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Everyone's view of what "irreplaceable" will be different. To me, if it's YOURS, and I can buy it or something close to it, like for instance, a nightgown with a matching robe from roughly 1920s, it is OBVIOUSLY replaceable. To YOU, your Great Grand Mother's silk nightgown that she wore on her wedding night to the husband she was with for 79 years is worthy of archival in Fort Knox.
Visiting son finally has seen the new house and now he knows how little storage space it will have. We have been keeping about 10 boxes of his old physics books and papers and I told him we just could not take it with us. Today he took about $2,000 worth of physics books up to the physics department at UNC where he got his doctorate. He said it felt good to see the graduate students get excited about some of his books. About all he has saved are his baby book, his Eagle Scout paperwork and badge and his high school transcripts. He said it feels remarkably free to have divested himself of so much so quickly. I was all about accumulating "stuff" when I was his age (35) and I regret it.
The place is all mudded, the kitchen cabinets are installed as are the bathroom cabinets and all the doors are in place. It's almost going too fast for me now!!!
Visiting son finally has seen the new house and now he knows how little storage space it will have. We have been keeping about 10 boxes of his old physics books and papers and I told him we just could not take it with us. Today he took about $2,000 worth of physics books up to the physics department at UNC where he got his doctorate. He said it felt good to see the graduate students get excited about some of his books. About all he has saved are his baby book, his Eagle Scout paperwork and badge and his high school transcripts. He said it feels remarkably free to have divested himself of so much so quickly. I was all about accumulating "stuff" when I was his age (35) and I regret it.
The place is all mudded, the kitchen cabinets are installed as are the bathroom cabinets and all the doors are in place. It's almost going too fast for me now!!!
When Hubby retired, he donated most of his books and papers to the school's library. I wonder how many students even looked at them.
Today, I was doing dishes and was thinking how easy it would be to have lots of dishes to have "such capability". While I might have thought more that way back in my "lace curtain" days (of lace curtains and table cloths, silver chests, etc), the truth of the matter is that unless one is entertaining...why? I have, not counting the fancy china (given to me in my lace days but never used), the combination of 4, partial, dish sets; isn't that enough?
On the other hand, there is what one might call the operational stock. (all numbers are "at least") Five tents; 3 coolers; 3 water coolers; 3 party tables; tarps, jerry cans, flash lights, field kitchen items, etc and that's just from the camping angle. The same could be said of scuba gear, guns, tool kits, and for that matter, leotards. Items that tend to say....."don't you have more than enough?".
Admittedly, the leotards and jeans for that matter, so far, came about from another equation I didn't know existed. We often get rid of clothes as we get older when we realize "I'm never going to fit into that again". Well, when my background stress dropped, that saying went out the window. Now we can say, "If so, go off and buy new ones, celebrate your new body,". While in some ways I have, I have always been thrifty, so "Waste not, want not" works into it.........to say nothing of finding ways to stockpile funds for the eventual projects that a ranch calls for.
Having a ranch does come with its own complication in the subject of homesteading, both from the standpoint of just me and from that of the bug out location for family and friends.
Is there any useful aspect to all of this? Well, there is "before you buy more, is there anything you have now that will do the job"? An issue with this is that people like me visualize how to solve problems by developing procedures, procedures that start of many, many steps and then we work to trim it down. The thing is to realize when you have stopped being a Turkish scientist and you have become Wile E. Coyote.
When I pass on, do I worry about how they are going to handle all my stuff? No, not really, for a few reasons. First of all, hopefully I will have long converted the VHS and film stuff to digital memory. If so, then most of the VHS will be gone though I still don't know about the original film's fate. Another thing about the VHS and its conversion is the realization that eventually, I won't have the equipment anymore to access it, so there's a motivation about something. Convert it (use it) for soon you will lose it.
Secondly, another area of bulk, my diaries, exist for me, my sanity. They are hardly a historical record and are not much use to anyone if I'm gone, but they are needed by me. In a way, they are sort of like my dance teacher's "80's photo albums".....when she is 80, she can go through those photo albums and relive her younger dance years.
Third, there is the age of the mind. When do we think that we are too old to do anything else, that we are too old to see any more of our dreams come true? I have, for instance, oodles of books on underwater history, archaeology, exploration, searching, and so forth. I may never be that book worm mind (or the developer of their search system) on an AGOR research vessel who can identify the situation they found as the discovery of the battleship Sao Paulo, but it is something I can believe in to my last day. Or say the copy of Andre Norton's "Key out of Time" where it was read decades ago so why take up room with a copy now? I have it so I can feel again how I felt when I was 12 years old and saw that cover.
It's important to me.
I'll admit, having been through two rushed moves with one of them quite painful, that I have a heck of a lot of stuff and probably too much. What probably makes things easier to decide to get rid of if they don't of a local use?
When there are no significant memories attached to them. Otherwise, it is important to the holder and those that come afterwards just may not understand.
