As we get closer to selling our big empty nest and moving to a two bedroom condo I look at my lifetime collection of hand and power tools plus drawers and boxes of electrical, plumbing, hardware and metal stock filling the nether regions of our home and wonder how I can possibly accept no longer having all of that stuff at my beck and call.
I ran across this item which says it all:
Jeff
At 65 I realize that some day I may have to move to a smaller place.
I hope not...but decided to start house cleaning now. Selling or giving away a lot of stuff I have not used in a long time.
I sleep well and have never missed anything I've ever given away.
(one exception though)
At 69, I have no intention of ever moving, but. . .
I just remodeled two bathrooms and we got a big rollaway for the trash and cleaned out a lot of other stuff that has been hanging around too long. I may do it again come spring. Well worth the $330 it cost.
I retired in 1991 and we moved to Mexico from Honolulu. We trashed a lot, the rest except for essentials was all packed up and shipped to Houston for temporary storage. Moved back to the US in 1993, had the stored stuff shipped to us in Florida. Much of it is still in the boxes.
If we ever move again, what we take will be what we can carry. My wife will probably have a different idea :(
My mom describes three stags of life
1) you want everything 2) you work to buy everything 3) You realize none of that matters, and give it all awayMy old neighbor Marvin showed me his cellar, a couple weeks ago. He's got tools and stuff from having needs, garage sales, etc. He's got three cordless drills for example. Problem is "kids these days" don't care about wood chisels, mitre saws, and so on. Even to donate it to charity, most of it goes in the landfill. What to do?
I'm in the same situation, lifetime of accumulated stuff. Who reads hard bound books any more? Who uses filament flash lights? Who uses hand tools? I may be moving out of state, and can't take it all.
Don't keep us wondering!
I don't intend on moving either, but my wife wants to get out of the cold Wisconsin climate. I keep telling her that with global warming, this is soon to be a tropical paradise.
Anyway, cleaning out the attic has turned out to be a good thing. I'm a photographer and exhibit frequently. Each time I do a show I can spend quite a bit of money on frames...however I have tons of them up in the attic. It was so cluttered I could not get to them...but now I'm starting to use them.
The show I'm in now cost me very little as all I had to do was buy a few mats.
Moving from Honolulu to Mexico must have been a nice treat financially.
I was stationed at Ft. Bliss in 1970 and one could take a bus from the border...into town for 2 cents.
One day I did not have pennies so I gave the driver a nickel and he gave me the change in Pesos. He started ca-chunking out so many coins from the changer I could not get them all into my hands and they started spilling onto the floor. I was scrambling to get them...then suddenly stopped when I realized :This large handful of coins is /three/ cents!
I do, Got any good reads?
Bill
About 12 years ago my brother died. We like to went crazy unpacking his house. He wasn't a hoarder he had some good stuff in there. But he hung onto stuff that he might find a use for some day. I decided that I was going to not collect stuff. Since then I have been making a concerted effort to get rid of stuff that I don't need. I don't plan for my daughter to go through the mess we went through after John died.
I did have a head start. During my working life I moved fairly regularly so I didn't have that much stored up. My mother used to say that 3 moves is as good as a fire.
Bill
I'd have to do a bit of digging and check titles. What are the odds our interests will be similar?
Yes, considerable difference. However, land wan't cheap in Mexico, still way less than Hawaii though. All in all Florida was very similar to Mexico.
The Mexican peso was at about 12.5 to the US dollar for many years. Mexico defaulted on some debt in the early 80s and by the time I got there it was at about 3000 to the dollar, topped out at about 3500:1. Shortly before I left, they lopped off three zeros, not at all popular with the Mexicans. Why? Because it was easy to be a peso millionaire at 3500:1, not so easy at 3.5:1 :)
I heard the property tax in Mexico is next to nothing...is that true?
Probably because you are just leasing the land and that they are not paying for all those pesky services like police protection, fire departments and schools.
My property taxes are one of my largest expenses yet I would not want to go without all the benefits such as fire protection, roads and trash removal.
I live in Wisconsin. Arizona has considerably lower property taxes but they get the money elsewhere.
As to schools. If students here could get a good education I would not mind paying for it...but the education system seems to have gone down hill.
The recent reductions in Wisconsin property taxes due to walker are already turning around and biting wisconsin in the backside. Buffalo county is seriously cutting road maintenance budgets as a consequence. They now can't afford to resurface more than 7 miles a year, which means that every mile gets attention every 35-40 years.
Hart to say. Mostly I read mysteries and science fiction/fantasy. The biggest problem is that the ones I would most likely be interested in would be older ones that I have missing from my current collection. It might be simpler for you to take them to your favorite used book store or to Good Will or some such place. I know here in Tulsa Good Will has a pretty good used book selection.
Bill
Not sure what to say. I think you've got the right idea to buy local. BTW, Tulsa is "there" and western NY is "here". Just to clear that up.
Don't know, never owned any property. Never had to mess with auto registration either, due to my gringo condition, but my Mexican friends did, ran about $500 (US) per year per auto.
To get a telephone was about $1000 (US). I never had one in my name, just used the one that came with the apartment as many people did. To be fair, the $1000 also got you some stock in TelMex - no idea how much - which was easily sold.
I recall reading a letter to the editor in the local paper from a guy bitching about the cost; he was incensed that they had to pay so much when you could get a phone in the US for only $500. If he only knew...:)
We went to Cancun about that time. Lots of fun to pretend we were the Donald and leaving 60,000 tips.
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