“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving” ~ Albert Einstein

I penned the Downsizing post last week, but thought I’d add some hard won, best in class ideas for your consideration. If you are a collector like me, you have a huge job deciding what to keep. The new house will not hold everything. For example, there will not be a music studio in the place.

So we have instituted a three contain system. We put out a box for:

• Goodwill
• Trash
• Keep

Goodwill includes freebees to the various Goodwill and other thrift shops so that the items can be reused. It also includes what my kids want from our big place that won’t make the cut to the new small place.

Trash is even harder. The Goodwill places won’t take things like 30 year old encyclopedias, exercise equipment, and the like. Putting them on Freecycle.org takes more time than we have to vacate the old house. So our recycle bin is always full.

Keep it if something is used a lot, has sentimental value, and would be nice to hang on the wall of the new place, we’ll keep it. Think out of the box here. Even if it is a vintage sax that never gets played, it might have value as a decorative piece.

The best advice I never followed was think really hard about acquiring something before you bring it into your house. Do you really need it, will you use it, or in other words will it bring you joy?