Turns out your millennial children don’t want your formal dining room set, your fine bone china, or the antiques you’ve been collecting.
They’re also not too attached to mementos — yours or their own childhood trophies, scrapbooks, and artwork.
Many millennials are living compact urban lives, they have their own aesthetic sensibility, and they’re cataloging their memories digitally.
Do your kids a favor. Let the purge begin.
To start, prepare three bags or boxes and label them Keep, Toss, and Sell/Donate. Put away what’s in your Keep pile at the end of the day and throw out what’s in your Toss pile.
We live in a world of digital files and virtual paperwork. Having a real paper trail is wise under certain circumstances, but we don’t need 30 years of financials. “There are some papers you need to hang on to for life, some you can relinquish after a set amount of time and some papers that you can throw out the same day they arrive”. Your attorney or accountant can tell you which papers fall into the different categories. Making the effort a few minutes each day to sort and toss incoming paperwork keeps piles from forming.
Some say 80% of what we keep, we’ll never look at again. It’s just taking up space in our homes. Some paperwork can be scanned and saved on your hard drive. Here is a great tip I learned from one of my customers moving into retirement home – Photographing some of the “keepsakes”. She took a picture and saved it in a folder called Nostalgia. “Once I have the picture, I feel better about giving or throwing away the item. The reason why I wanted to save it was because I didn’t want to forget” she said. Hope this is helpful to you. There are lots of options locally for sell/donate. For more information, please contact me.
Digital life planning
Good planners get their home, will, and health care power-of-attorney in place. But what about your digital life, particularly Facebook?
Often when people pass away, friends and family “gather” on Facebook to memorialize a loved one. It’s helpful to have someone who can take charge of the Facebook page and share information and updates. But if no one knows your password, no one can control your Facebook page. Facebook now allows users to designate a “legacy contact” to manage a user’s Facebook account after death.
But if no one knows your password, no one can control your Facebook page. Facebook now allows users to designate a “legacy contact” to manage a user’s Facebook account after death.
Arati Hammond is a Senior Real Estate Specialist at Keller Williams Realty.
You can reach Arati Hammond at 772-342-5599 or
