Livin' in a cardboard box

I drove up to Mutti's storage facility tonight after work.



Tonight was the grand unveiling of the new Multipurpose Storage Chamber. This is the seventh storage room that has been built to store the constant growth of boxes. It's supposed to hold up to 4000 boxes. The upper level can hold around 1200 boxes and the chamber below holds 2800.


The very first box was filled in February of 1991 when we ran out of space for the growing amount of hot pads. Shelves soon became full with nutcrackers, a beer stein collection to rival that of the Oktoberfest and eventually in November of '91 the giant collection of newspaper clippings filled the entire two car garage. Barrels were introduced in the Spring of '93 to meet the high demand for storage. Then in the upcoming years many sacrifices were made to make room for the constant growth of boxes and barrels. In June of 2007 Mutti sacrificed her own bedroom to give every new box a proper home. The completion of the outdoor storage chamber brings hope that someday she'll be able to sleep in her lost bed once again.


Hagen sacrificed his BMW long ago. To this day it's still surrounded by a wall of boxes.
Hagen was quoted saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do. The rims haven't been cleaned in years. All I can hope for is that the thick wall of boxes actually protects the car from any foreign particles that may damage the exterior."


Now, 17 years later, with the new Multipurpose Storage Chamber complete, today wasn't like every other day of trying to find new places to store boxes. With the new storage chamber ready we tried to clear boxes out of the house and clear a path to the kitchen. It was time to move the vertical couch out of the kitchen entrance. There's no room for it anywhere and we're not about to throw it away, so it just stands vertical in the kitchen.
We even found a hidden room that had been blocked off for several years. It turned out to be the bathroom and must've been filled with boxes many years ago and then sealed off.

Below you can see Gogo in the famous hall of boxes.

I helped transport boxes to the upper level of the Multipurpose Storage Chamber.




Many, many boxes were moved tonight and even some new boxes filled. The growth in boxes and barrels is tremendous, that even with the new multipurpose storage chamber Mutti is aware that more storage space will need to be made available soon...




So, the plans for and underground storage vault have already been put into motion.
The titanium vault will be 200 feet below the surface and should be complete in 2012. The project is estimated to cost around half a million dollars and Mutti has already put in her request for ten years of overtime. It is still uncertain whether or not she will waive her vacation time.