cronewitch
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Post by cronewitch on Sept 24, 2018 23:22:56 GMT -5
I am now a minimalist, starting when mom moved after 35 years in a house to 4 rooms. We got rid of almost everything in yard sales and runs. We kids took a few things but nobody wanted much. I saw her try to sell things she cherished for 10cents with no buyer. When she died we took very little and the rest was gone before the funeral. I vowed to not leave a huge clean out job. I started watching hoarders and getting rid of things I didn't need. Then I moved from a large house to small house. My niece came and would hold up things saying you aren't keeping this are you, and I let her donate and trash things even if I wasn't planning to get rid of them. I didn't want to be stubborn like the people on hoarders. My new house only as things I value, less is more.
My extra bedrooms are nearly bare, one has a desk, one a bed nothing else. Kitchen still has an empty drawer. I value empty space as much as extra stuff.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Sept 24, 2018 23:36:31 GMT -5
I am thinking a garage sale in town and a bunch of this stuff. I doubt it would sell for much.
I cleaned a bunch out of our mower shed the other day. I found a huge tote of Christmas lights they were for our fence at the other house over 150 foot of them I think. We have no way to use them here. I need to dust them off and get rid of them, just stuff like that. It's such a monumental task I don't know where to start.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 25, 2018 5:56:37 GMT -5
Get someone to help you.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Sept 25, 2018 6:55:18 GMT -5
My mom had a big collection of 'stuff' like that, and when she had to downsize from her four bedroom house to a 1 bedroom condo, she couldn't bear to throw anything out. Everything had to go to one of her kids or grandkids, right down to the old whipped cream containers that had been in the dishwasher so many times they got waffled and the lids no longer fit, and the 1960 set of encyclopedias.
It was murder for her to downsize her stuff....
That'll definitely be me someday. Were people happy enough to hang onto stuff for her or was it all bound for the trash? All the daughters picked things that had sentimental value- my grandma on my mom's side painted, so we hung on to all her paintings, for instance, and we each picked some smaller items (mom had a lot of 'collections,' including seven different sets of china, five of them sets I had never laid eyes on before.) Most of the china went to china resellers.
Unfortunately my mom liked very large, very heavy formal furniture - all her kids were grown with our own furniture and didn't need/want hers, so most of that got sold (we didn't tell her). None of us are into collecting all the things she collected (books, fabric, Hummels, IIadros, etc) so after taking a few and giving some to the grandkids, we re- homed/sold most of them. And she did have a lot of worthy stuff - two fifty year old twin mattresses, for instance, that were faded brown and had fabric so frail they would tear when you tried to move them. Plus they left a trail of some kind of a yellow powder - no idea what that was, scared to know, in fact. Those and a lot of similarly worn out stuff ended up at the , but again, we didn't tell Mom. Mom had an exaggerated idea of how much all of her stuff was worth, which made it really hard for her to ever part with anything. Trying to help her downsize her household and cram everything into her new 1 bedroom condo inspired me to go home and throw crap out.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Sept 25, 2018 6:57:30 GMT -5
There is actually a Swedish trend called 'Death Cleaning' - when you downsize and organize with the goal of minimizing the stress of going through your estate for your kids. That will be the first thing I do when I retire.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 25, 2018 9:52:20 GMT -5
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Anne_in_VA
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Sept 25, 2018 20:53:49 GMT -5
I have my moms hope chest and I keep my sons first bank, the outfit he wore coming home from the hospital and the his christening outfit. I also have the Beleek teapot my mom got in Ireland.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 27, 2018 5:00:56 GMT -5
There is actually a Swedish trend called 'Death Cleaning' - when you downsize and organize with the goal of minimizing the stress of going through your estate for your kids. That will be the first thing I do when I retire.
Need to look that up
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 19:32:12 GMT -5
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Sept 28, 2018 12:29:36 GMT -5
Yesterday while cleaning, I moved a small desk that was my late Dad's. He bought it from a garage sale. We refinished it. He used it for 48 years. I've had it since then. 62 years used. I would not like to do Death Cleaning. All of my amateur paintings and supplies would have to go. Tennesseer - the pix was what my late brother did to me.
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