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I hope to move into a "senior facility" later this summer or fall, and although my original goal was to be able to move in a suitcase, it looks like I will in fact have a few pieces of furniture and maybe 5 or 6 boxes of stuff (mostly family pictures).
What I have left after my SO goes back to Ohio to live with her son will be sold or donated. Anybody need a leaf blower or pressure washer?
She's not actually banned, she just changed her status to "Not a Member" manually. She still has the scales icon on her posts so she's still here in good stead.
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splain this? what scales?
I thot the mods or the software made it say 'not a member' when you get kicked out?
She's not actually banned, she just changed her status to "Not a Member" manually. She still has the scales icon on her posts so she's still here in good stead.
I thought that changing your status to "Not a Member" was against the C-D TOS?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetireinPA
splain this? what scales?
I thot the mods or the software made it say 'not a member' when you get kicked out?
The "scales" icon is in the upper right corner of each post. This icon goes away, usually, when someone is actually banned, more or less permanently. You can click the scales icon to give rep points and add a comment with it, as opposed to the "thumbs up" icon in the lower left of each post.
I believe that manually changing your status to "Not a Member" is against the TOS, but this rule does not seem to be vigorously enforced.
I balk at the "if you have not used it in a year" BS. I have tools and stuff I should use every year that I only every 1.5 to 2 years. I do not want to repurchase things. If I think I will never need it I will dispose of it. Some tools I may have purchased for $50 might now cost double or triple to replace.
I really think that "if you have not used it in a year" thing originally was used to talk about clothing. The trick was to turn the hanger the other way on items you used versus did not use. I say NOPE. Good classic clothing can last decades.
However much decluttering I have done I do know it needs to intensify as I age (in a downward spiral into retirement where I probably get very serious about if I die tomorrow do I want someone to need to deal with this item). Go to 'capsule wardrobe' minimalist shxt again (the way I started life).
Another thing that will downsize (sadly) is my collection of cats (and all their stuff).
In some ways I do recognize the fact that I have enough Timberland Boots and Keen Sandals in my closet to last longer than the 20 years I will likely live and it's likely just psychologically BEING IN DENIAL OF DEATH.
If denying death keeps me alive I am voting Yea for that one.
OP, maybe a bit of punctuation in the title would have made this thread a bit more clear -- e.g., Where does "the need for long-term storage" meet "If you haven't used it in year"?
I grew up in the military and just as you remember, sometimes when we were going somewhere for years (like England for 3 years in the late 1960s), the USAF didn't ship ALL our stuff -- they shipped some and put the rest into storage.
And as a kid, it WAS really fun to get back to the States 3 years later and find things that you'd forgotten you had.
So I DO understand where you're coming from (literally, LOL!).
These days, my decent-sized house plus a 3-car garage (with loft storage above) plus a big basement plus a pellet shed plus a back yard shed PRETTY MUCH satisfy my storage needs ... although I may build just 1 more shed off the side of my garage so I can get my riding mower and other lawn/gardening supplies OUT of the garage. (And yes, I DO sometimes ask myself, "How can 1 person need all this stuff?" But I USE at least 80% of it pretty regularly ... so that's my justification for now! )
I think it was maybe you who fitted two big freezers in her garage a while back (and provided photos).
I think short term storage is fine. If you need to delay making decisions on too many things it may be better to wait to delay that until you retire and have more time to process it. I suspect some of this might still be stuff from your mom or something and I could see where that would take some time.
It has been so long since my parents died (1972 & 1975) that the oldest sister was hanging onto the family photo albums died in 2020. Her daughter cooperated with my now oldest sister (taking the oldest sister mantle from our dead oldest sister). She was still after those old photo albums and my niece had no idea what happened to those. We all remember them from mom's cedar chest and I did have possession of them while I lived with said oldest (now dead) sister. What she did get from my niece was some video tapes (who knew)? She went to considerable expense to have them restored only to find out it was mostly video of me. Same sister asked to borrow photos from me to copy and return (some of them were returned the copies, not the originals). I have a tiny stack of old family photos. Tiny. It fits in a drawer in my living room. For 15 years I had planned to frame them. They are still just sitting there. I'm too busy (recovering from the atrocities of work most of the time). My family lives mostly in my memories (and they are very old memories). I have not experienced real family life for 50+ years. You do not forget. The stuff is not the point (at all).
No, I am asking what the view point of the world is when one side is saying not used in a year, toss it while on the other side, in the past, we have put things in storage when going overseas.
Why do so many people have to make so many of my threads about me personally?
The thing of, "if you haven't used it in a year, toss it"... Seriously no one can tell you what to do with your stuff. You know what that really is? That's a great guideline for someone who is wrestling internally with a decision. "These pants don't fit, but one day maybe they will, should I get rid of them or not?" Have you worn them in the last year? Then stop having stressful internal struggles and get rid of the damn pants. Half of that person hosting that silent debate already wanted to get rid of the pants anyways.
OK personally, I'd also ask if they are in some way irreplaceable to you. Some of us do in fact have pants you cannot easily replace. "They're just pants!" They're not. They are old Tripps that remind me of my youth and I love them. I can have a tailor let them out.
I own a bajillion things that cannot be "used" in a year or a century. They aren't utilitarian by nature, they are purely decorative. They hold value to me, and I am keeping them. Indefinitely.
Who has a right to tell any one of us how to deal with or feel about our own belongings? It's your stuff. Keep it forever if you want. It's your money. Pay for storage with it if you want. (Or whatever hypothetical person we're talking about here.) People can have their opinions about this or whatever, who cares? Not me. Probably not you. Right?
Of course, having an unnecessary, by the opinions of some, amount of stuff is different from hoarding. Hoarding gets into a health & safety problem. That is another subject.
My husband and I moved a few years ago to Phoenix from Colorado to care for his father. We got a storage unit in Colorado and left about half of our stuff behind in it, after also getting rid of a lot of things. We knew we'd be moving back up there once our obligations down here were concluded.
I think it was the right call. We have paid about $200/month for the last 3 years for that unit, but otherwise we not only would have had to pay for all that stuff to be moved down here AND back, but we'd have had to rent a bigger more costly home to keep all of it in for the first 2 years we were here. But most of all, lugging it down here and back felt like a lot more work for no point. We could afford to store it, so we stored it.
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