After a while, when I moved in with her, it was my first time living in the capital. In my early 30s, I was still enjoying the bubbling life a big city has to offer: dinner with friends in local taverns, going out to clubs and bars, tasting different ethnic restaurants, short walking distance from the nearest cinema, visiting all kinds of exhibitions and museums, strolling in big parks. We didn’t even need to take the car, everything was accessible. It felt like we had everything we needed close by.
When the first winter came, the need for extra, cosy, and warm clothes made the alarm sound on for the first time. The apartment was tiny, as most of the affordable apartments in Lisbon are. We only had one bedroom with one closet, a small cute balcony where we had our plants, a bathroom that could not hold more than 2 people at the same time, a living/dining room to which it was impossible to invite more than 3 friends.
The lack of storage space for our clothes was the initial issue. We had no storage space at all! At first, we used our parents’ garages to store our seasonal clothes. It worked… but not for long. We eventually lost control of where our storing boxes were, and every now and then we needed to re-organize our closet. Then, we realized we couldn’t wash and dry all our clothes and linen in our apartment: we had no space to dry clothing or even for a tumble dryer machine. We also needed to take them to our parents’. Eventually, it was not just the clothes, every time we needed to buy something new, we realized we needed to get rid of something in the house. We lived in this apparently controlled situation for 2 years.
And then we got to a moment where so much love between us needed to be expanded if you know what I mean. So we started talking about having a child. The very first thing that came to our mind was: “no way we‘ll live the three of us in this house, impossible!”. Made sense, I mean, we were getting to a point we were so limited space-wise in our house, how could we live with one more human being and with all the complimentary things that come with: all the cloths, breast pump and milk storage containers, nursing pillow, diapers and wipes, baby soaps and creams, infant tub, blankets, crib and mattress, stroller, change table, and still a long list! No way we could fit all that in our tiny apartment.
It was the moment to start looking for a new place to live. Everything was very expensive at the time and we wanted to find the perfect place, the perfect space. But it takes time and energy to find the perfect space. Finally one day, the best news in the universe arrived: we were expecting a baby! We were so excited, we jumped and hugged all morning! And after the emotional start of the day, we realized we haven’t found yet a place to live in! We were the happiest people in the world no doubt about that. But buying a house is a big investment, a huge step, and an important decision to take. And we had a due date now: less than 9 months to find The Place. Along with finding all the previously named products for our baby… Stress and anxiety invited themselves, when this was supposed to be the best moment of our lives.
So that’s when we made the decision. A good friend advised us not to rush into buying a new place. We could rent a slightly bigger apartment for the same price we were paying, and we could leave all our stuff in a self storage unit. At the end of the day, we would be paying practically the same and doubling the available space in the house. Seemed the best thing to be done at that moment, and today, I have no doubt it was indeed the best move. Choosing a self-storage facility didn’t take too much time. We searched online, and after visiting a couple of them, we were over-impressed with KUBOO, the warehouse was sparkling clean and it felt the safest place in the world to leave our belongings. I mean, we were in the process of being parents, clean and safe are some of the most basic needs we want in our lives, and for our child.
After almost 3 years of our move-in to KUBOO, we now have our own new house!. And you know what, we still have our stuff at KUBOO. After 3 years, we realized that it was not a temporary need in our life. We feel that those 10m2 rented storage are ours. They feel like home. And instead of going every week to our parents to pick up clean clothes, we now go every week to have lunch with them, they play with the baby, and we have some proper family time. And they got their garage back! Things have changed in our life from the time we started having more space for our belongings and stopped worrying about where to store them.
In our particular case, self-storage was not only a benefit for us as a couple. It was also great for our precious baby. Now we have a shelf for things that were given to the baby and are too early for him to use or things that he has used already and doesn’t need anymore. Eventually, we’ll offer those things to a friend or someone in need, but in the meanwhile, they’re all safely stored in the same space.
We still live in Lisbon. There are plenty of storage spaces in the city, of all colours, but none is even close to KUBOO. Not by the quality of its installations, or its security and safety, and especially by the excellence and kindness of its team made of Kuboodistas.
