or attic. But, if you do not have enough room, you could also schedule a Stow Simple bin drop off and we will store your stuff for you!