Valuable Stuff
I realized the other day that we speak regularly about the different aspects of buying and selling homes, but we never address the “next step,” which is when you suddenly realize that now that you’ve bought or sold your house, you have to deal with all the “stuff” you’ve accumulated over a lifetime and decide whether to keep it, throw it out, or donate it.
This may sound amusing, but it can be stressful depending on how much stuff you’ve accumulated over time. If you’re a hoarder and save all kinds of stuff (because anyone can throw stuff away), but it still has value or can be put to use somewhere, the idea of throwing it away can be debilitating and you may need some assistance from someone who’s not afraid of throwing things away, to give you a little push on what to keep and what to discard.
The generation that grew up during the Depression (my parents’ generation) were taught never to throw anything away that you could squeeze a little use out of. In those days, that was how you survived and managed through those Depression years. The problem was that when the Depression years ended (at the start of World War II) and as things were rationed or hard to come by, they continued to practice the same philosophy, which stuck for most of their lives.
My father, z’l, was one of that generation, and not only did he never throw something away that could be useful, he would rebuild it and make it better. The only downside to this was he developed such a collection of yerushah that my mother insisted that he get everything out of the basement once and for all, and of course, he could not bear to throw away any of that valuable stuff, so he put it in an army tent in our backyard. An army tent in the backyard was an invitation for generating all kinds of talk on the block, so after he put it up, the other kids on the block would ask us questions such as “Do you keep an elephant in that tent?” or “Did you get that tent from the circus?” We used to laugh and tease my father, asking him, “What are you going to do with all that stuff if we ever move?” Of course, he used to answer us by saying he was so happy there, why would he ever move? It became the family joke that if the country was ever attacked, we would be a prime target because of the army tent in the backyard.
Well, you can guess the rest. My parents decided to move closer to us and downsize, and then it became a question of what to do with all the valuable stuff in the army tent. So, the day we listed the house for sale, my father finally agreed that he would have to slowly sift through all of that valuable stuff and see what he would keep and what he would throw away. To his relief, he actually found plenty of neighbors who were willing to take a lot of the valuable stuff he had collected in that army tent, but oh what a job!
While I was writing this article, I began to think about all the stuff that I’ve accumulated over the years, stuff that I never got around to sifting through. I am sure there are lots of people out there with the same problem, some who are moving and trying to figure out what to do with all the stuff. And others, who are not moving, but thinking, “What am I going to do with all this stuff if I decide to move and I cannot just throw it away? What if there are valuables in there?” To this, I had a thought: Maybe we should all take our stuff, pile it in Cedarhurst Park, exchange with each other whatever we can, and donate the rest for our Lag B’Omer bonfire and finally be finished with it. Sounds good? Yeah, but who has the time to sift through all those mountains of “stuff” to see what valuables there are to keep? Maybe next year! n
Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering full service residential, management and commercial real estate services in the Five Towns of Long Island as well as the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007. Readers are encouraged to send any questions or scenarios by email to [email protected].