I wont worry about someone going through my house but i will be worried to go through my dads. ( unless he dies first, then my mom will literally throw everything away before the funeral )
I have older lady friends who don't drive and are QVC queens. They pay me in shoes, clothes and jewelry. Of course other stuff.
The first stop before is the garbage because some stuff is pure junk. Dry rotted and stuff unusable.
What I like that fits and wear I keep. The rest is sorted, boxed and donated to charity.
I must say the clocks are different. I've kept them. One Cooo Coo clock from Germany and a 100 plus year old clock with huge heavy brass ball weights and very ornate. Plus a Seth Thomas vintage electric desk clock.
One 3 carat white Topaz ring. Vintage jewelry from the twenties on up.
I donated all the furs to the local animal shelters. The leather clothing to an artist who paints.
Still going thru and getting rid of stuff as this is ongoing with 3 ladies..
My parents bought the house my brother and I grew up in in 1960...... in about 1988, after my dad's death and my mom's continuing and progressive physical disabilities, she moved into a spacious 2 bedroom apartment. My brother handled that move and literally just opened drawers and dumped them into boxes that were then moved to and stored in the spacious apartment......
Fast forward to 1992 and Mom moved again into her TINY little house in South Texas, about 3 hours from her places in Houston...... This time I took a week off from work to handle the move.....
It took the people she hired to move her stuff TWO trips to get it all down there... by the time it all got moved into the tiny house, we literally had a path leading from the door through the house to the bedrooms.... Now that we have those hoarder shows on tv, that is what it looked like..... but she wasn't really a hoarder..... it was just 30 years of flotsam and jetsam that accumulates in a family home over that length of time.....
I took an extra 3 days down there to get as much sorted as I could..... filled up probably 2 or 3 trash dumpsters and rented a storage bin to store stuff she couldn't bear to part with yet.... Fortunately, she pared all of that down out of her life over the 5 or 6 years......
This debacle taught me to be RUTHLESS about not keeping "stuff." If I buy clothing, I get rid of at least the same number of pieces.... I don't have a lot of dust collecting knick knacks around.... If I haven't used something in the last year or two, it goes..... I make several donation trips to Salvation Army every year..... I have kept some pieces of clothing that I might need in dress up or other circumstances and I do have a whole lot of photo albums.....
......and I do have a whole lot of photo albums.....
My kids won't even keep photo albums. They simply take a picture of every important photograph, diploma, paper, etc with their smartphones.
Now I'm trying to decide if it is worth the $1,000 per piece estimate to have some all wood quality furniture which is more than 50 years old refinished or even painted (the cost is the same). Can you even find a solid wood 6 drawer dresser with mirror for less than $1,000? Same for a very nice buffet. Both are French Provencial. This is the buffet.
That buffet is beautiful! I wouldn't do anything to it besides some cleaning up and a few little touch ups. I know you're doing new build, but that would make a fantastic bathroom vanity for someone. I love the curved front drawers.
I absolutely understand this thought. HOWEVER, even minimalist have Christmas trees and decorations, china and linens used several times a year,old tax records, seasonal clothes, hobby and craft supplies,etc don't they???
I also agree we are having a terrible time purging. It is overwhelming at times but we are pushing ourselves every day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Geek
Those sound like excuses. All the things you mentioned are not mandatory or kept by everyone. Get a fresh tree every year, no storage. Old tax records can be saved electronically now. If they are older than the internet, you probably don't need them and they should still take up 1 small box maximum. Seasonal clothes? I guess that's regional. My seasonal clothes is a jacket for winter morning. But again, a few boxes/bags max. You should fit all that you mentioned and then some in a small space. Best of luck to you!
Excuses? NOTHING is mandatory...EVERYTHING is a matter of degree. If someone were to examine your choices I'm sure they would differ. But that's everyone's prerogative. I COULD live like a monk in the Himalayas and have only a robe and a beggar's bowl.
Fresh tree every year....purely for the sake of avoiding storage...used to be you could get a tree for $20 - I don't believe that's likely now, but I'm sure that YOU know a place to chop one down for free so I won't belabor that point. However you didn't address the decorations - I know, fresh popcorn strung by hand each year? What's your time worth? zero...and the aesthetics of an 1870's Christmas, priceless.
Tax records, sure.
Seasonal clothes - this is SERIOUSLY an issue for many people. Please don't presume one coat will do it for anyone above 35 degrees latitude. Oh - just stay inside all winter - poof - no need to store winter clothes - in the age of the internet everything can be purchased online including fresh veggies...for a cost.
Hobbies? No need - all you need is the internet and just stay and play inside your own head all the time - also that way you have no need for china or linens for entertainment purposes, either! Just a plate, spork, and cup for yourself. Win-win!
Then, the equivalent of a smiley face to make it all civil "Best of luck to you!". Transparent...but
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