Comments on: Parting From Your Stuff

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:03:06 +0000

I think that one of my flaws or positive aspects (depending on how you look at it) is that I have never been one to hang on to stuff…I like to be organized and do away with clutter. As I have grown up, if I didn’t see a use for something, I get rid of it. I sometimes wish I had it back but, oh well….

I downsized from a large home to one that is 5 times smaller. I was giving away and donating things like crazy! I like having less stuff and paying down debt…

By: Aleta

Aleta — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:11:33 +0000

I watched the program Hoarding the other night and realized how easy it is to start bringing items into the house. If you watch the show, you can see why and how you start hoarding items. It really opened my eyes up to why we hoard.

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:11:50 +0000

“Every time we leave a session at her house, my sister & I go home & start purging our houses.”

I’m with you there. My mother is a packrat and has a house full of knickknacks, rummage sale “finds”, and things she thinks will be valuable someday. I have told her that if she dies before downsizing, I am going to have an estate sale for all her stuff.

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:15:20 +0000

So true! We’re going through this with my mom, since she cannot live alone. She still has a house full of stuff, with no one living there – a very expensive storage unit! We’re trying to help her sort & dispose of things but she’s very unhappy about it.

After a year, she’s got everything she can use & has room for at my brother’s house. We’re looking a renting a storage unit for all the things she insists on keeping, so we can sell the house & she’ll have some money available. Even packing up things to keep is stressful.

We’ve urged her to downsize for years, while she was still healthy enough to do it, but she refused. Now she’s not able to do it on her own. It’s really very sad…

Every time we leave a session at her house, my sister & I go home & start purging our houses. I’m determined not to end up dealing with a ton of stuff when I’m too old to handle it – and I won’t leave it for my sons to handle.

The only things I’m keeping for my sons are things they want. If they change their minds when its time to take the stuff it will just GO.

By: noname

noname — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:31:44 +0000

Don’t save boxes and boxes of stuff to pass along to your children when they are adults with their own households. They don’t want your stuff. You took joy in acquiring all that stuff, now let them have their own joy. You cannot impose joy.