Disposing of decades of work paraphernalia

[Atari2600]

I'm not retired... mid-40s here, but I do have some thoughts on it.


I like "stuff," but I've found over the years that stuff ends up owning you. My interests have changed over the years, so I've unloaded a lot of things that I otherwise no longer really have the same interest in. Life is all about experiences, and while I do appreciate minimalism, I also think that too much of it, especially if you're much older and not able to get around, can be depressing too.


I've had a pretty fantastic career so far, and very proud of what I've accomplished. A lot of the work "momentos" whether it's medals, awards, or things I've gathered in my career... these are things that I have on a few shelves that I keep around me as a testament to my own experiences. It's something that I know my children would also want, as I've kept a lot of the similar things from my grandfather.



To that end... these are more personal things, and they have an inherent sentimental value to me.



What I would absolutely NOT want to do though, is create a situation where when my wife and I die... that we leave our kids with tons of "crap" that they have to deal with in their own busy lives. I know my own parents are paring down their stuff, and when they pass on, there's probably not a whole lot that I'll keep with the exception of maybe a handful of items that were more personal... like my dad's watch, or photo albums, or maybe a couple of family heirlooms that have been passed down from generations.


All the other stuff, is just stuff. My dad has a stamp collection, I have no interest in stamps. I have a couple of old computers, my daughter has no interest in such things...




I do like to visit estate sales now and then... but I usually don't buy anything. I more enjoy being able to see things, see how people lived, and what things meant to them in their final years. Sometimes I see a lot of "crap." Other times I see really valuable things that were squirreled away that really should have been shared with the world. For example, I went to one estate sale near San Antonio when I lived there. The guy formerly worked for NASA. He had tons of COMMs equipment in his garage, including about a dozen vintage film reels that were labelled after the various Apollo missions. I'm quite sure some of these are originals and not available elsewhere. Same with that equipment... there's some museums that could have used that stuff.





Me personally, I worked for the NFL for a number of years. I have all the original film canisters from the Dolphins 1973 Perfect Season. They're not only the original team copies, but the only copies that exist. No idea what I'm going to do with them. They're too valuable to give away, but no one cares enough to make an offer. I'll probably die with them, and my daughter will get them. So I have to decide if such a situation arises where I feel like giving them to a museum that would actually care about them.


I'm sure we all have stuff like this... and just need to decide. It looks cool on my back wall when I have meetings, but it serves absolutely no purpose.