What things should you, would you keep when downsizing from your home of 17 years to a small – much smaller – apartment?
Sounds easy, really. Just take what you need or what fits.
Well, aside from what furniture or clothes to take, it isn’t easy, as I found out and am indeed still finding out!
I’m old school and love having family nicknacks on display – china houses, cats, wooden animals collected on my journeys to various continents. The drawings my children did in school, the pottery animal (they said it was a horse!) – you know the sort of things I mean. Family heirlooms from the 1800’s that have been passed down the line from generation to generation but my children aren’t interested in – well, at least for now.
So this is the dilemma, do I pack them and keep them, put them in storage for when my children will want their family heirlooms (and I know this will happen!), or do I sell them to the highest bidder, thus preventing not just my children but also my grandchildren from having a bit of history, and not least, preventing me from having to accept that my family’s history has gone?
Downsizing the furniture and clothes is not a problem – there are no emotional ties to that great black-and-white designer chair, the leather massaging chair, etc. But the Victorian china, the Edwardian vases, the Kings Design silver cutlery – these I am having a huge issue with.
Currently they are packed up and stored in my garage. But soon, very soon, I will need to make my move – sell them or send them to my new abode. It’s not the cost or the hassle of the packaging and shipping, but the “Where do I put them?” when I eventually get to my final home. Will my daughter and her family make space in their garage, or will I have to rent storage for everything to languish until they are either retrieved and wanted, or sold?
Some people can live without these things, but I’m not one of them, although it appears I’ve raised two children who are like that. But what of my grandchildren? Wouldn’t they love to see and touch something their great, great, great grandmother ate her dinner from or their great, great, great grandfather made with his own hands and is still good now, 200 years on?
The dilemma continues for now, but I’m running out of time to make my decision.
| Copyright © 2016 by Penelope Griffiths |
A really tough set of decisions Penelope. Moving is always a nightmare, and downsizing just makes it worse. And putting things in storage is just admitting you won't be using them again. Hope you can come to a good resolution but I don't see how!
ReplyDelete