Ever packed your snowboard, ten crates of childhood memories, a blender with a broken part into a 500 square-foot apartment? Welcome to city living. That is the reason why 黃竹坑迷你倉 (ministorage in Wong Chuk Hang) has unobtrusively turned into the hack of Hongkongers who treat space like it is the circus show. Read here!

This was not always the case in the past. Wong Chuk Hang used to be nothing more than a pocket industrial area under the Aberdeen Tunnel. Jump a few seconds, and now you are in one of the storage hotspots. Why? Location, my friend. Homes in Southern District are near enough, conveniently located to the MTR, so people are not merely dumping stuff, they are reclaiming breathing space.

Talk to any neighbor in the neighborhood and you will be told stories. One of them keeps his old guitar collection out of the damp clutches of his shoebox apartment. A newly married couple hoarded wedding decor which did not quite find its way to resale market. A cafe owner? Keeping seasonal decorations and chairs in it which only need the sun during the brunch season.

And the options? You have units as small as a suitcase to roomy enough to house the start-up stock of your cousin. Climate control? Yes. 24-hour access? Usually. There are even those with biometric access. Fancy? Perhaps. But mostly practical.

Also, there is relief, which is not said too much, when you know you do not have to stumble on something at home. It is freeing–as dumping that single T-shirt you have been promising yourself to put on again one day. You do not now need to dispose of it.

The rates are not astronomical, though. That’s part of the charm. You are not entitled to sell your soul, just rent a room in which your hoarding behavior will not be evaluated. And in a world where all the square feet are gold, this is the feeling of striking oil.

Then, when your apartment seems to be a puzzle-game instead of a house, maybe it is time to think about 黃竹坑迷你倉. Why, your rice cooker does not have to sleep beside your laundry detergent, does it?