How Do We Start Going Through 30 or 40 Years of Stuff?

One room, one corner of that room. One drawer, one closet, one at a time.

Remember, they have memories with every item in that house. At least, I hope you are able to start while they still have those memories.

I personally started purging one of our basement double closets. I pulled out a box that looked like it had recipes in it. When I got a closer look I realized that the box of cookbooks and recipes were from my Grandmother not my mother. Talk about a flood of memories rushing through my mind.

Just her hand writing made my eyes well up. My grandmother died 24 years ago.

That is what will happen when your parents start going through that “stuff.” The older we get, the harder it is to give away those memories.

I can’t throw this out, this was my _________(fill in the blank.)

You will hear that over and over again. Can you guess what is the other reason it is hard to downsize?

Overwhelming

They don’t know where to start. Give them four boxes. Label them:

Keep  Throw away  Give away  Family

Hopefully the Keep box doesn’t get filled up faster than the others. Another box may be for shredding. There is absolutely no reason for people to keep their returned checks and bank statements from 1945!

For the items that have deep rooted memories and no family member is clamoring to take them. Ask your parents to hold the item, talk about what memory came to them, thank the item and put it in a box. I know that may sound cray cray. However, it does help them to release it.

There are items that they may want to keep.