By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
It’s the season for spring cleaning, but maybe this year, you’re thinking of taking that perennial chore a step further.
Maybe it’s time to do a little decluttering.
Maybe you’re thinking of downsizing.
And maybe as you look around, the idea of starting either of those tasks seems overwhelming.
Don’t despair. There are ways to handle the task, and Prime has consulted an expert for advice.
Decluttering 101
Chrissy Fazio, an estate sale planner and owner of The Living Room, an antiques and gift shop on Baldwin Street in East Longmeadow, MA., has an answer for the overwhelming aspect of decluttering and downsizing.
Instead of tackling the entire house, start small.
“Say you have an office, or a desk in your kitchen, start with a drawer at a time,” Fazio said. If you can take the drawer completely out, she suggests going through it while you are watching TV in the evening.
“You can sit there with the drawer and say ‘OK, this is trash, and this is OK’,” Fazio said. Just keep repeating the pattern with the other drawers in the desk. The same technique works with kitchen drawers and bedroom drawers. And though you might not be able to bring the stuff into the TV room, it works with cabinets and closets if you work a shelf at a time.
“The other thing I recommend is designating a room, say your guest room, and start very easily, going through a dresser at a time” following the same technique, Fazio said.
If your ultimate aim is downsizing, Fazio suggests adding one more step to your decluttering: creating separate boxes or totes for family members you might want to pass things along to as you begin the decluttering process.
“And then, as you’re going through things you can say, ‘This is Bob’s,’ and ‘This is John’s,’ and ‘The reason I even saved this is because Lisa gave it to me for Mother’s Day,’” and you put it in their box, Fazio said.
The same concept works for all those homemade ornaments and other handmade childhood gifts that parents save over the years, Fazio shared.
As you fill these boxes and totes, Fazio suggests keeping them in a convenient spot, say an unused room or area of the basement, and having your children or other relatives go through them whenever they visit for occasions or holidays.
Your child or relative then has the option of keeping the item because it has a connection to them or donating it if it doesn’t spark sentimentality or memories. You’ve shifted the burden of preserving or discarding the item to the next generation, Fazio explained.
Those prized collections
One of the hardest things for people to part with, Fazio said, is the collectibles they’ve amassed over the years, especially commemorative collections. And though there are always the right collectors looking for and willing to buy almost anything that people collect, hanging on to big groupings is the antithesis of downsizing, Fazio pointed out.
“There are still people willing to pay for LLadro, Hummels sometimes, but the whole point is that if you have a huge collection, say 200 Norman Rockwell plates, you don’t need to save 200 Norman Rockwell plates,” Fazio said. “Pick your top 10, or something like that, and then you can weed out your collection without completely getting rid of your collection.
“No one wants 200 of them,” Fazio said of the next generation who might have to deal with that collection when their relative passes away. “But they might want one or two, especially if they remind them of their mom.”
Photos and paperwork
Fazio said every estate sale setup she’s ever conducted included finding boxes of photos and photo albums, and in most cases, the surviving relatives didn’t know the people, or the context of the photos.
She said one of the best things elders can do while they are downsizing and decluttering is to label any important family photos, even asking for help doing so if necessary. That way, the next generation will know who the people are and will be able to trace their ancestry.
Collecting and labeling important family papers, such as birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, military papers, family bibles and such, can also be helpful to family members who are interested in family history.
Pots and pans and dishes
Fazio said that as lives change, people are often left with kitchen items that might have been staples when the family was large but now sit unused since children have moved on, offering another often-overlooked area for downsizing and decluttering. Rather than donating those pots and pans, dishes and glassware and serving pieces, she suggests sorting them out and letting your younger relatives “shop” your collections.
She said she had an older client who did just that, starting to sift through her kitchen and putting things she no longer used aside on a table in her garage. When her nieces and nephews came to visit at the holidays, she asked them, “Is there anything you want off this table? Take it, it’s free if you want it.” Fazio said she provided bags and everyone went home with items they wanted and “everyone was happy.”
Another small way to downsize and declutter your fine china and serving piece collections is to use plates and trays as containers for foods you bring or donate to family gatherings.
Fazio said instead of asking for the dish or tray back, tell the hostess that you’d like him or her to keep the item as a gift.
Furnishings and old appliances
Fazio said that if your downsizing and decluttering efforts have resulted in furnishings you no longer need, start by letting your family shop your excess.
Fazio said sometimes,for example a child may prize a parent’s dining room set over theirs and be willing to take the heirloom, or a grandchild or other young relative who is moving out on his or her own may need a table, a chair, or other furnishings to get them started.
This kind of repurposing is better than donating items to one of the big thrift companies, Fazio said. Another alternative is to see if a local nonprofit, such as a church, has a program where unwanted furnishings and other household goods are donated to migrant families to help them get a start in their new homeland.
With old appliances, if they are in working order, again, see if a nonprofit might be able to repurpose them for those in need. For nonworking appliances, a metal recycler might be willing to collect the items at no cost.
In some areas, there are also online swap sites, such as Longmeadow ISO, where you can offer unwanted furnishings and old working appliances, with the caveat that the recipient comes and picks up the item, Fazio shared.
Clothing
It’s easy to donate clothes to many of the thrift companies, but Fazio said nice pieces such as men’s and women’s suits and skirts and dresses, even shoes and belts and handbags, can be repurposed through Dress for Success, which offers individuals seeking employment an opportunity to find appropriate clothes for job interviews at no cost.
Estate Sale – everything’s saleable!
Fazio said one of the mistakes she sees individuals – and families –make in downsizing tag sales and estate sales is cleaning out the property of many everyday items before a good estate sale coordinator comes through.
“They don’t realize that the small things are the bread and butter of an estate sale,” Fazio said. “Cleaning supplies and batteries and light bulbs, gardening supplies, anything people can use, they will buy.”