Kid's play

2/21/10 Box of dollhouse dolls and furniture & bag of Ginny Dolls and accessories, given away on craigslist; Children's VHS tapes, donated to Casco Public Library

Triple downsize today, as the items culled by Joanna and Amanda continue to fly out of here.

We had yet another dilemma as we discussed how to downsize some of their childhood dolls. We began with the challenge of parting with them in the first place. I supposed there's some parallel with my own reluctance to get rid of my childhood Star Wars action figures, but they came to terms with saying, "Good-bye" much more quickly than I did (or will, since most of my treasures remain boxed up in the basement).

Then, since the dolls were priceless childhood treasures, we had visions of making millions on eBay. You know, Dear Readers, how that usually turns out. (Check here, here, or here.) A quick eBay search told us that we'd be lucky to fetch more than a few dollars for the Ginny Dolls and the box full of dollhouse furniture, while tremendously cool, would be even tougher to sell.

I made the argument that we should just give the dolls and dollhouse furniture away on craigslist. I saw two potential outcomes: 1) A true collector would snatch them up, recognizing their true value and turn around and make millions on them, or 2) Some parent/grandparent would get them as a toy for a deserving little girl. Either way, I figured, we're increasing the amount of joy in the world, which is about all the reward one should ask from a good downsize.

Scenario #2 happened, and a delightful woman named Norma came by this morning to get the dolls and dollhouse furniture for her granddaughters to use when they visit. (She saw my separate postings on craigslist and requested both.) She even mentioned that now she'll be motivated to get them a dollhouse. See? The world is a more joyful place and we are all the richer for it.

I also had to go to the Casco Library today for our monthly trustee meeting. I used the trip to drop off some of Joanna and Amanda's childhood Disney movies.

Serving as a trustee has been one of the joys of living in Casco. However, at this meeting I announced the fact that Joanna, Chase, and I will be moving to Denver this summer -- a fact widely discussed in my life right now, but not mentioned before on the blog. Did I catch any of you off guard?

It's hard to break from such great institutions as our local library, and I know my occasional donations do not make full amends. Still, just as downsize choices are often difficult, so are the larger life decisions we occasionally must make. I say let's embrace those difficult choices, rather than shrink from them.

With our move looming in the future, the need to speed up the downsizing is becoming more obvious. Three downsizes in one day? That may have to become par for the course...

Editor's Note, 3/1/10: I received this fantastic email from Norma: Thank you again for the Ginny Dolls. I washed the clothes, ironed them and did a little mending. The girls haven't seen them yet, but I'm excited and know they'll love them. And today I bought a doll house, so I'm setting up your furniture, which is so nice. I'm probably more excited than the girls will be, but they'll be staying over next week and I can't wait.

Broken beyond repair

2/20/10 Three broken keepsakes, trashed

I always think I can fix it.

I'm just not sure how...

... or when.

I've been juggling these three broken items on my workbench in the basement, moving them back and forth as I puttered on other projects. Every time I touched one of them, of course, I thought to myself, "I need to glue that back together."

I tried to glue the wooden whale -- a gift to Joanna from her Dad -- and the result was highly unsatisfactory. The shattered ballerina and broken suncatcher held equal promise.

So, with Joanna's reluctant blessing, they all got tossed out tonight.

I thought at first that the lesson was not to try to salvage something once it's broken. Then, I realized the real lesson:

Don't break the dang stuff to begin with.

Share a final moment

2/19/10 Childhood treasures, trashed & recycled; winter clothes, donated to the Salvation Army

Amanda visited us for two days and, at my urging, she and Joanna dove into two large storage bins mysteriously labeled "Personal Kid Stuff" and "Kid Stuff." I pulled them down from high up on a shelf in that darn basement. (One of the bins is actually visible in the upper right corner of the photo from this older post about my evil basement.)

Given the discussion that's popped up around my last few post regarding the challenge of downsizing sentimental items, this was a bold undertaking for my wife and sister-in-law. Items from their childhood, which connect them to their youth, each other, and, most importantly, their mother. Nonetheless, they tackled those bins with determination and set aside more than two-thirds of the contents for downsizing.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the strength that they exhibited today. How many of us can bear to let go of markers of our childhood, of our past? Before you answer, go look in your closets and your attic -- you've got some boxes labeled "Memories," I know it.

My favorite moment was when Joanna hesitated over a small craft piece she had made when she was three.

"Come over here," Amanda said, "Let's share a final moment with it."

Ah, listen to the wisdom in that. Rather than boxing it back up and forgetting it for another ten years, let's celebrate it and let it go.

And let it go, they did.

And what they couldn't throw out or recycle, we set aside for future downsizes for the library, school, and craigslist. Planning ahead.

On a side note, Amanda's search for new winter gloves gave us an opportunity to hand off a number of cold-weather items to her, and motivated us to take a bag-full of other such clothes immediately down to the local Salvation Army. (Chase needed an outing, anyway.)

Above all, another tiny chink has been taken out of that basement's armor. We shall defeat it.

Lame?

2/18/10 Bunch of painting supplies, trashed

My sister in law, Amanda, has arrived for a visit, and she informed me that yesterday's downsize was lame. She pointed out the fact that two other candles, which I didn't downsize, are clearly visible in the picture, and any downsize involving candles is rather weak.

