Decluttering! The Overlooked Aspect of an Estate Plan
By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi
October 22, 2024
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| Cross Country Meet, Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi 2024 |
Confession, I am a competitive person. Challenge me to something (within reason) and chances are I will bite. Connect the challenge to decluttering my home, and you are guaranteed I’ll jump at the opportunity. That was the situation late this past summer. A dear friend posted a Facebook challenge for the Minimalist Game, and she tagged me. Having played this game a few years ago, there was no hesitation. I accepted the challenge; game on! We were going to spend September purging items from our homes.
The game starts out easy, on the first day of the month you purge one item from your home. On the second day you re-home two items. On the third day of the month, you remove three items. And it goes on throughout the month. While it may start out easy, the game gets harder and harder as the number of daily items increases. How do you get rid of 24 items one day and 25 the next? Tossing an item into the trash becomes the obvious and most tempting option. However, I am both highly frugal and concerned about overflowing landfills. I forced myself to seek out other options before adding an item to the garbage bin.
As an estate planning and probate attorney I regularly hear clients ask “how do I make my death as easy as possible on my family?” My answer is always to be as organized as possible. And in the quest to be organized, consider a purge. To be realistic one day you are either going to move, and move all of your things. Or you will die, and someone else will move all of your things. The fewer things you have, the easier it will be. So do not put off until tomorrow something you can do today, clear the clutter! It will be a gift in the end, either or yourself or to your loved ones.
For our September game my friend and I modified the rules to reflect our busy lives. We let go of the rigid requirement of on day 1 you purge one item, day two you purge 2, etc. Instead we calculated the sum total of 1 to 30, which tolated 465 items. That was our goal. Next, we created a spreadsheet on Google Sheets and shared it with each other. Kudos to my friend, she achieved her goal. I however did not. Life got in the way. Too busy with work. Then too busy with school events for the kids. And then I just needed downtime to rest. If I cannot remove 465 items from the very home I live in when I am operating under a normal schedule (not one driven by grief or urgency), then how will your loved one fare? I did remove 350 items. Here are some tips I can offer from my own experience:
- Have an accountability buddy – in this case my friend could see my progress (or lack of progress) on our shared Google Sheet. We also texted one another pictures of car trunks filled, headed to the thrift store. Get a buddy for this activity, it is a chore made more fun with a friend.
- Document your progress. A simple spreadsheet with a tally was a great way to stay aware of what progress I had made, and when I had started to stall. It’s hard to ignore numbers.
- Give it away via Porch Pick Up. Use social media to post pictures of what you are looking to re-home and set it out for pick up on your porch. I am amazed at how quickly some items are snapped up. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. For example, September 1st I met a lovely neighbor who was delighted to take a bottle of whipped rum I pulled from the back of a cabinet. It had sat on our shelf from a party long ago, and was not a taste my husband or I enjoyed. A picture posted to our neighborhood’s Facebook page found it a new home in under an hour! Hauling items away is a job in and of itself; use porch pick up and people will do the hauling for you!
- Find a program with small children to take things you cannot recycle. Whether it is your local elementary school, city library, or church youth group, these programs can turn old holiday cards, plastic straws and assorted belongings into art projects for kids. It may one day end up in the landfill, but its life will be extended and that youth program won’t have to spend money on supplies.
- Donate to a thrift store that supports your values. In our home the go-to donation pile is for the Dane County Humane Society Thrift Store. We are a cat family. A four-cat family. Yes, we have 4 felines in our loving care. Which means we are at our limit….we cannot help another cat by opening our home. We can however open our closets, cabinets, and drawers to purge items that are gathering dust. My teenagers warmly embrace letting go of possessions when they know it might be sold at the thrift store, which uses the revenues to support the mission of the Dane County Humane Society. What is your passion?
- Do not put off purging for a rainy day. If you have piles of plastic deli containers you might use one day, give them away now for someone who can use them now. Chances are you won’t remember where you stashed them, and then you’ll find them 2 years later. We live in a society that allows us to buy anything we need with a few simple keystrokes, and have it delivered to our doorstep. If you think you are saving money by holding onto things, remind yourself you are paying money to store all of these collections. Space is not free. We all pay per square foot – in rent, or mortgage payments, or on lost investment dollars.
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| Cold Kentucky Rain - Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi 2024 |
Follow my blog! Enter your email address above (upper right) to receive alerts for new posts. And share this post on social media with those who might benefit. And as always, remember that a blog is not legal advice. It is meant to spark thought and reflection. It is best to seek legal advice from an attorney licensed in your home state. Be well and thank you for reading.
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