Easy to tell he’s just another landlord with limited space in his brain, but it’s ok.

Took a deep breath, packed my stuff and went to classes at NOVA SBE in Carcavelos. Fairly close to the flat in São Domingos de Rana i was about to empty and leave.

Summer was about to start, it’s almost time to come back to Pampilhosa, and nothing worried me. I mean, I had just this thing occupying my mental space- what would I do with my stuff, furniture, crockery, books, etc. during the months to come? Bringing them home with me was out of the question, also selling them was a no go, as I would need them again in September.

A few days later, while having coffee at Uni, a friend told me she was going to Riga in September for Erasmus, very excited and with a semester of trips already planned. Given that she also lives in a rented apartment, I mentioned my space issue and asked what she was gonna do with her things since she would be away from Lisbon for so long.

“I’ll store it all in a Kuboo!” she answered, as if my question had been the most unreasonable of the week- “It’s simple and pretty close here from NOVA, and they have friendly prices for us students!”. “At least somebody thinks of us”, I sighed.

I ended up making a visit to KUBOO Carcavelos/ Abóboda and was astonished, it had nothing to do with what we see in movies. I was greeted with a smile and a chupa-chups. The air is light in this warehouse. I even crossed paths with other people from University in the hallways. Apparently there’s more University students leaving their things in a self-storage during the months they’re away. And I became another!

Thank you KUBOO, a yellow-doored mini-storage just 10 minutes away from Carcavelos came in very handy.

For many years, I was as a pendulum: centered in Lisbon, balancing between the North and the South of Portugal, from the coast to the interior, helping those who needed the most, as I was able to.

I had a small storage, more pantry than garage, where I kept storing and accumulating things until it justified the trip.

Then I’d drive off in my father’s old red wine coloured Corolla and distribute the material in boxes to the Institutions and Solidarity centers with which I made friends along the way.

Now I’m old and tired, have a family and a small farm to care for. I stick to Lisbon.

“Those who give what they have, to more aren’t obliged”

A few weeks ago, one of my nieces came home radiant because “a cube” had prepared a morning of games and activities for the children at her daughter’s school.

As it turns out, this “cube” is actually “a KUBOO”.

A KUBOO which apparently, besides activity days, organizes blood and goods collection campaigns, supports kids’ sports teams, artists and musicians, and even plants trees on behalf of its customers.

And the most curious thing of all? KUBOO’s business is space rental, or as they call them, Kuboos! Small Kuboos, bigger Kuboos, with light, 24 hour access, clean and bug free… perhaps in my heydays of traveling and running around I would have been a part of KUBOO too.

I’m a visual artist and sometimes work confines me to my own space, a small atelier in the garage at home invented from a mess of trunks, shelves and boxes of memories that, for a long time, I didn’t want to store away from home.

In fact, I spent a lot of time in the garage, even when I wasn’t working, going through photo albums, old collections and my father’s belongings, my way of staying close to him.

A while ago my daughter had a health complication and needed to receive some blood transfusions. This made me re-evaluate a large part of my life.

After what happened, I decided to store some of the garage stuff in a mini-storage unit and turn it into a space where my little girl could play to her heart’s content, so that we could also spend more time together.

In my search for storage solutions in the Lisbon area, I came across KUBOO Self-Storage in Carnaxide, quite close to my home, so I decided to pay them a visit.

What was my surprise when, on arriving at the facility, I saw that KUBOO was organizing a blood donation and bone marrow donors registering campaign – I doubt there’s another self-storage in Portugal doing this. It seemed like fate, so I couldn’t stay inside my box any longer!

That same day, I became a client of KUBOO and made the first blood donation of my life! After all, one unit of donated blood is just 400ml that can make a huge difference.

I recently found out that this KUBOO campaign won a social responsibility award, a well-deserved honor for such a noble initiative.

Congratulations KUBOO!

At times, sailors would venture the unknown oceans with no promise of return just for the sake of finding a new world, a space where lands grew different trees, animals grew bigger sizes and people dedicated themselves to new unknown arts and crafts.

Those able to make it back, would arrive stacked with all sorts of new items, spices, textiles and a bunch of useless stuff. Although, decluttering was pretty easy as these last ones were different from most things people had seen at the time, so clearing space was no issue.

Particular and special objects require different care, as you wouldn’t store a roll of cloth that traveled for months through storms and disease in a humid garage or some unsafe storage.

KUBOO came to life as a different storage solution. The idea also had to travel for long months, wander through storms and overcome giant waves. Made from people who see the world differently, for people who see their belongings different from banal things.

