Downsizing - What to Keep?

I haven’t read the book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo but I have heard about from my daughter and son-in-law and feel like I am getting to try out her “does this thing spark joy” approach on a house-wide scale.  As my husband and I prepare for our retirement move to North Carolina, we must downsize.  Our house in NC is 1,000 square feet smaller than our Nashville house and, having been used as a weekend/vacation home for six years, it is already functionally outfitted and furnished.

So what gets kept and what gets left….  I think I like the idea of basing that decision on whether something gives you joy.  And accepting the fact that some random things may give you joy for absolutely no discernable reason and likewise, that something that seems as if it should be treasured may not really elicit much emotion. 

So what random thing gives me joy?  How about a bakelite vacuum tube radio.  I’m pretty sure my father found it in someone’s trash in the late 50’s. He brought it home, did something to it (a new electric cord?  A new tube?) and it worked.  It sat on a repurposed metal stand in his home for years, gathering dust.  I don’t know if he ever even listened to it.  Somehow, when he downsized it ended up with me.  And the coolest thing about it is the cardboard station guide behind the station indicator – it identifies the stations by call letters, the call letters of Los Angeles radio stations – KHJ, KFWB.  Now why should that give me joy?  Absolutely no idea.  But it makes me happy to look at it, so I’ll keep it.

And what item that should be treasured is not making the cut?  How about the dress I made for my daughter’s first communion.  That was absolutely a labor of love - fully lined, gathered skirt, flat lace embellishments, lace trim at the neck and sleeves.  A beautiful dress that she looked beautiful wearing for a key initiation sacrament.  I’ve kept that dress for over 30 years.  But does the dress itself, hanging in a closet, give me joy?  No.   The memory of her wearing it gives me joy, but I have pictures to memorialize that.  So the dress is not being kept.