I suppose what made it so easy was the fact that in 2000, we had moved my folks from 2200 square feet into 1100 square feet. They seldom threw anything away and had years and years of personal effects that my sister and I had to go through in an effort to fit it into their new abode. Then, when my Dad died in 2001, we had to go through his stuff again, even more thoroughly and then once more in 2002 when Mom moved into the retirement home. We found so many things, much of it useless and of no monetary value, that we had never seen before and that had absolutely no meaning to us. Among their possessions were a few things of sentimental value, which we did keep, but overall, it was one of the most unpleasant tasks we had ever had to do. I swore then that I would never do that to my children and have made every effort to stick with it. When I sorted through our belongings I asked myself this: If I were to die today, would this have any value (sentimental or monetary) to my kids? If the answer was no, then I would dispose of it. Simple! What we have kept, fits into a small room; eight feet by six feet or we carry it in the motorhome.

Somehow, on our travels, we have accumulated some additional possessions despite our rule: when we buy something new, something old has to go. Obviously we have forgotten that rule once or twice! It all comes down to the fact that we humans collect far too much stuff, a lot of it useless to our relatives once we are gone and not anything that we can take with us. Material possessions don't make us any better than anyone else and they surely won't improve our lot after we die. However having that knowledge, we still continue to buy new things. But on the other hand, we also donate a lot of our old things to worthy causes, which is a way of helping the economy. And, hopefully, at least our kids won't have to go through a load of meaningless junk!