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Throw away, hah ha, when wife retired had to build 8 floor to ceiling cabinets in the garage for her hobby & other accumulations that she can't bare to part with. Only death do she part with them.
We moved from a 4-bed, 2-bath home to a small new ranch with 2 beds, 1 bath. I built the ranch myself, with 2 male relatives, and it took us most of the summer.
While I was gone, I gave my wife free rein to get rid of whatever she wanted, even my stuff, with the exception of my wool shirts, auto tools, and yes, my fishing gear! She did an admirable job. She'd call me in the evenings, and ask about certain things, and I'd always defer to her suggestions.
It was good not to have to tend to that stuff myself!
This is a good reason to not delay downsizing. Do it while you are still healthy enough to deal with it.
Unfortunately, getting rid of stuff is a major problem for most people. That stuff invokes pleasant memories from their lives.
I too have a wife who just cannot part with the unusable antiques that she inherited from her grandmother. They just consume space and will not fit in a smaller house. Our kids don't want them because they do not evoke an emotional appeal.
So I do whatever I can do. I throw out my junk first.
Sometimes I wish I could just hire Louie "the Torch" to burn the sucker down and get a check from the insurance company..
I had a relative that sold a mansion (11,000 sq ft). Buyer wanted to close in 2 weeks, seller figured "throw everything in storage and deal with it later" as storage is far cheaper than the house itself. Fast forward 2 years, relative is buying a new construction house and was renting then subsequently dies before the stuff in storage was ever dealt with.
Upon going through the storage.........80% of it wasn't worth the cost of the storage! Furniture is not worth much after it is 10 years old, people today could care less about quality craftsman built bedroom sets or desks. Technology is outdated after just a few years so the best TV available today is a paperweight 5 years later!
Moral of the story: Before you store, consider the cost of the storage and the time to get it to/from storage!
Retired from a 3600 sq. ft. house with 4 car garage, to a 1200 sq. ft. mountain cabin with no garage that was 2K miles away. Offered much to family and friends, sold a few big ticket items (pool table, garden tractor). Offered 'furniture package' to buyers of our home (they happily agreed to big items like sofa sets, dining and kitchen sets). The rest went to Goodwill, Salvation Army.
Here's what we learned: the (non) value of used furniture. Once you buy that must-have leather sofa or drop dead gorgeous DR set, it basically is worthless. Lesson learned: we furnished our retirement homes (have had 4 since 2003) with a few choice items (always new mattresses, new good recliners) but also shopped Goodwill, consignment stores and yard sales.
When my father in law died at age 83 we had to deal with the stuff left behind in his 6000 sq ft house.
We filled three 12 foot by 20 foot dumpsters with 7 broken TVs, old furniture, collections of empty booze bottles, old appliances, bricks, wire, broken lamps, pieces of wood, worn out rugs etc. ad nauseum.
He was a child of the depression and he just couldn't throw anything away.
If you don't deal with your junk, this is what your children will have to face.
When my father in law died at age 83 we had to deal with the stuff left behind in his 6000 sq ft house.
We filled three 12 foot by 20 foot dumpsters with 7 broken TVs, old furniture, collections of empty booze bottles, old appliances, bricks, wire, broken lamps, pieces of wood, worn out rugs etc. ad nauseum.
He was a child of the depression and he just couldn't throw anything away.
If you don't deal with your junk, this is what your children will have to face.
My FIL died last year at age 91; 50+ years in his large home as a clutterbug. Literally tons of old moldy books, etc.
But the housing market in his area was for knock-downs (to be rebuilt as McMansions). After the family took what they wanted, a few items went to an auction house, we were allowed to leave everything else in the house. We had all been dreading the 'clean out' process for decades, but we lucked out.
This is a good reason to not delay downsizing. Do it while you are still healthy enough to deal with it.
Unfortunately, getting rid of stuff is a major problem for most people. That stuff invokes pleasant memories from their lives.
We made a pre-retirement move that was also a substantial downsizing. At ages 48/61 we were leaving 2,000 square feet on three acres with a barn/workshop and heading across the country to something that was sure to be much smaller. I was pretty ruthless with the shedding of things. Most yard things stayed with the house, as did a few pieces of furniture. Much went on Craigslist. Much more was donated. We still moved too much stuff. Had we already had a house picked out when we moved, I probably would have been more brutal with the editing. But we rented at first, not knowing exactly what we'd buy, and if it would have a garage, or how many bedrooms, etc.
I think it helped that (A) I was DH's second marriage, so he didn't have a lot of "stuff" from back in the day -- his ex had all that and (B) I/we don't have kids, so we don't have any of that sentimental stuff to hold on to, either. I had already shed many of the family antiques I had inherited in my 20s and 30s.
Our house is about 1,600 square feet, no garage, no barn/workshop. We do have some basement/cellar storage, and I got DH to go through it with me a few weekends ago and we purged some more. I LOVE getting rid of stuff. I will reach Nirvana the day he finally agrees to part with the jukebox. He is out of town for two weeks and my weekend project is my closet -- If I haven't worn it since we moved here 2.5 years ago, out it goes.
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