Value

Last week, I had a couple of different discussions about the stuff we surround ourselves with to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Colored by what 2020 has been and continues to be, the conversations really made me think. One person is finishing a house right now and asked if I had advice for preparing for the move. Now, this made me think back. My family and I have made five major moves over the years. This may not really seem big, except we did all of them in a span of less than ten years. We got really good at moving. Anyway, when asked about moving, I said without question the most important thing to do is to sort and get rid of the items you won't need. Don't move items you really won't need. If you move it, that item will stay in your house for time, possibly years, to come. Now, with this simple advice comes some really big caveats.

First, if working with someone else to determine what should and should not be re-purposed, you will find "value" is incredibly subjective. Some items you couldn't even imagine being without are items the other person would throw in a garbage bag and carry to the curb. The same is true the other direction. I can tend to be somewhat overbearing in decision-making situations, and this tends to be one of those (for those of you who've known me for years, quit laughing, it's not funny). There is the potential for hurt feelings and loud voices or screams. I remember working through items in my mother's house with my sister. Before we were done, we were both in tears.

Second, what is the current perspective around things. For those of you who have not watched, the lines at thrift stores and Goodwill have been huge over the past months. With everyone at home more than usual, the current perspective is that now is a good time to eliminate useless items. Other things affecting current perspective are people's age and how they are playing for the long term. I don't want to make my children sort through any more than absolutely necessary when I am no longer here, so I try to deal with it now. The exception, of course, is the shop. Everything there is important and will all be wanted by someone down the line. I guess one or both of my children will have incredibly well set up shops at some time.

The third thing driving the valuation of items is how long you've had them. If something has been in your family/possession for fifty years, it has a greater value than something added to the house today. I know we could have gotten rid of much of the kids take-home work from school if we had done it then. But, load it in totes and move it five times over almost thirty years and it is much harder to get rid of something. We are there on some of the artwork the kids did when they were young. The most interesting thing for me was I remember running into those boxes of schoolwork of mine when we were taking care of mom's house. I hope there was not a gold brick hiding in one of the boxes as I opened them, looked to see what was in the box, and got rid of the whole box.

So, in the midst of all of this thought about things and what is the value, I have found a way to move our piano to someone where it will truly be valued. We bought this piano when we were in Kearney, MO from a traveling piano salesman, a story in and of itself and it worked wonderfully for the kids to take lessons and learn to play. I doubt it has been played in the last ten years. Anyway, the place I did the last library installation has been trying to figure out where to get a piano, and we were more than happy to offer it up. I love it when you can take an item which is not of great value to you anymore and move it to a place, or to people, that will love having it. This is the case here. Yeah, it just makes me smile.

Speaking of things being relocated, the time has finally come for the teardrop to make its way to Maine. This month, I have a transporter  picking it up to deliver it to Jaye and Karen. I am so excited and I hope they just love it. It has been a joy to build, and it will be nice to regain about a quarter of my Toybox. Of course I already have plans for the space. I am also looking for the next big project, so if you have something in mind, it may not be a bad time to reach out to me. I hope you are all having successful weeks, mine has been very good, and I hope the weekend also goes well for you.