I argue that the message of yesterday's downsize is very important: it's easier to get rid of those sentimental trinkets that clutter our lives than we often assume.

But, Amanda is onto something, and I assure you all, Dear Readers, that the stakes are going to get much higher. Joanna and I went through our house room-by-room yesterday and made a rather shocking list of potential furniture downsizes. Anyone want to completely refurnish their home? Stay tuned.

As for today, I finished a big improvement job on our home, as the basement is now completely re-painted. I used the accomplishment to toss out a bunch of used brushes, rollers, and stirrers that I generally hold onto. Again, not a huge downsize, but certainly something that I would NOT have trashed today if not for the challenge. I used to save all this stuff and now getting rid of it is feeling (sort-of) natural.

So the downsizes may not always be all that big, but the changes in me just might be.

Can't hold a candle to it

2/17/10 Candle, trashed & recycled

Joanna asked me to make room in the freezer, and I discovered, tucked way in the back corner, a candle holder that my mom made years ago by decorating a glass jar with femo.

I'm not sure if the rest of you keep candles in the freezer, but it's Joanna's main storage place for them. I was a few years into the marriage before I ventured to ask why we had them in there. Turns out that freezing burnt-down candles is the easiest way to get them out of their holders. Oh, now I understand...

(I didn't question the fact that we never seem to get to the stage of taking them out of the freezer.)

Anyway, I took this particular candle out of our freezer, which remains absolutely packed with food given to us to make the early weeks of parenthood a bit easier.

I had a pang of guilt as I instantly decided this was today's downsize. It was a clear choice, but getting rid of something my mother made for me is never easy. (Just ask Joanna.) But, I didn't hesitate as I headed to the trash.

And then, the Downsize Gods intervened to make me feel better.

As I shook the candle out of the holder, a piece of the femo fell off. As I picked at the next piece, it dropped off, too. Within moments, the entire thing deconstructed in my hands. Note to Mom: femo doesn't withstand long exposure to freezing temperature.

So, I tossed the candle and femo chips into the trash and the glass jar into the recycle bin, guilt-free.

I have seen the (candle) light: the hardest downsize choices are usually the right ones. Be ruthless in your downsizing, Dear Readers. It will all work out in the end.

Lives, insured

2/16/10 A whole bunch of life insurance paperwork, recycled

Look at that kid. Don't you think his folks should have life insurance?

Joanna and I have been talking about getting life insurance for years, ever since we married. It's the responsible thing to do, we know that, and it should have happened long ago.

Well, it's finally happening, and I credit two powerful forces: my son Chase and Day 200 of the Downsizing Challenge.

I wanted to do something significant to mark the double-century mark of the challenge, and I realized that finally getting the ball rolling on life insurance was the way to do it. I've been shuffling life insurance paperwork for years, always saying to myself, "I'm going to get to that this weekend." And, I never did.

But, holding a little baby -- or, as I'm calling him today, The Eleven Pound Wonder -- in my hands certainly helps turn intention into action. And the 200th Day of the challenge only ensured that it would happen today rather than actually waiting for the weekend.

An hour and seventeen minutes on the phone later, and we have the process started. And, as they say, a great weight was lifted.

Plus, a whole folder of now-irrelevant paper has now been tossed into our recycling bin.

This kind of downsizing may be small on the physical scale but is absolutely huge on the psychological scale. Sometimes a few undealt-with papers can cause as much clutter in our lives as a half-ton of paving stones, a hundred random pieces of junk, or even a collapsed garage.

I'm often guilty of letting important stuff slide as I occupy myself with trivialities (Hello, internet!). Fortunately, those eleven pounds of Dyer-Payne DNA are helping me to get my priorities back in line.

Two hundred days down, one sixty-five left to go. Let's hope I make it out alive.

Should've bought it, when I saw it...

2/15/10 Coffee table, given away on craigslist

Today, we again saw the Power of Free.

I offered a coffee table on Craigslist.com at 9:14 AM. I had a response by 9:37 AM. Joel drove off with the table at 11:23 AM.

Joanna had been after me to downsize the table for a while, since it didn't exactly qualify as fine furniture. I'd bought it at Marden's in Lewiston, Maine, when I was packing up stuff to furnish my New York apartment.

If you're not familiar with Marden's, here's how I think of it: Imagine a truck, packed with dining room furniture (or women's clothes, or refurbished vacuum cleaners), is heading to some Mom & Pop store to restock their inventory. En route, the driver gets word that the store has gone out of business and he needs to unload the cargo, fast. The good folks at Marden's swoop in and buy it up for pennies on the dollar, toss it into their cavernous store, and pass the savings onto the rest of us.

Marden's jingle is "Should've bought it, when I saw it, at Marden's!"

Cheap crap that we're encouraged to buy on impulse. It's the anti-downsize store! I'm doing my best to never go in again.

When I bought it in 1999, the coffee table cost five, maybe ten dollars. That works out to less than a buck per year of use, so I gave the table away today with no regrets.

Besides, regardless of price, the coffee table still has value, it was just time for it to move onto another owner. For free.

With those prices, I can even compete with Marden's.