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Downsizing your home?

FLDVCFamily

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I realized that although we have or have had boxes of pictures and thousands online, and we continue to add to them in our travels, neither I or DW ever look at them. There are just a few on the wall. Son (25) has no interest, at least as yet.

At the end of my first marriage, I ended up with exactly zero family pictures. Although I resented that and missed them for about two years, after that it didn't seem to matter.

Maybe I'm an unsentimental coot, but perhaps we don't really put as much importance on these things as we think we're going to.

It depends on the person and the volume of photos I think. While I didn't have a ton of interest in the boxes upon boxes of photos that were left in my grandmother's house, I do look at my own childhood pictures from time to time. If there are more of those somewhere in my parents' house, I'd want them. We definitely look at our pictures that we've uploaded to Shutterfly (mainly of trips we've taken).

Photos are definitely a big issue. My friend and I found a cabinet of insanely well-organized slides and negatives in her father-in-law's house. I told her we needed to get rid of them before any estate sale as vintage Kodacolor slides actually sell quite well on Ebay and people would be purchasing those for resale. She agreed that she didn't want that to happen.
 

WinniWoman

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We downsized to our 3BR/3.5BA condo, 2835 sq ft and it is so small compared to our old place, which means we have no room for even half the stuff we brought over. We swear that we won't buy anymore stuff for the house and we will never moved again. We also left behind all Christmas stuff, which was quite sad for me, but we also know that we prefer never to put up a Christmas tree again as taking it down after Christmas is more work than putting it up.


We haven't decorated for any holiday, including XMAS- in many years. This is mainly due to the fact that our only child- our son lives in another state and we end up going there and staying in a timeshare resort for the XMAS holiday (he lives in a studio).

Very freeing, but also we feel a bit left out of things. I actually can't wait to leave our home- which we do love- to start our new lives as retirees. But will be a while yet.
 
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pittle

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Funny - the Christmas stuff is the only thing that the family is supposed to grab in case of a fire (we live on the edge of a canyon preserve and fire season is always a worry). My friend who lost her home in the 2007 fire said that those were the only things that she truly missed.

I spend three weeks decorating for Christmas. I'm hosting three parties this year to make it worth my while :D

Yep - Christmas ornaments would go with us in an emergency! (Disclosure, I managed a Hallmark Employee Card Shop for nearly 30 years - so all my ornaments are Hallmark.:) ) We even have an an online inventory with photos for insurance purposes. I think my grandson or niece would snag most of those when I no longer need them! I do 4 large trees and 6 smaller ones each year. we have several Christmas events each year too.
 

Sugarcubesea

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But she is in Arizona.....some parts of that state look mighty appealing....Flagstaff for example.
She does love living there as she hates winter almost as much as I do...
 

easyrider

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Downsizing will likely never happen with us and I'm fine with this. My wife and I picked the lot we live on about 40 years ago while we were living together. It is a view property. It was sold in the late 70's before we could even make an offer.

In the 80's we saw the for sale sign on it again and again it was sold before we could make an offer. In 1990 it had a for sale sign on it again and again the realtor had offers but I called the owner of the property and met them. Because of the owners religious beliefs, so they said, they couldn't sell the property at a profit and were not allowed to accept interest. When they asked us how much cash we had, which wasn't very much, they said that was exactly how much they needed for this property and we ended buying our perfect home site. I think they liked us and wanted us to have this property.

We decided on a home plan plan that is a two story with daylight basement. It was a tough house to build but my brother in law and some friends helped me build this place and we were done in 5 months. The deck facing the view is huge. Hardly any lawn as most of the property is on a landscaped hill. Because we are on a hill I have a shooting range right out the back door and no one will be able to build behind me as the hill starts to get steep.

The problems I see are mostly winter related. Keeping snow off the driveways can really be a job. I have a plow for the snow but the ice is a different problem. I re-stained the deck this year and that took all summer into fall because of the prep work and it has to be stained top and bottom.

If we ever do downsize we would stay in this city because our family and friends are here.

As far as stuff goes, I finally gave away my 10 speed that I bought to do my paper route in the early 70's. It was my first major purchase. I cleaned out three truck loads of items that we do not use. Much of our stuff we get rid, like furniture and appliances, goes to help the kids and grand kids. Some of this stuff was my inlaws stuff that I don't know what to do with. After reading posts on this thread I think we will take out their expensive silver ware and wear it out. Its pretty nice but it just sits in a box. I don't have a clue as to what to do with the inlaws pictures. They take up about 25 cu ft. of space and no one really wants them but no one wants them gone.

Bill
 
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vacationhopeful

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My most valued photos are from a concert in Madison Square Gardens in the late 1980s. I had a 3rd row center stage front seat .. for making a 5+ hour round trip run up to Manhatten several weeks earlier for my scalper. He promised me 1 really GOOD seat and 1 seat up in the rafters but dead in front of the stage.

I brought 1000 speed film, a "no flash" camera with zoom and several throw away cameras (again no flash). I had been to 3 or more concerts on that tour ... knew the flow of the songs and staging for the artist & band.

