I walked away and started my life over with almost nothing.
I have to say, that's starting to sound good, when it comes to "stuff" at least. Not starting your life over, but the idea of being free of "things". I think that's part of wanting to do the RV thing. We're free of the kid - he's in another state and on his own. We'll be free of our pets - we love them, but they won't live another 5 years. We'll be free of the house that we no longer enjoy living in. I want to be free of "stuff".
But you're right. I'm overwhelmed. It's gone on so long I don't know what to do with it all. I've been to the FlyLady website years ago. It always seemed to be geared toward people who's lives were more in control than mine...People who just needed to plan out their cleaning routine, not conquer a house that was out of control. Maybe it's evolved since then.
What if there are no memories? Or not enough? And there will never be more. And there is only stuff.
This whole conversation on the sentimental items is important to me. I do have a lot of things I haven't been able to even consider parting with. I have depression glass and fancy little dishes that were my mom's. She loved them. They sit gathering dust along with the lovely, delicate, antique cut-crystal glasses she bought me from some auction. I love them. I NEVER use them! They don't suit my lifestyle. Neither does the china I began collecting in college and continued to buy pieces for until about 15 years ago. I'm not even terribly fond of the pattern anymore. But I hate to part with it. So it sits in a drawer alternating with the Christmas china a friend bought me a few years back. Which is never, ever used. We don't host fancy dinner parties - or any at all. If we do have people over - it's more paper plates on the patio or my Corelle dishes at the most!
I have this lovely set of Santa's reindeer dishes that belonged to my best friend's mom. 8 plates, each with a cartoon deer - Dasher, Prancer, etc. I can't imagine parting with them. But I don't even display them. Jabber has some (really very unattractive) quilts his grandma made. Just because they aren't something we'd never use, doesn't mean he wants to get rid of them. I have a wool blanket that my mother was given that has her name embroidered on it. There's so many more things.
But I do have items I need to pass on or give away, but my son wouldn't be interested in those things.
This is a real problem. I have all these things, but my son never even met these people. He has no memory of them. He would place no value in them just because I do. I keep hoping that he gets married and his wife wants some of them.
It just seems so
wrong, that there should be so few people in the world who remember and loved my parents. Okay...made myself teary with that one.
I would recommend not going through sentimental items until you have gone through everything else.
All in all, this sounds like the best option. LOL
When Jabber and I finally do our serious downsizing, we do actually have a bit of a plan. We will move some furniture to the cabin, which will be our "home base", but it's only 12x28. So there's not a lot that will fit. We don't know how long we'll really be full-time RV people, but we do know that renting a storage shed is cheaper than buying new furniture, so we'll keep at least some of our better things . Then if we decide we need to rent or buy a house in a year or two, we already have furniture and we'll have a place then for some of the sentimental items while we travel.
THAT is something I'm going to HAVE to get rid of. Sad thing is, some are my mom's photos. Sure, there's some of my parents and I can keep those. But there are so many that are people who were important to my mom...and I don't even know their names.
