What are you going to do with all your stuff?

It was hearing how freely my adult daughter one day asked. "Why do you have this? You don't need it/use it? Get rid of it to give you more room in your apartment." ... And oh how that irked me--("Hey, I like it & want to keep it!.") But I faced the truth, mumbled in agreement & watched her clear out that stuff. Loss of it all turned out to be a relief when it was gone. More room!

My stepfather's keeping canned goods in his basement, goods he never used, turned out to be a nightmare for me. After his death, I had to lug (alone) over 100 quart jars of canned food, in one 6 quart jar sized box up from basement steps, onto the side porch and over to inside his garage (my sister's son would eventually take them to the street curb.) I think my tired mind went blank on 17th trip from basement to porch.

He didn't bother getting rid of many other things he didn't use, or some he didn't even need, that caused allot of painful emotional work for my sister and I. While I'm able, before I die, I will NOT leave behind anything I do not have good reason to use. I don't want my children to go through the emotional pain of having to go through deciding what to do with my property.
 

I guess every time I throw something out, I anger the evil hoarder god. Even though I haven't used it in 40 years, the minute the trash guy drives away with it, I'll need one. And I'll have to go buy one. Then I'll find that I have two more. And I'm sure they weren't there when I looked. See, evil hoarder god!!!~
 
I think I'm at the end stages of gathering anymore stuff. Sure hope so.
Most is gone now, and that in itself feels liberating.

I downsized when I moved 6 years ago, and that was out of necessity - from a large house w/garage/shed/swimming pool to a small Senior apartment.
All the furniture in the house was too large for my new apartment.
Took months to sell and then buy new 'apartment size' bedroom and living room furniture, & dining room set.
'
Family was given desks, tables. bedding, wall decor, kitchen ware, etc. ... what they didn't want, they sold.

I had some small things to "correct" after my move. 😁 .... I had thought I could bring more of my backyard plants and hanging chimes and stuff like that, but after lugging pots and bags of potting soil to my 3rd floor patio, I found out that wasn't a good idea. Mainly, too much heavy work!
So a lot of that stuff went back to my daughter's home too ... . and she in turn was probably busy on Craigslist selling ...
 
I'm trying to give most of it away now, while I'm still alive. Trouble is I'm still holding on to some of my deceased parents' things, like collections and keepsakes. I would like to find the right person(s) to pass the stuff along to. At least someone that will appreciate it and/or add it to their own collections. But that takes a long time and I don't know how much more time I've got. ;)
 
Elsie said:
While I'm able, before I die, I will NOT leave behind anything I do not have good reason to use. I don't want my children to go through the emotional pain of having to go through deciding what to do with my property.
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That's admirable; be nice if more people were like you. It really does help any children or other family members who have to clean out your place and unfortunately, just having someone come in and do an auction for you, as was suggested above, isn't always an option. I just found out from a former co-worker that no one around here will do auctions anymore unless it's only a lot of tools/"man" stuff. So she and 1 of her siblings had to have a huge tiring yard sale to try to get rid of all of her mother's household stuff. (And the mother had a lot of stuff so that was fun...not.)
 
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I massively downsized 2 years ago when I bought a 855 sq ft condo. I hate throwing things away if they are in good shape so I sold, gave away or donated many things. I certainly don’t want to add to landfills and worry about future generations.

My condo could be totally packed up in less than a day. When I moved in I had 60 plastic bins not counting clothes or furniture. I have less now.
 
Where I live, after the family of whoever has passed on,
have finished taking what they want, call in a company
with skips, to clear the flat, ready for smartening before
re-letting.

Mike.
 
We've been minimalists since before there was a name for it. We found out we were unusual from the Air Force, the first time they moved us. They were allowing about 10,000 pounds per family when moving them overseas and most couples were complaining and having to rent storage units until they came back. We only had 3000 pounds.

We just don't like clutter, we have a house with no basement, attic, or shed and we like it that way. I've always gone through everything during spring cleaning and if I haven't worn it or used it in the past year, out it goes to the charity shops.

Americans have gone so over the top with stuff that some of the free stores and Goodwills around here have had to stop taking anything in -- they're jammed to the rafters and literally can't give it away.

The storage companies are popping up everywhere and it boggles my mind that people will have more stuff than they can fit in their house and pay rent for an additional "house" for it.

We're not living in bare rooms, we have the usual sets of furniture and a few nice decorative items on walls and shelves. We just don't have things stuffed in closets and spare rooms that aren't in use. We bought a new furnace a few years ago and the salesman raved about things like our big dining room table with nothing on it but a crystal vase of flowers. He said that our furnace would work twice as efficiently as most people's because of the lack of clutter and easy air flow, and sure enough, the white curtains that I hung up ten years ago are still perfectly clean.

During the covid lock down I heard lots of people say they were organizing their clutter and I wanted to tell them, don't organise it, throw it out.
 
We had a mess when we cleared out my MIL house & it wasn't her things, but my SIL who lived with her. Hoarder beyond belief & excuses why she had to have everything move with her. It took 4 months to get everything cleared out to move her & the house cleaned & painted for sale. My MIL kept a clean house, but her daughters room was another story :eek:.

Husband & I told her it will not happen again. There will be no Hoarders 2.0 at the new house since she rents from us. Long story short, 75% of what she had went to the dump. The other usuable 20% went on a yard sale & then donated. Only clean usable & needed items were allowed stay. The new place has rules that all of her clothes must fit into her bedroom closet & in dresser drawers. Nothing on the floor or in bags any where. The other two bedrooms & garage are not storage units & shall not be used as such. Everything must be kept in place & be kept clean.

We have always gone through things at our house periodically try to keep up on getting rid of junk. My next clean out is the storage area/attic adjacent to the bedroom when the weather cools down. It's not in too bad of shape, but I know I can get rid of things we haven't used in a long time. I went through a lot of my horse equipment that I don't use anymore & have someone coming over to get it who can use it.

@Della, I'm becoming more of a minimalist all the time. Especially with clothes.
 

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