Getting rid of (at least some of the) stuff

We’re having separation anxiety

Anybody want to buy a dining room suite? Gently used? (Photo by author)

As we edge towards retirement, my husband and I agree that we have too much stuff.

We have things from the household of his first marriage. Things from the household of my first marriage. Things from our various parents’ and grandparents’ homes. Things friends have given us. Souvenirs from once in a lifetime trips.

Family heirlooms. Things that are being saved to pass on to children and grandchildren (whether they want or need them is another matter).

Pictures, slides, negatives and (ahem) VHS tapes.

Lovely old brown wood furniture that nobody wants any more, that we plan to refinish and repurpose and enjoy. Some time, when we live in a different house with space for those big old things.

We have, in other words, a home full of the accumulated detritus of more than 60 years of lives well lived in a culture that values stuff.

We are baby boomers. It’s an awkward age group with one foot in the “make do, re-use, use up, keep it because it might be useful” camp reflecting values learned from thrifty parents who lived through a depression or a world war or both.

But the other foot is in the here and now, where NEW and SHINY and THE LATEST AND…