The storage-unit math feels frugal because it sounds responsible: I paid for these things, throwing them away wastes money, storing them preserves their value. Every step of that sentence is wrong.
The money was spent at purchase. Whatever it bought, you already have. Paying to store the items does not restore the original spend; it adds a new expense on top of the old one — and a recurring one, which is worse than a one-time loss. Months turn into years, and the storage bill exceeds the replacement cost of the items you’re storing several times over.
The cleaner accounting: the original purchase is a sunk cost. The choice is not between waste the original money and preserve its value through storage. It is between carry one loss and carry that loss plus an ongoing monthly bill. Discarding is not the wasteful option; it is the option that stops the bleeding.
The same logic applies to “I’m going to sell it eventually.” Most items depreciate fast, the endowment effect inflates our private price beyond what buyers will pay, and the unused item meanwhile consumes space and attention. The feeling that holding preserves value is itself the trap. It usually preserves only the loss.