Storage company offers “break-up protection service” for couples living together

Hunting for a radio station on the car during my recent trip to South Carolina, I heard this service being mentioned on the news and thought: Really?  Is this what we’ve come to?

Yes. Seems so.

From the Daily Mail in the U.K.:

You’ve been with your boyfriend a year. You think he’s pretty swell. He asks you to move in with him. You say ‘sure, what the heck’. But you’re not totally convinced he’s the one… so what do you do with all the duplicate belongings you’ll now have? The toasters, the teapots, the wine racks, the hoovers?

Do you sell them? Do you store them in the attic and risk a tiff about your commitment to the relationship? Or do you squirrel them away in secret, ready to collect when the inevitable happens and you go your separate ways?

Now there’s an easy way to do just that, thanks to a British storage facility offering a ‘break-up protection service’ for newly cohabiting couples.

Storage-by-the-box provider Lovespace will secretly store duplicate items for uncertain cohabiters who might wish to keep hold of the second washing machine and spare set of tea cosies, should the relationship fail.

Since 29 per cent of UK households consist of only one person, when two people decide to live together they often have two of everything, such as kettles, toasters, linen, crockery and other personal effects that there isn’t space for in their new house.

Cohabiting couples are twice as likely to break up as married partners, according to research, so if throw away all of your household and personal items before moving in, you could be left with an expensive shopping trip to re-establish your independence if you do break up.

Steve Folwell, managing director of Lovespace, said: ‘We wanted to help the biggest commitment-phobes move in with their partners.

‘Openly keeping hold of things that you identify with your single life isn’t exactly a recipe for happily ever after, so we decided to offer apprehensive cohabiters a secret service where they can keep a box of their past life.’

Great idea. What a wonderful way to build trust.  (Homily hint: looking for a springboard for World Marriage Day this weekend?  This might be a good one.)

Read more.