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| Gramophone / Phonograph / Record Player - Engines in Enginuity, Coalbrookdale (Photo credit: ell brown) |
We've been talking about the material accumulations of our past. In the last post the topic was magazines. I've had to get rid of so many magazines over the years and have many more that now I must decide upon. Most of us just don't have the room to keep everything we've ever owned, nor do we need to keep much of the stuff of our past.
Let's face it. Most stuff is just that--stuff. Our amassed stowages are often of little real value. Our perceived treasure is another man's trash. Deciding what to keep and what goes out the door can sometimes be a dilemma, but sometimes those difficult decisions have to be made. What things are the things you should keep?
Some of the things to keep are obvious. Things of true monetary value, irreplaceable heirlooms that will be treasured by future generations, or items of potential historical importance are probably worth hanging onto. But what about the sentimental keepsakes? Or the things that we can attach to specific eras of our lives?
The many thousands of books, cassettes, videos, vinyl records, CD's, and DVD's that I own are something that I've started taking into strong consideration in recent years. If I were to move they would be just something else I'd have to pack and carry with me. If my wife and I ever downsize our living space, keeping these items would most likely be out of the question. Would I miss them? I probably would at times, but these are the sorts of losses that I can live with. After all I can't take my stuff with me when I leave this world. And will anybody want these relics of outdated technology when I've departed?
I can remember when I got rid of all of my models and model kits when I was in college. This was the passion of my early teen years and represented so many hours of pleasure. Years later I sometimes regret having gotten rid of those things. For one thing there could be some monetary value in them. Maybe. The fact is though that I couldn't hang onto those boxes of things and my parents wanted the boxes moved out of their house. I can understand that. Too much of anything requires downsizing.
Then there was my American Flyer electric train set that I sold for $100 back in 1977. That was an extensive set that my parents had added to every Christmas starting in 1956. When I sold it I needed the money more than I needed the train set and the boxes were taking up space in a storage area at my parents house. The train set wasn't being used anymore so what was the point of keeping it. Now I've seen some of the individual train cars online selling for more than the price I sold the whole set for. I might be making a fortune selling the set off now, but that would have meant keeping all of it for many years. If I had only known, but sometimes we just don't think of those things.
What do I get rid of next? My stamp collection? A lot of good memories there, but my research tells me that you don't get much out of stamp collections. My collection is taking up the equivalent of about five medium size storage boxes in my closet. I haven't looked at any of that collection in years. Most of it I probably haven't seen in decades. I'll have to think about that one.
Are you a collector? What things do you like to save? Do you plan on leaving anything to anyone after you die? What have you gotten rid of that you wish you had kept?
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