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Our library does not take any text books. Our text books are quite old so I don't think they are worth much. We have a lot of things to do (to down size, to fix up the house, to check out possible new relocation places etc.) so we don't really have the time to try to sell items.
All our extra, not needed stuffs will either be donated/given away (library, goodwill, friends, neighbors, freecycle) or go to the dump.
One of the boxes which I opened today was a box contained my late MIL's cook books, art books and some of her sketches. In another one, I found some old valentine and birthday cards with drawings done by my daughter when she was a little girl. Another one had several of my late father's handwritten letters. He used to send long loving letters to families. He could neither read nor write after his stroke. My mother had to teach him the alphabet, how to tell time, how to write a single letter. I cried with happy tears when he was well enough (after several years) to write letters again. The lines were up, down all over the place (he had double vision after the stroke) but it was the most beautiful handwritten letter that I had ever received.
It's hard for me to part with some sentimental stuffs. The problem with moving especially when the boxing was done by somebody else was that they just threw everything together in boxes. Unless I go through them, I would not know the exact content of each box. It will take me a while to go through each item in the boxes but it is well worth it.
Even with books, I hate to take everything to the dump. I would rather sort through them giving valuable books to the library or friends. For example, I was about to throw a book in the dumpster pile then decided to check the value and found that it is worth $50 so I put it in the library donation pile instead.
That makes a huge impact on downsizing.
I've never been big on keeping stuff for sentimentality reasons myself so it doesn't faze me to "chuck it".
Maybe in your case downsizing means just reorganizing your boxes and labeling them.
I am getting rid of most of my baking things. My solution - buy those aluminum throw away pans for cakes, muffins, pies etc. Because really, how often do I bake now in retirement? That phase of my life is over. So many places make such good yummy baked goods.
Clemencia53,
I was quite serious into cooking and doing all kinds of homesteading stuffs (gardening, canning etc.) until other hobbies (flying, rowing, traveling) consumed whatever free time that I had from work.
Now that I am retired, I am having a blast cooking gourmet meals, doing old and new things in the kitchen.
I have to moderate my carb/sugar consumption. Home baking allows us to use whole wheat flour (fresh homeground from organic wheat berries), substituting sugar with stevia, using minimum salt etc. Store baked goods are usually too sweet and have too much salt for us.
We may get rid of some baking pans when we move. Frugality runs in my blood so I really hate to use throw away stuffs.
I've never been big on keeping stuff for sentimentality reasons myself so it doesn't faze me to "chuck it".
Maybe in your case downsizing means just reorganizing your boxes and labeling them.
Absolutely not. Keeping sentimental things does not mean keeping everything. Only the most meaningful irreplaceable items (and not too bulky) are kept. For example, we are keeping my MIL's sketches and maybe one cookbook but getting rid of the rest of the stuffs.
So far, we have taken 2 car loads of stuffs to the dump, 1 car load to good will and many more stuffs to be thrown out.
There are ways to significantly downsizing sentimental stuffs. I had just digitized 50+ VHS tapes and converted them to 20 DVDs. I had previously digitized about 50+ Hi-8 tapes. We gave a friend a DVD copy of the video we took of their 23 years son when he was a newborn baby last Christmas . We also send out DVDs of home videos to my families and they were thrilled. The stack of DVDs took just a fraction of the space of the old VHS/Hi-8 tapes. I have about 50 cassette tapes to digitize too but our cassette deck broke. The old family recordings are too valuable to chuck away. I expect to fit the content of these tapes into a single bluray or few DVDs in mp3 format.
We had scanned many old family pictures/slides/negatives and made slideshows. We fit all of my PIL's albums into a single DVD. I have a bookcase filled with old albums/negatives and it will take us sometimes to convert them to few bluray discs. It is well worth our time.
I am bound and determine to fit the content of our 3500 sq. feet home to a much smaller home (hopefully
half size).
Absolutely not. Keeping sentimental things does not mean keeping everything. Only the most meaningful irreplaceable items (and not too bulky) are kept. For example, we are keeping my MIL's sketches and maybe one cookbook but getting rid of the rest of the stuffs.
So far, we have taken 2 car loads of stuffs to the dump, 1 car load to good will and many more stuffs to be thrown out.
