However, when it comes to selling, or even divvying up material items fairly (after a death, or well before a death), people tend to think their things are worth more than they really are. There’s no putting a price on sentimental items. Give them options: Keep, sell, give to another family member, donate to a historical society, etc. Make it clear if it’s something of great monetary or historical value. Let them off the hook and tell them they don’t have to keep it forever. Make it clear that you are not trying to burden them in any way. (You do have a will, right?) Explain what the item is, why it is special to you, and why you chose them as the recipient. I recommend, when designating who gets what, that you write the person a note. I haven’t personally used any of them (have you?), but Fair Split is one example.
So, there are apps – of course there are! – to help you do this. But not all families are so congenial, and not all families can get together to do this in person. (Actually I think we each had a different color….either way, whatever works…) There were remarkably few things that multiple family members wanted, and there was little discussion needed to resolve the conflicts that arose. We went around the house putting sticky notes with our names on them on the things we each wanted. When my mom died in 2001, we all gathered in Boise to help my aunt (with whom she lived at the time) decide what to do with her stuff. You can lump them together like I did for furniture and household goods in this example:Ĭlick here to print full-sized PDF. You don’t need to list every single item of clothing or individual kitchen gadgets. Keep in mind that there are only so many choices for the disposition of any given object: Gift, Donate, Sell, Trash, and Recycle.
MAIL APP FOR MAC KEEPS DOWNSIZING HOW TO
Learn how to search it (Command F for Mac, Control F for PC), and you’re in business!įor that matter, you can make your inventory on paper, and keep it on a clipboard. Mine is in Excel, but you can just as well use a Word table, like I have below. When I started thinking about legacies, and what would happen to my stuff when I die, I added items to the list like my grand piano, and a column that tells who (if anyone) I would like to give them to.
So, later, if I wonder what’s in Box #5, or if I need my college diploma for some reason, and can’t remember where I put it, I consult my spreadsheet. This is based partly on it being no one else’s business what’s in the containers - movers, primarily, but also visitors to my home – and the fact that maybe not all the boxes will get unpacked right away, or ever. Rather than label boxes and plastic bins with their contents, I like to number them and create a searchable spreadsheet that I can refer to. My own Personal Inventory was born from having moved to Albuquerque from Los Angeles in 2005.
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