“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving” ~ Albert Einstein
I penned the Downsizing post last week, but thought I’d add some hard won, best in class ideas for your consideration. If you are a collector like me, you have a huge job deciding what to keep. The new house will not hold everything. For example, there will not be a music studio in the place.
So we have instituted a three contain system. We put out a box for:
- Goodwill
- Trash
- Keep
Goodwill includes freebees to the various Goodwill and other thrift shops so that the items can be reused. It also includes what my kids want from our big place that won’t make the cut to the new small place.
Trash is even harder. The Goodwill places won’t take things like 30 year old encyclopedias, exercise equipment, and the like. Putting them on Freecycle.org takes more time than we have to vacate the old house. So our recycle bin is always full.
Keep it if something is used a lot, has sentimental value, and would be nice to hang on the wall of the new place, we’ll keep it. Think out of the box here. Even if it is a vintage sax that never gets played, it might have value as a decorative piece.
The best advice I never followed was think really hard about acquiring something before you bring it into your house. Do you really need it, will you use it, or in other words will it bring you joy?
The Bis Key Chronicles 
That’s pretty much what I do, but…. do you have any tips for actually managing to get the thrift box to the thrift store. I keep forgetting so the box is sitll in the garage. Sigh!
I have my daughter decide if she wants it and then she’ll take it for us. :O)
I also just moved, and went through some of the same stuff. I still wound up with several boxes in my new house asking “why did I keep this crap?” I had an entire box of old cables that I have no reason why I kept, which I donated.
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