In my weekly blogging brainstorm I encountered several articles celebrating the growth and prosperity of self-storage, reminding me that we are a powerhouse industry, the little engine that could ... and can ... and still keeps going. The legacy of self-storage is so brilliant, in fact, one Cushman & Wakefield expert likes to call it "the Cinderella Story of real estate in the past 10 years." Now that's good stuff to blog about, eh?

I also came across a Baltimore Sun article that puts self-storage on a REIT pedestal. "REITs owning self-storage properties are this year's hottest category because of rising home foreclosures and increased need for storage space by companies," writes reporter Andrew Leckey in the Sunday edition. Stocks of companies owning/managing self-storage and other real estate buildings are in a resurgence, Leckey explains, citing "the average real estate fund is up 9 percent in this year." That might even be better stuff to blog about, right?

But then, I haven't even mentioned another article, this one in the Columbia Daily Times (citing a statistic from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts), that clearly begs for blogging space: "In fact, self-storage real estate investment trust stocks are the best performing equity REIT sector so far this year, up 21.1 percent through May."

Dare I say, "Hooray for stuff!"? Yes, and that's what I really want to blog about, because in my search and while reading the article by Karen Welch at amarilo.com, I was reminded of the George Carlin stand-up bit on "stuff."

It fills our homesteads: "A house is really just a big place, full of stuff, with a lid on top," says Carlin.

It feeds are business: "When you have too much stuff, you may put some of it in storage. Imagine that. There's a whole industry based on keeping an eye on your stuff."

And it completes the circle of life: "The meaning of life is trying to find a place for your stuff."

Finally, it completes my blog assignment for the day: Thank you for reading my stuff. Now get back to your own.