Yes, and keep your meds, jewelry and a change of clothes in your carryon! At least I had the jewelry and meds with me.

I'm enjoying this discussion. We moved here two years ago. I did a pretty good job of de cluttering before the move, but still need to go through some boxes. My main problem is sentimental things. I decorate our home with things that have meaning to us. A lot of things that are family pieces or things we buy on trips. This makes it hard to part with items. I can honestly say that we don't have a lot of 'junk' laying around. Since I don't really need that closet, I guess I can let our son & daughter deal with it! I'll justify it by saying, it's not really that much. Now that we're retired, we probably won't buy much. We just got back from Disneyworld and I only bought a Pandora bead and a refrigerator magnet. Just didn't want anything else.

You got the right philosopy Sondra.

I have that sentimental thing too ..but it gets to the point that it is less of a priority for me than dusting and lifting. I even write on the bottom.

I found myself writingTHREARENING notes on the " special" box of Christmas ornaments (OK BOXES) "grandma made these..if you throw away..I will visit you in the dead of night and rattle my chains" THOSE kinds of notes.

Or the guilt trip note...
"This was dads when he was a boy,, SURELY you kids can find a shadow box to store it in... (but let's face it, I never did) to preserve it.."

I keep telling the kids ( 40 & 36) that they will get more sentimental as they get older and will appreciate having some keepsakes. I never had much from my family. That may be why I'm so bent on leaving them some things. They can keep a few things and get rid of the rest. I just want them to have a choice.

I hear you on the shadowbox thing, Rosie. We have the little tin airplane my husband had when he was 3. We have his little toy gun he made himself at 7. They have been needing a shadowbox, and instead they are still kicking around in different storage areas.

As the eldest girl child, I find myself in the dubious position of the 'keeper of memories' which frankly I am tiring of. I have all my folks old photo albums, military outfits, and other memorabilia, much of which are meaningless to me (not my memories, and both folks are long gone). I'm rather amazed at the people who insist I 'need' to keep these things for the sake of....what? Perhaps I'm getting cranky, but really, it's all just stuff. I'm ditching it.

I can sympathize with a lot of this. Cleaned out mom's house in 2010, (cannot believe it was that long ago), my aunt in 2015 who was a big saver of (interesting) sentimental stuff, and now MIL is living with us. It's helped me focus on trying to keep things moving, even a little.
My sister said Keep this coffee mug and think of Mom whenever you use it. That means more to me than sitting something on a shelf, where I unfortunately never look at it.
A prized possession from my aunt is a white enamel pail with lid- which I did NOT know till later was a chamber pot! She had laundry soap in it.

Instead of decluttering my house with items I don't have use for anymore, I'm going to declutter my life with the toxic people that don't deserve to be in it anymore.

Good for you! Life is too short to be around toxic people.

Exactly. By toxic, I mean the individuals that feel the need to be disrespectful to me (especially when I did nothing to deserve it). I'm sure you can imagine who I'm referring to....

I am struggling with old photo albums of my dads family. Very few photos mean much to me and absolutely nothing to my children. I think I will remove what I want and toss the rest. Like there is on of my Paternal Great Grandfather but only me and my older brother even knew him. So that is a keeper right now for me.

I got rid of all our old VHS video tapes last week!

I went through my folks' photo albums and scanned in photos to upload to ancestry.com - seems like a good spot to preserve family history and others can benefit from them as well. Once they were uploaded, I deleted them from my computer.

Good idea, Deb. I know my uncle has been doing a family tree on paper for many years. I have always wanted to have a framed picture of a large tree- and instead of branches, would be names & other pertinent information about that person. I remember seeing something like this many years ago, but do not remember where.

Bonehead said:I went through my folks' photo albums and scanned in photos to upload to ancestry.com - seems like a good spot to preserve family history and others can benefit from them as well. Once they were uploaded, I deleted them from my computer.

GREAT IDEA

Caution: If you are not already sucked into Ancestry.com it will hook you in no time flat! That said, get the free trial subscription, enter as much as you possibly can from the on-line 'clues' during your subscription, then CANCEL your subscription (very important, this is one of those sites that will automatically recharge your credit card every month unless you take action). THEN, go back and clean up your entries, add photos, stories if you have any, etc. You can access your family tree without a paid subscription, you just can't use their web services. Once you are at kind of a dead end with what you have, then subscribe again for a month or so, and again remember to CANCEL. I subscribe more frequently during the rainy months when I am trapped indoors and less so during summer months. Every once in a while, they run a special that is very cost effective for I think 6 months for $50 (regular price is $20/month). It's a fun web site (for me).

I've had pretty good luck decluttering closets, kitchen cabinets, etc. Right now I have a wall lined up with bags & boxes of 'stuff' to donate.

My biggest nightmare is PAPER. Do I need it? If yes, can I scan it or do I need the original? Is this note that I scribbled on the back of some other piece of paper something I need and thus goes into the stack of 'decipher & type info into computer'. Anything to be pitched has to be tossed in the 'shred' stack or the recycle bin.

About a year ago I had sorted paper into categories such as 'house', 'computer info', 'money', 'medical' etc. When I did that I didn't spend much time on 'need it or not'. Figured that would come next. And I felt like progress was made even tho not everything fell into one of my labeled categories. I'll deal with those later.
Well, as we all know, things do not remain static. More paper arrives. And more notes are scribbled. And in some instances I need to find something in one of those previously sorted stacks. But did I put it under 'house' or 'money' and what did I mean by 'house' anyway? And for the most part isn't everything related to 'money'?

I can no longer see the surface of my desk. I know it's there because I saw it a few months ago.

Notice I haven't even mentioned the nightmare regarding family photographs. Two stacks: scanned and to be scanned. Oops. Somehow they combined forces and morphed into one.

We have something called Nextdoor Neighborhood. Maybe some of y'all have it too as it attempts to go national. Anyway it's an online site to connect with people in your 'hood and some adjacent 'hoods. Among all the 'missing pet' posts and 'looking for a plumber' posts, I suddenly saw a post that looked promising. Someone's daughter or DIL or whatever looking for a part time gig to help 'organize'. Hmmm. But I have doubts about delegating. Would everything turn into a question? And would that take longer? But maybe could work out. Could I even find that post again to reread it and cogitate on it further?

Think I'll just get back in bed and hide under the covers.

I used to be meticulous about record keeping, mostly on my computer. After losing all my financial records in various computer crashes, I decided it's just not that important. I have gone as paperless as I can. I do open and review on-line bills, bank and credit card statements, but once I've confirmed they are accurate, poof. No need for me to print and file away, only to be burned at some later date. After 40 plus years of managing our household money, I know where we spend it. If we have more, we spend more. And the reverse. It's been a rather 'freeing' move.

I am cleaning out clothes closet... from before I retired.
" what if I NEED this sweater...this skirt...these nice linen tops... "

The stuff I wear daily and are my comfy stuff -- THOSE need to GO! But Nooooooo not my comfy clothes!

What if I need to go to a funeral... ??
BUT someone can USE this...it is perfectly good...

Oh it is the same old arguments
Uh!

I know I have a lot of nice really nice, almost just like new stuff that would fit if I would just loose 30 pounds!

I think most of mine are mostly out dated or out lifestyled...
I will make bags for the catholic charity and I have lots of new liquid and hard soaps and toiletries and will take those to the shelter. winter is coming and I have unused or nearly new winter coats and clothing.. it is crazy what I have for "just in case " ...people can use these things.