Friday, January 08, 2010

Which way and what?

It is time that I get more serious about downsizing but to what and where? I really don't want to own again or at least that is my thought right now. I am tired of maintaining property. I want to call someone else when the faucet leaks and let them deal with scheduling the plumber; I want to call someone when the light goes out on the oven; I want to call someone when the bathroom heater doesn't heat; I want it to be someone else's problem to wrap the pipes when it is twenty degrees outside.
But where to go that will have room for me to paint? An office for my computer? A dining table to hold 8? And a table for sewing? And might I never want to create another assemblagewith all the funky stuff I've collected? A collage with some of the wonderful papers I've saved? And what to do with years of journals, a constant source for poetry and memoir? Stacks of unframed, unsold art work? Robert Genn says in his newsletter to just burn it...ouch! Maybe a giant sale in my house...hmmmm.
A daunting task before me and I know it must be done. Old clothes and shoes are easy to let go but art supplies? Heart-wrenching! Knick-knacks, no problem dumping them...I'll have the memory of where they came from and who gave them to me. But art supplies? Oh dear! Copies of Somerset Studio? Yeah, go through and save the articles. Books I pass on anyway or sell at $5 a box to Half-Price Books. But art supplies? I have enough to open a craft store...now that's a thought but then I would have to look after it and I'm done with looking after stuff. When this husband goes and I love him dearly, that's it. I am so ready to be looked after.
Maybe that is the lesson in aging...that we return to the children we were. Now that's a thought I could live with as I was a happy child with a huge imagination that only wanted to paint, read and play. I could easily return to that and am working on it.

2 comments:

Dana S. Whitney said...

Actually, there's quite a bit of research that says we DO age in reverse at a certain point. Doing what we loved as kids seems very smart.
Hmm. Maybe a wise young entrepeneur could get paid to "appropriately" dispose of the unwanted things (huge tables, tchotchkes, books you'll never read) and to get Elfa shelves/drawers for the art supplies!

Kristin Allen said...

I appreciate this honest post so much. And I'm with you - when I get older, forget about maintaining a house, I'm all for a smaller apt, and then when I get older older, put me in one of those homes where someone does everything for me except go to the bathroom. I need to free up more time at that point to play!