Making Memories Of Your Home As You Move
Moving can be an exciting experience but also a little bittersweet. Here are a few memories and mementoes you can create to remember your home.
1. Create a photo memory book. Take photos of the inside and outside of your home. Use the photos to create a memory book. Walmart and CVS offer same day pick up while other online photo processing companies like Shutterfly and Snapfish can print and send a book in just a few days.
2. Make a magnet or ornament. Transform your favorite photo of your home into a custom magnet or ornament. Online photo processing companies like Shutterfly and Snapfish also offer custom ornaments and magnets to help you remember special moments.
3. Transplant memories. Does your daughter or granddaughter love your rose bush or calla lilies? Find a way to share the plant. A website like gardeningknowhow.com can offer advice for dividing or transplanting your favorite plants.
4. Host a final party. Before moving day, host one last party in your home. Invite friends and family to stop by and create one last memory. Ask guests to jot down their favorite memory from your home. Be sure to take photos and create a scrapbook or memory box with the stories shared.
5. Record a walk through tour. Many realtors create walk through tours during the selling process. You could request a copy of that tour, or create your own. Use your cellphone or a small camcorder and simply walk through your home sharing special memories. Don’t forget to capture the doorframe where you recorded your children’s growth or mention the space where your family gathered for holiday meals.
6. Write a letter. Before you move, write a letter for the new owners of your home, offering a blessing over them. Share special memories and perhaps even a verse or poem that will encourage them as they make your house their new home. Tuck the letter in a drawer or another space where they will find it on their moving day.
As you are planning your move, consider the help that professionals can provide. Danielle Ramirez with Wayforth, based in Lansdale, offers a full-service move, from helping you sort through your belongings to disposing of unwanted “stuff”.
John Cook is another great resource to utilize when looking to clean out!
John Cook House Cleanouts has been in business over 40 years in the tri-county (Montgomery, Berks, and Chester, Pennsylvania) area. He removes junk, trash, and unwanted items. Just make one phone call, and the burden will be off your hands!
John is a small business owner offering services to Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties.
Pricing
John Cook is a small business owner looking to serve families in the tri-county community (Montgomery, Berks, and Chester, Pennsylvania). We offer affordable pricing or will trade service for saleable items.
Call John at 610-326-9617
LEARN MORE at www.Wayforth.com and www.johncookhousecleanout.com
CHERISHING MEMORIES INSTEAD OF STUFF
Gifts, mementos, souvenirs, letters, cards. So many things can hold special significance or jog a memory when we see them. Items packed away in closets or in storage, cannot trigger those memories if we do not see or use them.
China with Memories
In a recent presentation, Author Margit Novack told the story of her mother’s Rosenthal china. Margit’s mother passed away when Margit was only 26. Dividing her mother’s possessions with her brothers was a tearful experience.
Margit carefully stored her mother’s Rosenthal china—a service for 16—for nearly 45 years. Many of those years the antique dishes, which cannot be used in the microwave or dishwasher, stayed in a box in Margit’s basement. When Margit and her husband began to downsize a couple of years ago, Margit was faced with a choice to donate the dishes or keep them in storage. Margit realized that keeping china in a box in a basement did not honor her mother’s memory. She found a thrift store that supported a mission her mother would have supported and donated the entire service. In this way, someone who would use and cherish the dishes could purchase them and Margit could honor her mother’s memory with the donation.
Giving Memories as Gifts Many families have started giving experiences and services instead of gifts for birthdays and holiday gift giving. Tickets to a show at a local theater, gift certificates for a massage or manicures, golf outings and dinners out are all great memory making gifts for the loved ones in your life. Garden Spot Village residents Jack and Karen Morrow take their grandchildren on coming of age trips. They have been to the Marine Science Consortium in Virginia, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Williamsburg, Virginia.
Karen captures the memories in photographs and shares memory books with the children to remember their trip of a lifetime with their grandparents.
LEARN MORE: Read about Margit’s new book, “Squint: Re-visioning the Second Half of Life,” at www.margitnovack.com.
TIPS TO STAY MOTIVATED WHILE DOWNSIZING
Spring Cleaning is just around the corner! As you clean each room, take a little extra time to declutter your closets and living spaces. Consider these 10 principles to clear clutter as you begin to declutter and downsize your home.
1. Stop the flow of stuff coming in. Stop buying stuff! For a month, only purchase items you need, and forego items that are simply “wants.” Ask friends and family members to gift services or experiences instead of things.
2. Declutter at least one item a day. Each day, commit to small decluttering projects. Before you know it, you will have made significant progress on decluttering your home.
3. Declutter the easy stuff first. Choose a seldom-used closet or storage space and pull out the items that you will be able to quickly discard.
4. Put a disposal plan in place. Determine how and when you will discard trash, items to be donated and items to be recycled. Begin to declutter based on your plan.
5. Decide to not keep thing out of guilt or obligation. View items through the lens of, “Will I use this?” rather than “My family will be disappointed if I discard this.” Do not feel obligated to keep an item that you will not use simply because it was a gift.
6. Do not be afraid to let go. As you evaluate what to keep and what to donate, keep in mind that if you have not used an item for 12 months, you will probably not use it in the next 12 months. Let the items go!
7. Gifts do not have to be material. Invite your friends and family to begin gifting services and experiences rather than material items.
8. Do not over-equip your home. Do you have three sets of measuring cups but only use one? Two vacuums? Too many extra blankets or towels? Gift or donate your extra items and enjoy the extra space you discover!
9. Do not declutter things that are not yours without the owner’s permission. When you are busy sorting, check to see if your spouse or children still want their items before you discard them.
10. Do not waste your life on clutter. Everything we own requires storage, cleaning, repair, maintenance and our time! When we declutter we are able to spend our time on the activities and people we love and not our stuff.
These 10 Principles were originally shared by Colleen Madsen, 365lessthings.com in a guest post found at www.becomingminimalist.com/unclutter
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