Weeding out at this stage of life

[DeeBeeCreative]

I'm a collector. Over the years, I've collected many things: books, stuffed animals (mainly the tiny Beany baby cats), key chains, refrigerator magnets, paper bookmarks, DVDs of my favorite TV shows and movies (started as VHS tapes, then converted to DVD), CDs of all my favorite music (a total of 13 now), post cards from all over the world (courtesy of many pen pals), pictures of those pen pals and their families, all the stories I've ever written (close to a dozen short stories & maybe 8 or 9 novellas), and of course family pictures (8 albums!).  And one more thing: my husband and I collected over 200 wine glasses--all shapes, sizes and colors. Our dining room hutch was full!  

 

I'm now 77 years old and have numerous health problems--but I'm doing 'ok' for now. However, I guess I'm thinking ahead. My daughter will be the one who will handle all my 'stuff'. Originally, I wanted to minimize what I have on my computers; then I realised that she'll probably just save financial info and pictures, then wipe the computers after that! However, I'm still 'weeding out'. 

 

Maybe 6 months ago, I started deleting things from all my computer files: emails from as far back as 2015, old web pages--I save photos though those sites are long gone, many years ago, & I can't even remember the names of them now! I also started going thru my huge graphics folders: I'm down to 20GB now, with so much more to go through! I enjoy using all kinds of graphics in emails, etc. 

 

A number of years ago, we had a yard sale. I got rid of most of my key chains & bookmarks; but I still have a box of 'special souvenirs'. That will probably be the last thing I go through. Even though we tried to sell a lot of the glassware & I donated some, we still have quite a few! I now have the 'extras' in boxes. I've tried selling them on FB's marketplace, but--some are not complete sets. So, that didn't work. I'm now thinking of donating them to a thrift shop next summer, if I can find one that will take them!!  I've already given our daughter one set of dishes & glasses; I doubt she'd want any more. 

 

Right now, I'm slowly going through my DVDs. I'm watching some, deciding which to keep--and getting rid of ones I don't think I'd ever watch again or which are bad disks. Many of my favorites are now on a DVR. 

 

One last thing I'm weeding out: all of my creative writing. My best novellas are now on computer. I can send them to friends via email since they are around 1MB total. I also have most of my short stories on comuter as well. Yesterday, I found a draft version of what was then marked Altara3. Although I'm in the middle of doing a new Altara3, it's nothing like that--so that will get pitched. I also found quite a few 'story starts'. Those will go, too--since I know I'll never work on those now. However, I'm keeping the paper versions of at least a few of my other novellas, in case I decide to, or have time to, rewrite those!

 

I also found a few stories written by friends; one friend wrote a whole series of Star Wars universe novels--each one was maybe 4 inches thick! I've lost touch with that lady. so I am shredding those. I have one left to do. I didn't bother rereading because I'm not a huge Star Wars fan--but her work was very good!  

 

Anyway, I started to wonder if anyone else thought about 'preparing' for the future like this. Even though I'm expecting to be around for some time, I guess it can't hurt to think ahead! And since I'm almost 'homebound', it's a good way for me to keep my brain active!