America’s Bigger Barns

Last month I had the pleasure of spending a morning with Ray Gary and Greg Murtha, two, bright, committed leaders on the iDonate team. Among other pearls, I received a brief tutorial on America’s self-storage market*, which is one of the fastest growing commercial property segments in the country.

This year as a nation, we will pay more than $22 billion in self-storage rental fees for units owned by more than 30,000 companies. Put all units in one place and “Self Storage City” would be the size of three Manhattan Islands (under roof). Indoor units. Air conditioned units. Multi-story units going up in some of the nicest communities in America.

What in the world are we storing in this 2.35 billion square feet of space? (Not to mention our basements, garages, and occasional second homes.) If you really want to know, you can tune into the weekly reality A&E TV series, Storage Wars. The show is quite a hit. No kidding.

In Luke 12, Jesus told the story about a rich man who produced a good crop then thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ ”Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.” Jesus goes onto to describe that man as a fool, explaining that this life is temporary, and our stuff? Well, we can’t take it with us.

Amazing how relevant Jesus is! Look at this picture (left). Is Jesus speaking to me (and you) today about America’s bigger barns? I’m not going to patronize by asking if we need all of this stuff, but rather, at the risk of offending Self-Storage moguls, let’s ask the real question: do we even want it? What if, by giving it away, we could help meet the pressing needs of a child?

Please contact us to learn more about using non-cash assets to invest in the lives of children who need family.

* Big thanks for iDonate for all they do to help connect these dots.