I enlarged 3 of the best photos to "poster size" ... I usually hang these 3 photos in a main room in my house. EVERYONE who sees these pictures likes them but real fans of the performer usually say, they have never seen these posters. I proudly tell them, I took these pictures. And when questioned further .. I just state "I have the negatives". And no, they can NOT take a picture of my pictures ... which about 80% of the persons viewing the posters try to do ... camera cell phones :(.
 

DaveNV

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And no, they can NOT take a picture of my pictures ... which about 80% of the persons viewing the posters try to do ... camera cell phones :(.

Okay, Linda. You can't leave us hanging like that. Who are the pictures of? ;)

Dave
 

vacationhopeful

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Dave .. yes, I can leave all hanging. I just hate having to always tell people NO. These are my personal pictures .. you can buy hundreds of photos of this artist, but ONLY I have these particular shots.
 

DaveNV

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Dave .. yes, I can leave all hanging. I just hate having to always tell people NO. These are my personal pictures .. you can buy hundreds of photos of this artist, but ONLY I have these particular shots.

Fair enough. I get that you like what you did, and it sounds really cool. I just wonder who it is that causes such excitement in your home. I promise, I won't ask if I can come over and take pictures of your pictures. :D

Dave
 

MuranoJo

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...
And to complicate the issue, my spouse has a degree in commercial photography. Our home is full of photography equipment. I built a network attached storage (NAS) for our home computer network just to store those digital images - and at latest count, the total is approaching 100,000 images. I cannot image how deep the piles would be if those images were on paper. Eek!! :cheer:

Dave

On a lower scale (but seems HUGE to me), DH has puttered with photography through the ages and even sold some for a while. Here in our office, we have two 4-drawer filing cabinets stuffed to the core with sleeves of 50,000-something slides. (Just for the years before digital photography.) At one time last year, he spent a month or two digitizing some of them, but he didn't get too far.
To add to that, he came home from his Mom's this past summer with boxes & boxes of carousel slide trays with old family photos.
Eek! is Right!
 

clifffaith

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Yep - Christmas ornaments would go with us in an emergency! (Disclosure, I managed a Hallmark Employee Card Shop for nearly 30 years - so all my ornaments are Hallmark.:) ) We even have an an online inventory with photos for insurance purposes. I think my grandson or niece would snag most of those when I no longer need them! I do 4 large trees and 6 smaller ones each year. we have several Christmas events each year too.

I'm impressed! I used to do three large and two mini, but really got burned out on take down. Everyone is willing to help decorate, but no one wants to put away. I'm down to one large tree, and have sold off about 300 Hallmark ornaments.

Today we got the official acceptance into a retirement community with a wait list of about 3 years. I despair over getting the big house furnishings pared down to a two bedroom apartment. Have already informed Cliff that I don't care what it costs, apartment walls are going to have built in TV/book/display shelves for my winnowed down stuff. I'll get rid of a ton, be able to display lots, but I know I'll still have boxes and boxes for eBay once we get moved in and it really hits me how small two bedrooms are.
 

isisdave

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as vintage Kodacolor slides actually sell quite well on Ebay and people would be purchasing those for resale.

I sure can't guess what will be worth keeping. I've thrown out a lot of old slides from the 70s, of stuff like the Grand Canyon. But I kept a Commodore 64 computer, new in the box, that's not worth as much as I paid for it, adjusted for inflation. At least I didn't buy Cabbage Patch Kids.
 

Glynda

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Two hurricanes in a year had me thinking about organization and what "things" would really be important for me keep safe or to take with us should we have to evacuate. I purchased several types of plastic storage boxes for these items. But then I decided I first needed to know what I have in order to know what is a priority to pack. I cleaned out a lot of cabinets, drawers and closets! Shred a lot of papers. The boxes? They sit empty. Oh well, it's was a start. :oops:
 

Talent312

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[W]hat "things" would really be important for me keep safe or to take with us should we have to evacuate...

I'd start with my 60" TV, but since that won't fit in a box...
#1 - The laptops and their HD back-ups.
#2 - Passports (to "evacuate" to a non-extradition country)
#3 - A painting given to me when I was 5 (Coconut Grove bayfront).

With those things (and my wallet), I'd be a happy camper.

.
 

clifffaith

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Cliff found this article and forwarded it to me:



'Swedish death cleaning' is the new decluttering trend

The first time I heard the term, I thought it meant some kind of hardcore Scandinavian house-cleaning routine (they take a lot of things seriously there), where you scour your home from top to bottom to the point of physical collapse, as in "working yourself to the bone." Well, I was wrong.

In Swedish, the word is "dostadning" and it refers to the act of slowly and steadily decluttering as the years go by, ideally beginning in your fifties (or at any point in life) and going until the day you kick the bucket. The ultimate purpose of death cleaning is to minimize the amount of stuff, especially meaningless clutter, that you leave behind for others to deal with.

A woman by the name of Margareta Magnusson, who says she's between 80 and 100, has written a book titled "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to free yourself and your family from a lifetime of clutter." She says she has moved house 17 times over the course of her lifetime, which is why "I should know what I am talking about when it comes to deciding what to keep and what to throw away". Reviewer Hannah-Rose Yee, who practiced some Swedish death cleaning herself, describes it as being "like Marie Kondo, but with an added sense of the transience and futility of this mortal existence."
 
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