What did you do to downsize today? (55, move, state)
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We went through the storage shed attached to my house. We just purchased a 5 cu ft upright freezer and we needed to place it on some racking in the shed.
We ended up getting rid of very little BUT what we have is a lot better organized.
Unlike the tenor of the thread, we are not going to get rid of our excess at this point. We will wear it out and use it up over the past 10-20 years.
I'm not retiring yet, but in an attempt to de-clutter my life, I've decided I'm going to get rid of all of my old electronics. (Among other things.)
That includes my old Sony kv20xbr. Yep, you heard right. A Sony kv20xbr. A 20" Sony TV. Which, by my recollection, was the first stereo TV available in the US (along with the 25" version). I bought it from A&A Appliance in Austin Texas, in 1985 for $863. I remember writing the check. I was so proud of that TV. I still have it the original box. The box is HUGE. I had it repaired once (those TVs were notorious for their bad flyback transfers.) I don't have the original remote, and the speakers aren't original, but the TV worked the last time I put it into the box. I always thought it would be a collectors item. But I can find virtually nothing about it on the internet.
It's currently sitting in a corner of the unfinished section of my basement, under other boxes. I haven't taken it out of the box in 15 years.
And I have other old electronics, in a storage unit. I'll probably never use this stuff again. Two big JBL floor speakers, two JBL bookshelf speakers, an Onkyo 1027 turntable (with a Shure M97HE cartridge), an Onkyo TA-2055 cassette recorder. As far as I know, this stuff all works.
I even kept my old Pioneer SX-580 receiver. My first receiver. A beautiful receiver--a work of art, really. Compared to the the stuff that came afterword. (Look it up. You can find that model on eBay.) All that stuff is in a storage locker I pay $55 a month for. And the chances are I will never use this stuff again.
So why keep it? Right?
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Ah, you take me back. My bedroom stereo is still a 30 year old Sony 4-channel receiver, with a set of Bose Acoustimass stereo speakers (with the passive subwoofer) in front and a pair of Radio Shack Minimax bookshelf speakers for the rear channels. It still sounds great. There is a wall mount flat panel and a satellite receiver. The home theater is a front projection system with a THX certified sound system, but sometimes you just want to prop up in bed with a bowl of popcorn and get comfy. I still have a Garrard turntable with a Grado cartridge. The Grado originally shipped with its own oscilloscope trace showing frequency response. I have to admit I have ripped most of my old vinyl to mp3 so I can listen to it on my cell phone with ear buds. The ear buds are flat from 20-20,000 hz, and will do 120 dB at 1/4 watt. How things have changed.
The real pieces of junk I can't bring myself to part with are a matched pair of Eico monophonic amps circa 1958. Each one has a pair of 6L6 tubes feeding a massive output transformer. Those transformers are the actual key to vacuum tube amps. Modern solid state is a resistive source feeding an inductive load. The speakers are left to damp themselves. The transformers are an inductive source feeding an inductive load, and will really make a voice coil sit up and beg. They were working when I stored them, but had a bunch of leaky caps and stray voltages on the inputs. All I would need to restore them is a soldering iron, solder sucker and a handful of parts. That's next winter's project in my new shop.
Worked some more in the garage yesterday. We are done with the books (25 boxes!!! to go to the library; others going on eBay). Found some pots/pans to go to Goodwill, and threw out a bunch of junk. Discovered a mouse had, at one time, eaten a bunch of bird seed underneath the shelves. Thank goodness no actual mouse or nest was found. I remember about 5-6 years ago, discovering a bag of bird seed with a neat little hole chewed in it. I guess that was the mouse who made the mess under the shelf. Swept all that up.
When we moved into our new home in 2000, we have built a two car enclosed garage with metal doors with glass sliding windows with wrought iron decorative grills and not one clutter inside the garage, not even a hot water heater with a sink off to the side like in most U.S. homes. There is nothing hanging from the walls or ceiling in our garage except for the recessed light fixtures. We have a separate indoor laundry room with a washer/dryer only without a sink off to the side of our washer/dryer, but there's a provision for one if we want a sink installed.
Yes, the decorative grills may look a bit of an overkill, but we sleep pretty good at night in a place aka a 3rd world country by some, which is now off the "3rd world country" list and is now classified as a developing nation.
Have guests coming so I decided to go through all bed linen and towel in guest and master bed and bath. Got rid of at least 1/2 of everything. Ended up with two complete sets of bed linens for guest bedroom and 4 sets of bath towels, hand towels, and face clothes for guest bath.
