@queendiva wrote:
@Hayfield: OMG! Thirty years of keeping things "just in case" or if the kids will need it/ want it in the future- I feel your pain. That's me., but I have moved every 10-11 years in that same period so the stuff has been cleared out at intervals, but there has always been More. Never again!
Your hard work paid off big time. So happy for you and DH. I am hoping and praying for a similar outcome. Best of luck on your new adventure- you have earned it!
@queendiva
@Hayfield
The keeping 'just in case'. It's a real thing, isn't it?
I come from a long line of people that didn't have much. Each generation seemed to do a little better than the one before, but especially a Great Depression, and WW II, kept in check even those that had 'enough' from over consuming and hoarding.
But something seemed to happen in the late 1950's. About the time I was born, it seems my parents and grandparents started to accumulate more (over the next couple of decades, not all at once, for sure), and we kids were given more than any generation before us (and not just stuff!). Because I was raised by people who had little, who worked hard to accumulate nice things, and who wanted to make sure we had the 'things' we needed,by my young adulthood, I had much 'stuff'.
I was grateful that my mom let me take my bedroom suit when I left home. I was grateful for the 'hope chest' I'd put together over the years. It gave me an easier and more solid start. I was grateful, after my mom sold our childhood home, she passed down a number of pieces of special wood furniture to me, just as I was purchasing my first home and it needed things.
So, in my adult life, I've spent much time hanging onto things 'just in case'. I spent years saving back things for my son when he would move out. Some were things I had used for years, and wanted to replace, others were things I'd pick up at thrift stores and auctions. And unlike many here, this did not fail. He participated in the collection of those things, took them all, and uses and appreciates them.
But somehow in those decades of accumulating, there is now way more than we need. I always felt that if I had too many, say sheets and towels, and I found I didn't need or want them any longer, they could be passed off to him, or maybe my mom (who for a couple of decades after selling her home, had some real financial hardships) if things were needed and her financial situation either deteriorated more, or didn't ever improve to a certain level.
I thought if all else failed, there would be someone cross my path that could use the very good quality, well cared for, essential things I had found at great prices, be it a family at church struggling, a neighbor in times of crisis, some of my son's friends as they strike out into the world with their first place and job (many of the kids in our rural area never go beyond high school, and are much more like a couple of generations ago, in limited earning potential and marrying early and having children young). I just always felt a tug to not dispose of really good things, mostly household and furniture,especially those that were of a quality that we no longer find today. For a few years, I'd even impulse buy things that were super great deals, with the idea that if I decided I didn't want them once I got home, I'd find someone along the way that would.
The end result of all that 'just in case' living has been that sometimes, we have just what we need, just when we need it, without having to source it, and buy it at a 'new' price. And it has happened quite frequently.
But also what has happened is our space is too full of too many of the same kinds of things. I tend to like to keep/have more 'things' than many people (i.e. my desired number of sheet sets, towels or drinking glasses, is more than many others that post here). But I find that even if I downsized to what is my comfortable level of stuff, I'd still have plenty to share should a 'just in case' happen to someone else or even me!
Yep, that 'just in case' get's us into a bit of trouble.
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