The Real Treasures of Life



The Real Treasures of Life

By Brenda A. Sheriff, CSA 

Let me ask you a question: How much of the stuff in your life is actually adding value to your life?

I recently found myself asking that question in a very personal way.

For a brief period, I seriously considered selling my home and moving to a western suburb of Houston to be closer to my son and his family. It seemed like a simple idea. Sell the house, sell what I didn't want to take with me, give away what somebody else could use. My thought was to take little more than my clothes and a fraction of the books from my 5K+ library.

So, I contacted an estate sales company.

That is when I got a real education.

Before anything could be sold, everything had to be looked at, categorized, priced, displayed or designated for donation or disposal. I began looking at the things I had accumulated over the years through an entirely different lens.

And I quickly realized something:

Getting rid of stuff can be a whole lot harder than accumulating it.

That experience caused me to think about how easily our possessions can begin to run our lives.

Most of us don't intentionally set out to clutter our homes. It happens little by little.

We buy something because it is on sale. Somebody gives us something we don't really need, but we don't want to hurt their feelings by getting rid of it. We keep something because we paid good money for it. We save something because we think we might need it someday.

Before we know it, we have closets, basements, garages, attics, drawers and storage spaces filled with things we rarely, if ever, use.

And here is the part we don't always consider:

Everything we keep has a cost.

Clutter takes up physical space, but it also takes up mental space.

Have you ever spent twenty minutes looking for something you knew you had, only to discover that it was buried underneath a pile of stuff you had forgotten that you even still had?

That is time.

Have you ever bought something again because you couldn't find the one you already owned?

That is money.

Have you ever argued with a spouse, child or family member because somebody moved, misplaced or threw away something that had been sitting around for years?

That is unnecessary conflict.

And have you ever looked at a room, closet or garage so full of stuff that you didn't even know where to begin?

That is confusion.

The problem with clutter is that it doesn't just occupy space. It consumes resources.

It takes time to organize.

It takes effort to maintain.

It takes money to store.

And eventually, somebody has to deal with it.

My little experiment with the estate sales company made that last point very clear to me. What I thought was simply "stuff" suddenly became a series of decisions.

Keep it.

Sell it.

Give it away.

Throw it away.

And when you have accumulated decades of possessions, those decisions can become exhausting.

That is why I believe we need to start asking ourselves these questions before somebody else has to make those decisions for us.

Do I use it?

Do I need it?

Does it have real value to me or to somebody else?

If the answer to all three is no, why am I keeping it?

Now, I am not suggesting that we become wasteful or careless. There are family heirlooms, photographs, important documents and meaningful possessions that deserve to be preserved.

But there is a difference between preserving what is valuable and storing what is useless.

As we get older, I think we have an even greater responsibility to recognize that difference.

We have accumulated enough.

Perhaps now is the time to concentrate on what we want to carry forward.

And that applies to more than things.

We can clutter our lives with unnecessary commitments, unnecessary arguments, unnecessary obligations and even relationships that constantly drain our time and energy.

That doesn't mean we "throw people away." It means we learn to establish boundaries and become more intentional about where we spend our precious resources.

Because here is something I have learned over the years:

Time is a resource that money cannot replace.

Every hour we spend looking for something, moving something, cleaning something, maintaining something or arguing about something is an hour we cannot spend doing something that may give our lives a greater return.

What could you do with that time?

Spend it with your children or grandchildren.

Call an old friend.

Read a good book.

Take a walk.

Volunteer.

Pray.

Learn something new.

Work on that dream you keep saying you are going to get around to someday.

The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:6 (KJV) there is "a time to keep, and a time to cast away." Those words have taken on a new meaning for me.

Getting your house in order is not simply about having a clean house.

It is about making room for what matters in your life.

My experience with that estate sale company reminded me that we should not wait until we are moving, downsizing or facing a major life transition to decide what is worth keeping.

Start now.

Open one drawer.

Clean out one closet.

Go through one box.

Then ask yourself the question:

What is it costing me to keep it?

You may discover that getting rid of a few useless things gives you something far more valuable than additional space.

It may give you back some of your time, energy, regained space, and most of all, peace of mind.

And those are things worth keeping, the real treasures of life.

THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: If a Medicare beneficiary has limited income and resources, which Medicare Savings Program can help pay the Part B premium, deductible, coinsurance and copayments for Medicare-covered services?

Answer to Last Week's Quiz: An Affidavit of Heirship prepared by a title company can be used in some straightforward Illinois estates, an affidavit establishing heirship may be used as part of a process for transferring or selling inherited real estate without opening a traditional probate estate.  However, the circumstances of the estate determine whether an Affidavit of Heirship is acceptable.

For Questions or Help: 773-817-0601 basheriff1@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The illustrations and examples presented in this column are not, nor are they intended to be, legal, financial, tax, insurance, or other licensed professional advice. Readers should consult the licensed professional of their choice regarding their individual circumstances.

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