4 sets of bed linens for master bed, 4 sets of bath towels, hand towels, and face clothes for master bath and as I am single, that is plenty. One set of towels is for my lady friend that spends a night or two a month here.
Also disposed of two sets of bed quilts/shams. Have two sets left. One light set for Spring to Lall. One heavy set for the Winter.
Have guests coming so I decided to go through all bed linen and towel in guest and master bed and bath. Got rid of at least 1/2 of everything. Ended up with two complete sets of bed linens for guest bedroom and 4 sets of bath towels, hand towels, and face clothes for guest bath.
4 sets of bed linens for master bed, 4 sets of bath towels, hand towels, and face clothes for master bath and as I am single, that is plenty. One set of towels is for my lady friend that spends a night or two a month here.
Also disposed of two sets of bed quilts/shams. Have two sets left. One light set for Spring to Lall. One heavy set for the Winter.
You are an inspiration!
I'm going through my art supplies and donating them to the people who are actively using these particular items. I'm overwhelmed by these these nagging me to use them. Shut-up!
Shipping things off will give someone else a wonderful boost and know someone loves them.
We've hit the deep clean phase and are getting rid of things that came with us from IN to NY 33 years ago. There's a food dehydrator, canning supplies and some other useful things headed to Goodwill.
One of my looms was picked up with many accessories this morning. I asked the woman who bought it to look through my many fiber art reference books and take any she wanted. She was like a kid in a candy shop. I told her, and this probably went right over her head, "Take what you want and then you can get rid of it in a few years yourself."
After the loom people left, we went out for coffee at a local cafe that was hopping. As we we going in the side door, a woman was saying to people sitting on a bench outside "At this point, it's not about things or what I have, but all about family and friends." I said a silent but heartfelt "Amen!"
DH worked on the garage and got rid of trash and is making a nice corner reserved for our many gardening tools we will no longer need once we move. We will try to sell them.Broke down some empty boxes even though we will set them up agaiin in due course. At least now we can tell what is left to deal with.
What a week, I'm looking forward to the two day drive back to FL so I can rest! We have accomplished so much.
12 trips to Goodwill with the seats down in our Subaru Forester totally loaded every time. Numerous trips to the recycling center and garbage was picked up twice while we were here and we took advantage of that, they pick up any amount.
A cleaning/hauling company took an upright piano, a large china cabinet, armoire, nightstand, bookcase, DH's desk and file cabinets. Those guys earned every penny of what they charged us. We have an old house and the stairs take a turn at the top, not easy for maneuvering.
We sold our sailboat and came here to finalize that, along with a canoe, kayak, two looms, four spinning wheels and an antique circular sock machine. All were picked up this weekend. The buyers were nice people with similar interests and we did get to slow down while we chatted with them.
33 years here of buying new things to replace old, but saving the old just in case. Never again: something in, something out is our new mantra.. I apologized to the guy who came to give a hauling/removal estimate, for the mess from the cleaning we were in the midst of. He looked surprised and said " This is actually very nice." I realized they must walk into some pretty horrendous places in their line of work. It's probably a great line of work to get into with all the people retiring or downsizing, but it's definitely a job for the young and strong.
Tomorrow is tidying up and closing the house down until we return. I would love to finish and get it sold but with DH still working, there isn't the block of time we need to do this right in one session. I'm not sure I would last long at this pace, so it's not a bad thing.
I'll end this novella now and head up to bed now. I haven't been able to stay awake past 10:30 pm all week.
DH worked on the garage and got rid of trash and is making a nice corner reserved for our many gardening tools we will no longer need once we move. We will try to sell them.Broke down some empty boxes even though we will set them up agaiin in due course. At least now we can tell what is left to deal with.
We went through our gardening tools, too, with a slightly different aim in mind. Years ago, "cheap" was the main criterion. Nowadays, "long-lasting quality" is the main criterion, with "easy on the back and arms" a close second. So we ditched all the cheap tools that we eventually replaced with long-lasting quality tools. Why on earth I didn't ditch them as soon as I got the good ones is beyond me. WHAT was I saving them for???
We also found the mouse nest in a corner we hadn't cleaned out in oh, 15-20 years. Yikes. The nest looked like it had not been used in a long time. So the mouse/mice ate birdseed on one side of the garage and then apparently scuttled across the floor to nest on the other side of the garage. Isn't that cute?
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