One of my favorite weekend activities is estate sale-ing with my friend Dr Karin Kratina. We love walking into houses and seeing how people lived. But seeing people’s accumulations of stuff always made me wonder why they hadn’t gotten rid of it sooner. I became uncomfortable with the idea that one day my fellow shoppers would be trekking through my abandoned stuff. So I attended a decluttering class with Angela Dragon. One of the first things I decided to get rid of was a bunch of coins I had sitting in shoe boxes. Selling at auction seemed like the best idea. (One reason I love selling and buying at auction is, for the most part, the market decides value.) As I looked around my house I knew there was enough stuff for at least a few auctions. And whenever I told friends (most of whom are old, like me) about my online auction plan, they wanted to give me their stuff to sell. I decided to get an Auctioneer license which meant 80-hours of classroom study and passing the state exam. In addition to holding online auctions, I now have an Etsy store , and I continue to delve into various marketplaces for recycling stuff.  

Today, I better understand why elders don’t get rid of their stuff sooner. Getting rid of stuff requires physical and emotional effort. And most of us don’t even know where to begin. Rehoming stuff has become my passion so feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk about freeing yourself from the stuff that is keeping you stuck. And, stay tuned because I am working on a video series that will give you some guidance and ideas.