Why do we save things?
Moreover, why do we save things that have neither value nor usefulness; sometimes treasuring them more than our collection of gold coins?
It's a question I find myself asking more often these days, as a result of being mired down in the long slow process of "downsizing" and basically going through — and often discarding — the large volume of things we've accumulated as a result of having lived in the same house for 14 years and counting.
Not only is it our stuff, but also stuff we've ended up with when my parents passed away, and when Mrs. Denmarkguy's dad passed away.
I recent years, I have become a lot more particular about what I keep... particularly when it comes to the inevitable piles of "Oh, I'll just deal with that, later" stuff.
Let me emphasize here that we are not so-called "hoarders," we just have a lot of stuff from multiple households... and because we have had plenty of space for a long time, no great urgency to throw away or keep, on a permanent basis.
Of course, there are some things we a required to keep, like all the records to back up tax returns. The problem is that we know we're required to keep them in case of questions and audits... but we forget to go back and shred the old stuff once the statutory period has expired.
Six to seven years is plenty, and we really don't need to keep tax returns going back to 1993!
Other stuff? Well, if you're going to sell something, it might be a good idea to have original purchase documents so you can prove that you actually paid more for the original new thing than you now have sold the used thing for.
I only say that because I deal in collectibles, and sometimes I come across little "pockets" of inventory I have actually had for 20 years. And it might turn out to have less value in 2025 than in 2005...
But I'm getting a bit off course, here.
We sometimes save a lot of things for reasons we can't quite put our fingers on. Sentimental reasons. Or because we feel the things have value but we don't have time to deal with selling them in the moment. Or maybe things have utility, but it's not a utility we need right now.
I know there are several boxes of stuff from my parents' house that I am yet to go through... they have been sitting in the closet since 2012! I went through them a little when we first brought them home and since then they have pretty much been labeled "later."
But when is later? Does later ever actually come, or is it merely a phrase we use in place of saying "I'll NEVER be ready?"
I know some of these boxes are a pain in the rear... because sorting them and sharing the contents to different family members is time consuming, and it's time I don't have to give.
Busy bees!
Naturally, I also have a lot of stuff I have saved — that probably should have been donated to second hand stores — on the pretext that "I'm going to sell it on eBay." When you don't have a lot of money, that sort of "value thinking" sometimes goes a little too far overboard. Spending an hour on photography, listing, packing and shipping... all so you can make $2... is not really time well spent!
And so, the process continues... boxes get sorted, and a lot goes in a big box with paperwork "to be shredded" while a lot goes in the thrift store box.
Slowly, I make headway.. and maybe by the end of the year, I will have made enough headway that the closet is close to empty!
Camellia season is almost here...
Of course, all the preceding makes some sort of sense, but there are also things we save that make little sense.
In most cases, the "thing" only exists to trigger a memory. And those can be quite tough to sort! But it all has to get done...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2025.01.09 00:34 PST
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