raysachs
Friend of Leo's
We tend to accumulate STUFF to fill the space we have. We’re in the process of moving from the Philly area to Eugene, OR. We currently live in a condo that, in addition to the two primary living floors, has a basement and a loft. We’re moving into a smaller condo with just two floors. We’ve been throwing out and giving away vast amounts of crap. We’ve gotten rid of a few things from our main living floors but the vast majority of the stuff from those two floors is coming with us.
But the basement and the loft have just been where we accumulate junk we rarely use. We have shelves and shelves and shelves of stuff in the basement - after going through it and getting rid of stuff, we have one small shelf of stuff that’s coming with us. In the loft, we’re keeping one chair - everything else is gone. Since our girls left home, we haven’t really used the loft and we’ve never used the basement except for doing laundry and I used to work down there on the bikes I used to have. They were basically just overflow storage for accumulated crap, the vast majority of which is gone now.
Our first three moves were from an apartment into a larger (but still small) house, from that (with our first child) into a bigger house, so far all in the Puget Sound area. A few years later from that into a bigger house with two kids cross country to the Philly area. Fifteen years later, with both girls out or almost out of the house, we downsized to our current condo - we got rid of vast amounts of accumulated stuff for that move. Seven or eight years later we remodeled the main floor, taking out all of the interior walls, and a ton more stuff that took up wall space was given away. Now we’re downsizing again into what will almost surely be our last place until we die or need full time care, and getting rid of yet more accumulated junk.
Seems like we spend the first half of adulthood accumulating stuff as our families grow, and the second half getting rid of stuff as the kids leave the nest. And I’m sure when we buy the farm (figuratively speaking) our kids are gonna have to clean out this last place and will wonder how we had so much stuff, even though it will be less than any place since probably our first apartment… It’s just stuff, but it seems like we accumulate just enough to fill whatever space we have. Thank goodness we’re not hoarders and it’s always been easy for us to get rid of stuff when the time came, and pretty liberating too. I feel sorry for my niece who’ll have to clean out my sister’s place when she’s gone - she’s never gotten rid of ANYTHING and she and her husband still live in a house that’s waaay too big for a couple of nearly 80 year olds and it’s just absolutely filled with crap. The main floor stays pretty presentable, but the upstairs (including now spare bedrooms) and downstairs are just overrun with crap.
-Ray
But the basement and the loft have just been where we accumulate junk we rarely use. We have shelves and shelves and shelves of stuff in the basement - after going through it and getting rid of stuff, we have one small shelf of stuff that’s coming with us. In the loft, we’re keeping one chair - everything else is gone. Since our girls left home, we haven’t really used the loft and we’ve never used the basement except for doing laundry and I used to work down there on the bikes I used to have. They were basically just overflow storage for accumulated crap, the vast majority of which is gone now.
Our first three moves were from an apartment into a larger (but still small) house, from that (with our first child) into a bigger house, so far all in the Puget Sound area. A few years later from that into a bigger house with two kids cross country to the Philly area. Fifteen years later, with both girls out or almost out of the house, we downsized to our current condo - we got rid of vast amounts of accumulated stuff for that move. Seven or eight years later we remodeled the main floor, taking out all of the interior walls, and a ton more stuff that took up wall space was given away. Now we’re downsizing again into what will almost surely be our last place until we die or need full time care, and getting rid of yet more accumulated junk.
Seems like we spend the first half of adulthood accumulating stuff as our families grow, and the second half getting rid of stuff as the kids leave the nest. And I’m sure when we buy the farm (figuratively speaking) our kids are gonna have to clean out this last place and will wonder how we had so much stuff, even though it will be less than any place since probably our first apartment… It’s just stuff, but it seems like we accumulate just enough to fill whatever space we have. Thank goodness we’re not hoarders and it’s always been easy for us to get rid of stuff when the time came, and pretty liberating too. I feel sorry for my niece who’ll have to clean out my sister’s place when she’s gone - she’s never gotten rid of ANYTHING and she and her husband still live in a house that’s waaay too big for a couple of nearly 80 year olds and it’s just absolutely filled with crap. The main floor stays pretty presentable, but the upstairs (including now spare bedrooms) and downstairs are just overrun with crap.
-Ray
