Accumulations

Over our lives, most of us are accumulators – tangible and intangible.  

It’s the stuff – tangible, physical stuff - that’s on my mind at present.

I’m not really a hoarder. But, I confess that I have had a life-long habit of holding onto selected things - some stuff I just like too much to pitch out. Like a couple of well-worn shirts from LL Bean, bought when it was a not-so-large enterprise in a not-so-large Maine town. I had a pair of those rubberized boots from them as well, but they lost a skirmish with an energetic golden retriever puppy several decades back.

Now we’re at an age when moving to a condominium offering about ½ of the floor space of our current abode is in on the schedule. “Downsizing,” it’s somewhat euphemistically called.

You can just imagine what’s to become of my workshop.  I’m hopeful that one or more of our boys, now in their mid-late 50s may want portions of it, but I’m not optimistic. Same for some of the furniture that my wife and I so enthusiastically purchased second hand and refinished decades ago. Some of it might be classified as “antique” today. But such “brown furniture,” as it’s somewhat derisively called, is not exactly in demand now, even by the grandkids.  So it goes…

How do I feel about downsizing and what it might portend? Well, quite good. It’s true that parting from some of the stuff wouldn’t be without a little twinge. But I’ve learned by now that the most valuable accumulations are those in my mind. They easily move with me - and they take up zero floor space.

Image courtesy of the Saturday Evening Post