The Storage Locker

Our home in Texas is big, just like every other Texas home. We have lots of storage space, like every other Texas home. Our house has attic space above the 2nd floor, a walk-in attic just off of one of the bedrooms, and several walk-in closets. Along with that, we have a three car garage which allowed for, you guessed it, more storage.

When we moved to Holland we didn't bring any Christmas decorations, Halloween decorations, Easter; well, you get the point. I had so many boxes of holiday decorations in the attic spaces, I decided to not go through them and just put them all in the Nalco provided storage facility. By the way, I have no idea where they are physically being stored, but I am assured it is a nice, temperature controlled space.

In addition to our huge Nalco storage locker, we also rented a space of our own. This space was used for our photo albums, important paperwork, and anything we just might need access to while we were on our adventure abroad. We have visited our 'stuff' each year when we go home. This year we all sat on the very clean floor of our storage locker and looked through photo albums. We need pictures for Kevin's year book.

Our house in Holland had lots of storage too. There was a basement, a walk-in attic space, a garage, and a storage shed. Lots of space to stash all of the new holiday decorations we purchased along with the many items we brought overseas which we did not need.

So, let's jump into the desert. Our house here is a very nice size. While my housekeeper says it is small, it is approximately 4,200 square foot. Just a shack! The problem with the homes here are their lack of storage space. There are no basements, no attics, no linen closets, no under the stair storage, no place to hide our treasures. When we finished unpacking last year we set out to find a nice climate controlled storage locker. Well, we found it! If you have been to a storage locker in Texas, picture it now. OK, now picture the 100% complete opposite! That is my Dubai storage locker.

Our locker is in an industrial area that is just on the edge of nowhere. To access the building you have to go down a narrow sand alleyway. The buildings on either side of the alley appear to be occupied by workers that probably have no where else to go. On Friday, the day off here for all workers, there is laundry hanging in the alley and men just sitting around on overturned paint buckets. It actually looks pretty scary, but that is true of lots of places here.

The locker itself is nothing more than an area that is fenced off from the locker next door. There are no solid walls, not private metal doors, and actually, no real floor! The floor is a metal grate. If you happened to drop something through the floor, it would land in the storage locker below yours! There are big black rat traps all over the place and an elevator that is designed for moving person belongings only - NO PEOPLE. This weekend when we went to the locker, the elevator was hanging by its cable with an "out of order" sign. No kidding!!

So after paying $200 a month for this lovely facility, we decided to bring our stuff home. It took four car loads and lots of sweat, but we now have all of our stuff here. Jim is now parking his car outside and we have some very happy geckos as they now have new places to explore!

I described the locker to Kevin and when he came with me to clean out the unit, he commented that is was much worse than he had imagined. It really isn't that bad....it is just Dubai.