There are ways to significantly downsizing sentimental stuffs. I had just digitized 50+ VHS tapes and converted them to 20 DVDs. I had previously digitized about 50+ Hi-8 tapes. We gave a friend a DVD copy of the video we took of their 23 years son when he was a newborn baby last Christmas . We also send out DVDs of home videos to my families and they were thrilled. The stack of DVDs took just a fraction of the space of the old VHS/Hi-8 tapes. I have about 50 cassette tapes to digitize too but our cassette deck broke. The old family recordings are too valuable to chuck away. I expect to fit the content of these tapes into a single bluray or few DVDs in mp3 format.
We had scanned many old family pictures/slides/negatives and made slideshows. We fit all of my PIL's albums into a single DVD. I have a bookcase filled with old albums/negatives and it will take us sometimes to convert them to few bluray discs. It is well worth our time.
I am bound and determine to fit the content of our 3500 sq. feet home to a much smaller home (hopefully
half size).
One thing you may want to invest in is an external DVD player so you'll be able to use those DVD's 10-20 years from now. Technology advances quicker these days and old devices get removed from new tech equipment.
We have DVD player and bluray player. Yes, being a techie, I am quite aware of the fast speed of technology changes and have tried to keep up with the new stuffs.
When I digitize old VHS/Hi-8 tapes, I keep 3 copies of each video (mpg file, DVD format and iso files on bluray disc). When bluray is replaced with something new, I will convert the files to the new format.
I was quite serious into cooking and doing all kinds of homesteading stuffs (gardening, canning etc.) until other hobbies (flying, rowing, traveling) consumed whatever free time that I had from work.
Now that I am retired, I am having a blast cooking gourmet meals, doing old and new things in the kitchen.
I have to moderate my carb/sugar consumption. Home baking allows us to use whole wheat flour (fresh homeground from organic wheat berries), substituting sugar with stevia, using minimum salt etc. Store baked goods are usually too sweet and have too much salt for us.
We may get rid of some baking pans when we move. Frugality runs in my blood so I really hate to use throw away stuffs.
I've been retired for nine years. I've made my own bread, ketchup, English muffins, canned, ice cream, etc.
We just don't eat as much anymore. I'm 55, roommate is 69. So far so good, no issues with sugar or salt, but we are careful anyway. Do not even buy soft drinks.
I still love home grown tomatoes, so probably won't give up canning. Every year, I say it will be the last year.
When I get rid of things, I just see it as sharing what I have with others.
We've been doing an end-of-year purge over the past week.
So far, about 14 dead electronic items were taken to Staples--they recycle them for free (thanks, Staples).
Have six boxes of books for the library.
Donated a couch, office chair, bags of linens, cans of paint, and printer to the community thrift store that hosts a food pantry.
On the con side, we ordered two comfortable reading chairs to replace the couch. But reading comfortably will likely keep us home instead of going out and spending money, so maybe that's a good thing!
We've been doing an end-of-year purge over the past week.
So far, about 14 dead electronic items were taken to Staples--they recycle them for free (thanks, Staples).
Have six boxes of books for the library.
Donated a couch, office chair, bags of linens, cans of paint, and printer to the community thrift store that hosts a food pantry.
On the con side, we ordered two comfortable reading chairs to replace the couch. But reading comfortably will likely keep us home instead of going out and spending money, so maybe that's a good thing!
That is very good to know- is it limited to certain categories? We try to coordinate.remember the town and county have a twice a year dump day for electronics. It would be good to know that Staples will take stuff in between.
I really love the idea of 2 great reading chairs. I find that semi reclining on the couch as I used to do for reading is working less and less for me. If when we downsize that is defnitely on my agenda. (just dont want to buy more furniture to move).
If you go to the Staples Website. it has a list of electronics they accept...the list included all we had--CPU's keyboards, mice, monitor, UPS, etc. The limit is 6 items per customer, but they didn't count ours, though we were two over the limit...we ended up buying some items at Staples that we needed anyhow. But there was no purchase required at all--collection is free.
Ah, yes, the reading chairs...the same with us...the couch in the family room is fine for our infrequent movie watching or TV viewing--but not very comfy for long reading...the chairs we ordered recline back and have hassocks, so will be great to elevate the feet.
I'm a thrift store queen, so it's very unusual for us to buy new, but in this case, we did...hit a great after-holiday sale and saved a bunch over regular price. If we move,we figure it's easier to move two chairs than a big, heavy couch--the one we donated was huge....
If your budget permits, can you rid yourself of something big and bulky and replace with chairs? Given that I'm growing older, I decided not to delay pleasure! And I love to read.
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