or should I keep working for a few more years?”
Downsizing often triggers these stream-of-consciousness diversions that waste hours. The strategies I’m going to show you will help you sort through your possessions quickly so you don’t get sidetracked by stress, nostalgia, or worries about the future.
I’d like to teach you the most important Let It Go time-saving strategy now. By the end of this chapter, you’ll be prepared to speedily handle your central downsizing activity.
YOUR BIGGEST TIME-SAVER: KNOWING YOUR THREE TYPES OF STUFF
All the stuff you own will fit into one of three categories: Memory Items, I-Might-Need-It Items, and Trash/Recycling. It’s easy to determine where each goes, and this will be your first task when you start doing the hands-on downsizing work.
Once you categorize each item, you can quickly determine whether you’ll keep it or let it go.
Memory Items
These are the things that remind you of important people, achievements, or events from your past. You have four kinds of Memory Items, and you’ll only keep the first kind: the treasures.
The treasures represent the peak experiences of your life and the most important moments from your family’s history. Their worth is not measured in money, but rather in the meaning and significance they hold for you or your family. You would continue to feel the absence of your treasures for a long time if you lost them.
A treasure is truly irreplaceable. You can’t buy another in the store, and you probably wouldn’t even find this thing on eBay if you searched every day for a year. In my own case, a treasure would be my mother’s green dessert plate (which is insignificant and of no value to anyone else, but a real gem to me).
Even though you can quickly and easily picture many of your treasures, beware: Treasures can really slow your downsizing. That’s because people tend to have Treasure Creep. Even though they don’t really meet the true definition of treasures, many items still seem valuable enough to keep. Because you’re so afraid of losing a treasure, you’ll draw a wide perimeter around them and wind up including stuff that doesn’t really meet the criteria.
The fear of losing a treasure may also add to your nagging sense of dread about downsizing. But any fear you feel is going to slow down the process, and you don’t have time to waste. Remember: Treasures are few, important, and deeply meaningful. Once you identify your treasures and know they’ll be safely coming along with you, you’ll be able to apply your full attention to managing the next task.
In my experience, treasures represent about 5 percent of the objects you own, or even less. I definitely want you to keep these items, so long as you absolutely, positively verify that they are indeed the most important and special things you own. In Chapters 7 and 8, I’ll give you a handy way to determine whether you’re keeping too many treasures. For now, spend some time thinking about the items that you’d truly give this label (that would be the best, the most significant, and the most memory-laden items that you own).
Once you make your selection, I want you to have the confidence to let these go from your mind. Since you’re sure you won’t be leaving behind what’s most important, there’s no reason that any worry about this group of items should be bogging down your decision-making processes.
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Real-World Downsizing Discovery
Janina says: In a recent 2-week period, we sold our 2,500-square-foot home and our 1,800-square-foot cabin. We had a lot of belongings to sort, pack, move, and store, and then begin the house-hunting process once again. It’s very difficult to know what to give away when you don’t know where you’ll be living yet. So my advice to anyone is to only keep things that are practical and that you love.
Most important, if you feel “irritated” by a certain artwork, piece of furniture, or anything else in your home, it is not worth holding on to it simply because someone close to you gave it to you or you inherited it from your parents. Your home is your castle—not theirs!
Little did we know that we would end up buying a home that equaled the square footage of our two previous homes put together! But we are so thankful we got rid of most everything that was not useful in our lives or that we had outgrown emotionally before we moved in.
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You also have three other kinds of Memory Items. These you