HANOI, VIETNAM – Several years ago, Melanie and I decided that when we retired, we would sell our house and all our belongings and then travel the world.
The first step was pretty easy. We stopped buying anything we didn’t really need.
I say it was easy, but for me it was quite a challenge. I’ve been a collector for most of my 60+ years, and for at least the last 40 years I’ve actively bought and sold things, amassing quite an inventory of books and other items that I figured I would slowly sell off in my retirement… someday.
With our decision to divest ourselves of all of our possessions, I realized that “someday” had suddenly become NOW.
I stopped buying things
So I stopped buying things. Well, except for a couple of small lapses…
There was this one paperback book I just couldn’t pass up. After all, the last copy I had was resold for almost $50, and this one was only $8.50 – including shipping.
I hoped the book would arrive while Melanie was still at work so I could sneak it into the house un-noticed.
But I was not so lucky.
“What’s that?” she asked as I carried in the small package underneath the junk mail and advertising flyers.
“Oh, just a book,” I replied. “It was such a good deal I couldn’t NOT buy it.” “Which book?” she queried, obviously annoyed.
When I told her the title and how much it had cost, her tone softened. She remembered how many times before I had sold copies of this particular title for several times my small investment.
“Just don’t do it again,” she said. You still have bookcases full of books to sell. You don’t need to buy any more.”
“You’re right. I already have hundreds of books to sell. I won’t buy anymore. This is the last one, I promise.” And it was.
If we had just wanted to GET RID of everything, the process would have been easy. We could just call up the Salvation Army or Goodwill and have them send a truck (or two) and let them haul everything away.
But many of the things we owned were valuable. At least they had SOME value. We didn’t want to just give them all away.
Unfortunately, we soon discovered that what used to be valuable… Now, maybe not so much.
I listed many of my collectible items for sale on eBay, some at auction and some as fixed-price listings with the option for people to make me an offer.
I had to rethink my opinion of what was valuable
As more and more of my auctions closed without even an opening bid, and fixed-price listings ended with no offers (or occasionally with what I considered ridiculously low offers), I had to rethink my opinion of what was valuable.
I took more and more of my precious books to our local used bookstore, where I sadly accepted whatever they offered. The remaining two-thirds of the books that they wouldn’t buy were donated to our local library for their annual book sale. At least someone might benefit from my years of collecting.
Our visits to local antique shops were just as disappointing. Antique furniture… “Sorry, no one wants that stuff anymore.” Collectible glassware… “Nope, we already have too much of that.” Other collectibles… “We can’t pay you anything, but if you just want to get rid of it…”
My kids, our family and friends, and the local thrift stores turned out to be the biggest beneficiaries of our ultimate downsizing exercise. We gave away a lot of stuff.
We found good homes for some of our stuff
And we managed to find good homes for many of the things we thought had more value than just a thrift store donation. If we weren’t going to get a lot of money (or at least something close to what we thought a thing should be worth), we decided we’d rather give it to someone who would really appreciate it.
Melanie’s custom-tailored Punjabis from India went to a local theater group as costumes for upcoming productions.
My many years’ accumulation of hand-blown stained glass, tools and books went to our local high school art department. The art teacher was thrilled that her students would have the opportunity to work with materials her meager budget would have never been able to provide.
And my cherished collection of glassblowing-related items (antique magazines, engravings and prints, rare books, photos, post cards and other ephemera) were donated to the library at the world-famous Pilchuck Glass School. In fact, that was one of our last stops before we left for Vietnam in mid-November.
The folks at the Pilchuck office in Seattle were thrilled that I would gift my collection to them. And I’m very happy that future generations of glass artists can benefit from my many years of searching through bookstores, antique shops and Internet auction sites as I lovingly built what turned out to be a pretty impressive (if somewhat random) collection of stuff.
In the end, getting the most value you can for your belongings doesn’t necessarily mean you end up with a pile of cash. Finding the right home where it is loved and appreciated can be just as important.
Have you downsized? What do you think about the whole process?