Now that you are a faithful sentinel guarding your homestead against an invasion by anything you will not effectively use and removing an existing item for each new one you bring in, you can turn your attention to repurposing the unused objects trespassing in your home.
I do not write “dispose of” as that implies loss. Repurposing gives an item another useful life, redirecting it to someone who will press it into service. If neither you nor anyone else will put the item to work, it should be evicted and thrown into the abyss.
Since converting unused possessions to use or eradicating them makes perfect sense, why don’t we do it?
There May Be a Day I Need It
There may be a day you could use it, but it is unlikely that you will need it.
Unbeknownst to me, Cathy labeled containers using printed sheets of paper and tape. A week later, I found a handheld label printer in a drawer and suggested we give it to the youth program for arts and crafts projects. She heartily exclaimed that we could not part with the very thing she needed the week before.
I brilliantly countered that her effective alternative proved she did not need the label printer. Hopefully, my written words will be more effective than my spoken ones, as the printer remains in the drawer, free of wear and tear, and perfectly positioned to be forgotten the next time it is “needed.”
My Kids Want It
Oh really? If you do not use it, what makes you think they will? How many of your ancestors’ heirlooms do you use? If anything, the amount probably could not fill an Amazon box, much less a coat closet.
Put the assumption to the test. Ask your descendants to take those supposedly prized possessions and observe their disinterested expressions (identical to the ones you gave your ancestors). You likely have their high school yearbook, bronze baby shoes, and second-grade report card collecting dust in your attic.
They Can Sell It For Good Money
If you leave it for your descendants to sell, there will be little time or energy to undertake an effective sales process but for precious jewelry or valuable collectors’ items. How much of your grandparents’ or parents’ possessions did you profitably sell?
As the patron saint of downsizing and death disposition (uncle, aunt, mom, sister, cousin, brother-in-law), I can attest that converting possessions into cash does not equate to a profitable sale. The time and effort associated with posting on Facebook Marketplace, negotiating with bottom-feeding bargain hunters, eluding scam artists, and arranging pick-ups far exceeded the monetary return.
For those envisioning wheelbarrows of money from an estate sale, have you heard a happy story from a seller?
If the object has real monetary value, selling it now will fetch a higher price, and you can deploy the proceeds more beneficially.
Anyway, we tend to overvalue our irreplaceable artifacts. My rare album commemorating the Miracle Mets’ 1969 World Series Championship netted me a few dollars. The Baseball Hall of Fame told me not to send my circa 1970 album celebrating 100 years of baseball history; they already had 50 copies.
Memories of Yesteryear
I am not a heartless minimalist; I enjoy reminiscing but do not allow sentimentality to grant unused items permanent residency. Rather than retain the 1981 edition of Who’s Who of American High School Students or the finisher’s plaque from the 1992 New York City Marathon that had not come out of the closet in 25 years, I memorialized them in photos and emailed them to my children with a message that they did not have to worry about throwing them out someday.
What is the benefit of keeping them? Will my children wistfully smile while carrying misnamed keepsakes to the dumpster, or will they curse me for retaining them? If you have cleaned out an ancestor’s home, how many times did you say, “Why did they hang onto this feces (translated from the original dialect)?”
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If you have not touched it, looked at it, or remembered you have it, put it to use or out.