Your Other Hobby (s)?

[Smart Red]

I have been decluttering steadily since I retired in 2005. Lots of things unused = lots of things gone. I still do have too much in the craft-y area. As the grands get older, what they don't use will be gifted away.

I still have too much from the standpoint that simple is best. In the kitchen, as Gypsy likes to say, I have one of everything. These things do get used. All the one-of-everything that didn't get used has been gifted off.

My aunt called her children around and they went through the house in turn asking for what they wanted. She put a note with each item. When she passed, everything they didn't want was donated and there was no fighting or "cleaning" out.

My MIL left her home to live with her daughter. We all went through her things together and took what we wanted. I took the rest to Good Will. I don't intend that my family need spend hours filtering through piles of things deciding what to keep and what to toss.

I still have to go through each room again (probably several times), but each time there is less that I find I love and more that I can live without.

 

[Carol Dee]

I have been decluttering steadily since I retired in 2005. Lots of things unused = lots of things gone. I still do have too much in the craft-y area. As the grands get older, what they don't use will be gifted away.

I still have too much from the standpoint that simple is best. In the kitchen, as Gypsy likes to say, I have one of everything. These things do get used. All the one-of-everything that didn't get used has been gifted off.

My aunt called her children around and they went through the house in turn asking for what they wanted. She put a note with each item. When she passed, everything they didn't want was donated and there was no fighting or "cleaning" out.

My MIL left her home to live with her daughter. We all went through her things together and took what we wanted. I took the rest to Good Will. I don't intend that my family need spend hours filtering through piles of things deciding what to keep and what to toss.
that is my plan....wish me luck.
I still have to go through each room again (probably several times), but each time there is less that I find I love and more that I can live without.

 

[Smart Red]

I see my last post was worth repeating. Thanks, Carol. Ah-ha! I spotted your "plan" embedded in mine.

"that is my plan....wish me luck", said Carol Dee.

Good luck, @Carol Dee! Sometimes it is tough parting with things. Would my son or daughter want this is my usual question. If no, it goes. Sometimes I even ask first. Then I can choose to gift it to them now.

 

[baymule]

Just did another "hobby" chore. When the long (1,086') property line was surveyed, they put in 6 wood stakes about 3 feet tall. And in-between is a whole lot of trees, brush, briars and undergrowth. Can't see from one dinky stake to another.

So I took home made thick walled T-post driver and T-posts and threaded through the woods to find the stakes. I pounded T-posts and tied bright pink surveyors tape on them. Not ready to do this fenceline yet, but I didn't want the dinky stakes to disappear.

I'm wet with sweat to my knees for the third time today. I am officially tired. I thought "hobbies" were supposed to be FUN? LOL

 

[so lucky]

Bay, I don't know how you can work out all day in the heat. I'm just an old wuss, I guess.
We have been cleaning out my DH's parents' home, finally, and it has been very hard on him. There was so much animosity (and still is) between the sibs that it has been a labor of realizing lost-for-ever-opportunities. The very act of trying to divide up all the stuff, and decide what to donate, what to toss, becomes a battle of wills.
One sib managed to delay the clean out action for years "I don't want to see the home place disturbed---Papa might move back---We've got plenty of time...". So now we are down to the wire on time, as the place is (supposedly) selling. So controlling sib has this way of calling everything a "worthless piece of junk," devaluing it. "No one would want to buy it. I'll just take it and try to repair it, store it, tear it down for scrap"...what ever.
He has gone through the whole house, being "helpful" by claiming almost everything in it that has sentimental value, or family history, to be worthless but he will do us a favor by taking it off our hands. My DH is not strong enough to fight right now, and it's not really my place to. He thinks he is being so sly, because he thinks he is winning some game in which he is the only player. He still lives by the credo "He who dies with the most stuff wins." And it's not that I want that stuff either, but I don't like the idea of the family being railroaded by one selfish person who terrorized his dad into being made executor. The furnishings and tools need to be sold and the cash divided among the sibs, not going into storage to be lost in the black hole of "stuff."

I need to quit ranting. It is, after all, just "stuff" and DH has the knowledge that he and his dad had a good relationship, and lots of memories. And DH has ME, the best prize of all!

 

[so lucky]

Sorry for the rant. Been a lot on my mind lately. And not even in the right category. Do we have a "Rant" thread?

 

[Nyboy]

Lucky never be sorry for a rant here !!! We have all needed to rant at sometime.

 

[Nyboy]

They have profession yard sale people. They come in price everythng hold sale, then take a % of sale money. because they are working on % base, they want to sell for as high as they can. You could suggest calling one to do sale.

 

[Nyboy]

I saw her do this live years ago

 

[Beekissed]

Your woods must be very different then mine. I think the country nights are filled with sound. Between the frogs, crickets and night birds far from quite. But 100x better then the night time traffic noise of city.

That's what we call quiet around here! Bug, bird and night creature noises are pleasant background to life's panorama, but incessant barking, people yelling, road noises, etc. are disturbing to me. Whenever I move to a house, I always like to see just how noisy it can get during the day and also during the night, then I make my choice. I'm used to country livin', so country critters are like a sweet lullaby to me.

AND it would be much more fun doing with help and fresh eyes. I am sure some things I think I NEED someone with another opinion would make it easier to toss things. (Or we could just get together and swap junk!)

That's what I am for Mom...hard to let go of stuff saved for 40+ yrs of homesteading back here but after having my own soul lifted by the massive downsizing in my own life, I have advocated it to my mother and she has caught on to how good it feels.

Still...old habits die hard and she comes from a different generation and home of poverty, so one saves all things that have even a slightly useful appearance "just in case". She's doing great, considering all of that, and we are slowly but surely getting smaller and smaller here.

It is, after all, just "stuff"

Amen! Let the poor, grasping man smother under his load of stuff. Stuff just acts as a chain or a millstone around one's neck, making one unable to move quickly, live without fear of losing said stuff, or make any decisions that don't include what to do with "all my stuff". Poor sap.

So lucky, you missed the bullet on that one! So, so lucky....