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I graduated from Engineering School 45 years ago with arm loads of text books. The useless ones were sold or donated, reference manuals took their place, job responsibility changes thinned the pile but many still remain.
I cotinnue to dispose of unnecessary tomes as retirement day approaches (6 to 9 months out) but the emotional attachment to the survivors remain. I know what has to be done and I keep marching in that direction in spite of the pain.
Am I alone in this reluctance?
Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 09-26-2019 at 06:16 PM..
Reason: fixed typo
My wife and I attempt to "clean like we died" every couple of years. Anything that we haven't touched in the last year is subject to being sold, donated or trashed unless there's a strong sentimental value. Work-related stuff is the first to go. Work does not define me - it's always been simply an means to an end - living a good, decent, enjoyable life. There are also hobby items that I plan to use more heavily once retired. Those items are retained.
I found that once retired, my idea of what was valuable changed. So wait a while after you retire to see how you feel about all that weight pulling you down.
The technology is now available online resulting in fewer of the younger ones buying old books so get rid of the past, you can't go back and who would want to?
Since you are still working, there may be some things that are still needed for the time being. In the last year that I was working, I separated everything I had used within the past year from the rest. Anything not used in the past year got disposed of or given away. That cut down the remaining stuff to the essentials, and eliminated 80-90 percent. You have to start somewhere, and that is one way to make a dent in the stuff. Then what remains is a much smaller amount of things that you can sort further after retirement.
I do not hoard and my house has been referred to as looking like a model home. I do have some of my stuff packed neatly in the garage or in the basement that should be discarded but makes me happy. I have resigned myself to the fact that my kids or my wife will have to discard of this stuff when I die. I can live with that (pun intended).
Keep the stuff you want and reevaluate every 5 years. I have a SCUBA weight belt that I just do not want to discard although I don't ever see me using it again. If you wanted it I would give it to you in a heartbeat, but I will not be the one throwing it out.
When I left my last medical transcription job I had a ton of reference books and hand-written, cross-reference books that I had no problem donating to whoever wanted them. Transcription can be a pretty difficult job when you are listening to a heavy accent or even a doctor who speaks well but tends to cut off part of a word. And some of the technical terms can be mind-boggling, too.
He kept his PE book (he had his PE in EE and ME) because of all the useful reference materials, plus some machining/metallurgy reference books he still uses. Maybe two shelves of books. He does the occasional consulting for a company he used to work for although they've pretty much outsourced all of their engineering overseas. Since he also does some specialty repair work, he does have a room of tech gear required for that which he will keep until he is tired of dealing with customers. Also a shop full of metal- and wood-working tools that I don't see him letting go of any time soon. He did pass on his extensive set of car repair tools to our son, as our cars are newer and he isn't interested in having a hobby car (although I did see him eyeing an older Miata for sale in a parking lot).
I had a harder time letting go of some of my geology texts, but I am down to one bookshelf. But I also have a craft area with a lot of beads/stringing gemstones/metalworking supplies and yarn.
But, lol, if I go first, he knows all the beading/jewelry work stuff trundles across the street to the neighbor's house and the yarn goes around the block to another neighbor. I will have a harder time figuring out what do with his shop full of stuff, although I would probably either just have a shop sale or hire one of the estate places that specializes in tools to clear out the entire garage. The tech gear ... I dunno. If I have to figure it out at some point, it won't be the greatest of my worries.
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Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 09-26-2019 at 02:32 PM..
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