As a family we’ve arrived at one of life’s ‘transition points’

The last of the previous generation is still ‘hanging in there’ but offers the prospect of a house full of everything amassed over the last century and held on to ‘just in case it might be useful’. At the other end of the spectrum are our children, or more precisely young adults, who, learning from their grandparents, have also held on to far too much of their childhood. That said my wife and I are not entirely without blame, we’re fortunate to have a good sized house with plenty of space to avoid making decisions!

Recently we were talking with an architect who approaches possessions very differently. Looking around our house it was amazing to watch how he zoomed in on one or two bits of furniture and other possessions – recognising their importance and significance and simply dismissed the rest. He was designing a house for how we live now – not a warehouse to store other people’s memories.

Later I was talking to a colleague who was expounding the benefits of ‘down-sizing’. They too had a large house with a cellar full of their three children’s memories, amassed over the previous 25 years. Faced with the prospect of sorting them out their response was clear and immediate – we don’t want anything – we don’t even want to look.

Having storage space is clearly a mixed blessing!