What is your New Year’s resolution? In 2024, mine was to simplify my life. As a result, my husband and I downsized from our 3,000 square foot house of 31 years to a 1,200 square foot condominium.
I’m not going to lie; it seemed like a nearly impossible feat this time last year. Thirty-one years, two children, two dogs, two cats and a lot of dead fish create a lot of “stuff”. News flash – your children don’t want your stuff. They don’t even want their stuff.
Here’s how we did it:
- We started with three hours of a professional organizer’s time. She helped us to put things in piles and to start thinking about wants and needs. Spoiler alert – you need very little.
- Anything we hadn’t touched since we moved into our home, that was put in the sell or donation pile. Wedding gifts we never asked for or wanted— those decisions were easy. But some things were harder, like my original 1983 Cabbage Patch doll. She had just had her 40th birthday, after all.
- Anything that hadn’t been used since COVID was also given away, sold, or donated. That includes older suits, which are rarely worn these days. This is where the largest collection came from—clothing that hasn’t been worn in a long time.
- The things our children left behind when they moved out – we gave them a deadline to pick it up and told them we would throw away whatever they didn’t take. And we did.
- If you don’t open the box, you won’t know what is in it and cannot mourn its contents. The only thing that can’t be replaced is people and if they’re in an old box, you have bigger problems.
- Children’s artwork – We discovered a place called Artkive. They will send you a box and every piece of precious art can be sent to them, scanned, and made into its own new precious piece of art.
- Paperwork – Do you really need the daily notes of your child’s preschool days? I mean, knowing how many diapers were changed that day was interesting at the time. Actually no, it was never interesting. Old insurance paperwork, medical summaries, checks from years and years ago, as in every check that was ever written. You can actually take mass amounts of papers to the UPS store, and they will shred it for you and charge you by the pound. We had $50 worth.
- Brass and precious metal items were sold, some were given away through Buy Nothing, some were donated. Old china? We couldn’t even give that away. Surprisingly, old VHS tapes were given away very quickly.
- Furniture – We had (and still have) some great stuff. We were lucky that our realtor was also a space planner, and she figured out what to keep and what to save, and we only moved what we knew would fit. The rest was donated, given away, and sold.
- Big-screen TV – Leave it for the next owner. It will cost more than it is worth to move, and it likely won’t fit.
- Anything you are uncertain about – Let it sit for a day and then toss it. Trust me. You won’t need it.
- Kitchen stuff – I tossed anything that was no longer pristine, which was about half of it. Large serving trays, large anything – donated. We will no longer be hosting meals for 30 people and I’m fine with that.
- Exercise equipment – Cha ching$$ – that was sold in about 24 hours. There are these places called gyms, and they are wonderful. They even have classes every day.
- Books – Get a kindle because there is an app for that, and that app increases your font size to whatever you want it to be.
- Art work, pictures etc. – We actually brought most of it with us and hired someone to help us decide what to hang. It doesn’t all fit, but what isn’t being hung takes up very little space in a closet and will eventually be given away or thrown out.
Was it hard? At first, yes. But after a while, it felt great.
In reference to selling things: If you don’t want it, it is unlikely anyone else does, either.
How does this relate to HR? Well, read our latest blog “New Year’s Resolutions for HR: How to Power-Up Your Goals for 2025“. Now that I’ve shared mine, please share yours with me. I would love to hear about them.
-Eileen