“Was it worth doing? Everything’s worth doing if one’s soul isn’t small.”

Nothing but respect for the sea, belief in a group of people and opportunity, brought KUBOO Self-Storage and SailCascais together, for a season of conquests with space for always one more victory.

That’s how Rui, Henrique, Luís and Francisco ended up wearing KUBOO’s colors, sailing the waters of Cascais and being crowned THE FIRST EVER PORTUGUESE J70 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.

Congratulations to the whole KUBOO Sailing Team and all SailCascais team for a great year!

As Pessoa once asserted, danger and the abyss were placed in the sea, but it was also made into heaven’s mirror.

My partner is a pilot for a short-haul airline, so he often goes back and forth to the airport. In most big cities, living near an airport means living on the outskirts, having good access but being far from the euphoria of the urban centers. As we know, this isn’t the case in Lisbon, so I found myself renting a flat that was too small for the price, just because of its proximity.

Naturally, when I moved houses, I brought a lot more stuff than I could fit into the new city flat, from tents and camping equipment to the stress of moving and seeing more boxes than storage space available. I find it hard to believe that nowadays we have to pay absurd amounts for a roof under which there is no room for what is ours, for the things we love.

Fortunately, KUBOO Self-Storage crossed my path and came to “expand” my small flat not far from its walls. At least here everything is uncomplicated, I pay a fair price and I know that my belongings are safe and easily accessible – unlike the property market in Lisbon.

I’d rather give my money to someone who cares about helping me, regardless of the square meters, than to someone who just looks at them as euros.

And when I became a client of KUBOO, guess what, they planted a tree in my name and sponsored kids to play football, among many other social responsibilities they showed me they were doing in my name. When I left KUBOO I was happy.

I was here when they built the CCB and when Os Belenenses Football fell to the bottom division… and I’ll be here to see it return to where it belongs, the 1st division.

I started going to the Restelo stadium when I was 7 or 8 years old, accompanied by my grandfather who quickly infected me with a huge love for the Azuis da Cruz de Cristo, a love that burns today in the same way it did on those Football afternoons in Restelo with my Avô Zé.

I’ve lived in houses and apartments, I’ve had a backyard and I’ve had a balcony overlooking the south shore. I’m a simple person and, as I grew up, I realized that space is what we make of it. My grandfather used to tell me that happiness doesn’t lie in “how much we have” but in recognizing that “we have enough”.

Among the things that have never changed, there’s a huge stone: the issue of housing, with its one-way, rising prices, in contrast to its ever-decreasing size.

The last time I was in the process of moving houses, which I hope was for good – I’m too old for these things – a long-time friend told me about a discovery of his that turned out to be a real “tidy-up” for the “huge stone” that takes up so much physical and mental space. His find was “cubes”, which turn out to be “kuboos”, mini-storerooms that have come to complement my home, where I keep many achievements and memories that, despite always being there, no longer fit under the same roof as me.

At KUBOO in Carnaxide, I know that the first letters I exchanged with my wife, the old Belenenses shirts and scarves that my grandfather left me, and the bottle I’m saving to celebrate when they’re back in the first league, are safe and well kept.

My things are not mundane things, they are important objects given to me by dear friends, some of which have already passed away. They are books, thousands of books that I hold dear and who taught me how to live and become, they are records of great musicians and lyrical poets that also vastly contributed to who I am today, and some Art from friends mostly, that colour my life and brings back memories.

But when the choice was done to move to Portugal, to start nothing less but a Self-storage, of all ironies, I had to store my belongings in a Self-storage back home. Ah! Storing! It’s a bit like forgetting. Like forgetting that you loved something or someone once. Far from the eyes far from the heart says a french proverb, and it’s true. I learned to live without any of them. I adapted like anyone faced with the choice of moving away from their roots. I adapted and I stored every single bit of my belongings before I came to Lisbon, and I don’t regret it.

I made sure though that the space I was storing them in was safe, friendly, secure and insured, so I could sleep on both my ears. And I did. I found the best Self-storage and I went there. It’s been 5 years, and I barely think about it.

A friend offered me a garage to store everything, of course I declined. In a garage? why? These are the things that I hold dear, and even if I don’t see them, I want to know that they’re safe.

So here I am, in Lisbon, unworried, until the day I get them back again. I sit sometimes on the beach of Carcavelos, 10 minutes from my house in Aboboda, and I think to myself that maybe storing in a safe and clean space was one of the best calls i’ve made. Romantic! To store well or not to store! That was the question.

And I answered it.