Look around your home. You probably see a lot of stuff you love. Maybe you have bookcases full of books you’ve read or plan to read one day, maybe you have art that you have collected one piece at time. There is the furniture you have spent your entire adult life accumulating, and maybe an assortment of cool and unique decorative items you have curated. It’s all good stuff, right? Somebody would be lucky to have it all if you were no longer here, right? Your stuff would never pose a problem to anyone, would it?
For fifteen years, my husband, Joe, and I have owned a small business in New York City clearing out estates and helping seniors move. People hire us for a variety of reasons – a parent has died and their apartment needs to be emptied, an aunt needs to move into a senior residence, a friend with dementia can no longer safely live alone and needs to make room in her home for a caregiver.
The one thing every job has in common is that there is suddenly a large amount of stuff that has to be moved, sold, donated, or discarded. And it usually has to be handled quickly. All of these things have been peacefully sitting in our clients’ homes, not drawing a lot of attention to themselves. But, suddenly, they become the focus of everybody’s attention, and they cause a tremendous amount of stress.
Here's the sad truth about our stuff. The vast majority of it is no longer worth anything. Especially if you have to sell it all within a deadline. In fact, removing our stuff is likely to take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. And it will all have to be removed someday. That day may come without warning but it will come with a price tag and a deadline.
All that stuff in your home, all that stuff you love, you have collected your whole life, right? It has taken you years to accumulate it all. Now imagine someone you love having to deal with it all in a matter of months, or possibly weeks.
If you rent your home, would your landlord allow your family to keep the lease long enough for your family to sell every last piece of furniture? Most likely, not. If you own your home, how long do you think your heirs will be able to pay to maintain it while they try to find a good home for every piece of art? This is not a happy thing to think about, but I can tell you it will be a very real problem for someone you love.
Most people aren’t aware that this will be an issue, but we see it every day. We know this problem is lurking inside every home, all over the world. Whether you’re forty, fifty, or eighty, you need to realize that your stuff will someday become a burden to someone you love.
I believe the greatest gift you can give to the people you love is to start taking steps to downsize your possessions now. We have blog posts to help, starting with this basic step-by-step guide: Decluttering: Where do I start?
