Life In the Slow Lane

The old way of doing things may be best way

Sometimes the solution to a problem is so obvious that it can’t be seen at all. I re-learned that lesson last week as I ran into a couple of snags in my photo-sorting project.

It’s been 14 years since I last mounted our stash of family photos into albums. Since then I’ve accumulated hundreds of additional prints in a variety of formats covering nearly 90 years of family history. Realizing that my earlier method of mounting photos on self-sticking pages was an archival no-no, I looked for a better, safer way. Surely with the growth of scrapbooking in recent years, something was available that would meet my requirements. Off I went to a huge crafts store.

What a disappointment.

There was a vast selection of scrapbooking materials, but most was cutesy stuff for an artsy-craftsy person. I was looking for the basics, which I found in the form of scrapbooks, but virtually all were designed for 4 x6 prints and none were acceptable for my project. Everything seemed pricey, too.

I finally found what I was looking for – a package of those photograph corners my grandparents used 80 years ago and I used as recently in the 1970s. Still, paying $3.99 for a pack of 240 corners seemed a bit steep to me since I probably paid 29 cents for a pack of 100 the last time I bought them.

Back home I found a couple more partially full packages from years ago and started building my pages. I soon ran out and, instead of returning to the store I knew had them, I began looking for a more reasonably priced alternative.

My search took me to Kmart, Target, Walgreens, Big Lots and Dollar Tree before I found them at Hobby Lobby, on sale, no less, for $2.22 for 250 self-adhesive, clear ones.

The lessons here are that sometimes the old way of doing things trumps the new way and that once you find what you’re looking for, grab it and be satisfied. I hope I’ve learned that lesson, but only time will tell.

Meanwhile, I’ve mounted all those photos and have sorted the duplicates and extras to be given away, thereby reducing clutter and passing on some nifty bits of family history.

With my July 9 De-Cluttering Garage Sale fast approaching, I began last week sorting through some books that I want to sell. I checked online at Bookscouter.com and packed a box of books to sell to Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore. I’ve got some more to sell to other booksellers, too, but that will wait until after the sale.

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., who connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Downsizing takes longer than you might think

Where does the time go?

Sound familiar? You’ve doubtless uttered that phrase many times in your lifetime. You’re probably using it more than ever these days.

It’s become painfully obvious to me in recent weeks that this downsizing adventure will take far more time than I expected. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. It took Linda and me more than 40 years to accumulate all this stuff; it’s going to take some time to get rid of it.

Still, no matter how much time I allow for a project, it’s never enough. You may outgrow your need for so many material possessions but you never outgrow your need to practice time management.

I recognized this a few months ago when I “officially” assumed semi-retirement status. To me that meant that I’d continue working with the clients I have but would be very selective about accepting new work and would halt proactive efforts to find new business. This change has freed up some time to tackle the downsizing project. Some days, though, it takes up all my time.

For example, I’ve been dealing with a couple shoeboxes full of photos that have accumulated in a closet. The process involves comparing them with photos already in albums and with photos that have been scanned into electronic files. Some of the shoebox photos go directly into albums, some are duplicates and are targeted for sharing, others are scanned before going into albums. Some older photos are odd-sized (by today’s standards) and I still have to find a good way to display them in albums.

All of this, of course, takes time. In some cases, it takes lots of time. The bottom line, though, is worth it. When the photo project is done, most will find a home in albums or in electronic files; the rest will be shared among family and friends. More importantly, perhaps, clutter will be reduced and a big chunk of our family history will be ready to be transferred to our descendants.

The photos, though, are just a small part of the overall downsizing. We still have books, music, a variety of collections and huge amounts of miscellaneous material to sort through and dispose of. It will take time, but we think it’s time well spent.

A side benefit of downsizing is that sorting through a family’s material goods sparks conversation and memories that go well beyond the items themselves and that’s a good thing, for sure.

Tip of the Week: Every human on earth—Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and you—all have the same amount of time. Here are some tips on how to manage yours.

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., who connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Downsizing works! We’re in the black already

Ah, progress!

That’s how I would describe my downsizing activities of the last week as I continue to build momentum in my family’s quest to get rid of the things that have crept into our house but are no longer needed.

For one thing, our balance sheet is now in the black after receiving payment for the lot of CDs we shipped to SecondSpin a couple of weeks ago. Buoyed by that success (That included reimbursement for our shipping costs), a second box of CDs is headed their way.

We also gained ground on our chaotic stash of family photos that has been building over the past 14 years. We last organized our photos into albums in 1996 so we were due. Truth be known, we pretty much abandoned paper prints after switching to digital around 5 years ago so we were primarily dealing with 1996-2006 photos, plus a few strays we’ve adopted from other people.

We’ve now neatly tucked (and identified!) our 4x6 prints into archival quality albums designed for that size and are working on a plan to display the dozens that remain – of all different sizes from all different eras. Some will be scanned, some will be saved in some sort of album, the rest will be given away (as will be the duplicate and unwanted 4x6s).

The next task is to take some of Linda’s best and most fashionable clothes to a local consignment shop. This will be a first for us so we hope it’s worth the effort.

We’ve set Friday, July 9, as the tentative date for a garage sale where I hope to sell some of my LPs, CDs and cassettes, plus some nice stereo equipment that was replaced in a recent upgrade. The upgraded equipment takes up less space and is better designed for the high definition era.

Tip of the week: Nora Dunn of Wise Bread has some helpful ideas in her aptly named article, “How to Get Rid of All Your Crap.”

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., who connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Book-selling experience puts plan into motion

I took a significant step this week in getting rid of most of the hundreds of books that are scattered throughout our house.

When I mentioned this to my wife, she asked: “Oh yeah? How many books did you get rid of?”

Well, I replied, that’s not the most important point. What’s really important, I said, is that I have a plan, a plan that will eventually find new homes for all those books.

And this week I put that plan into motion by taking a bagful of books and compact discs to our local Half-Price Books franchise. Their web site indicated that they would make an offer on any books or CDs that were brought into their store.

As I toted my bag of 10 books and 10 CDs from the parking lot, I was preceded by a couple, each carrying a large box, and a man with a shopping cart full of paperbacks. When I arrived at the book-buying area I was told that several people were ahead of me, that it would take 20 minutes before they got to my bag and that I couldn’t leave the store since they’d announce on their intercom when the offer was ready.

I spent some time browsing the store. I looked to see if they had my book for sale (they didn’t) and checked out their audio department. Most CDs were selling for $5.98, vinyl LPs were going for $2.98 and cassettes were just 98 cents. It’s a great place to buy stuff; not so good for selling, however.

They came up with an offer in 15 minutes, well ahead of their estimate. I had already decided that I would sell the lot for what I figured was a fair “garage sale” price of $10. Their offer was $4. I declined.

In fairness, none of the books were in Half-Price’s preferred range (published in the last six months or on a best-seller list) but all were in excellent, like-new condition. Same for the CDs. A store like this is taking a chance buying what I had to offer so I understand their low offer. Nevertheless, I went online to see what offers were possible in cyberspace.

A good place to price books online is BookScouter, which will check up to 41 vendors by ISBN to determine who’s buying. The total for my 10 books was a measly $1.42 and that was scattered among three vendors. I did better with the CDs on SecondSpin, with a $7.65 total.

What all this did was to solidify my plan for books and CDs. The first step is to check online to see if it’s worthwhile to sell to a vendor or to offer at auction. If that’s not practical, I’ll box them up to be offered at my next garage sale. From that point on, they’re expendable. I’ll keep them as long as I have room, but will ditch them when necessary, either selling them at Half-Price Books or donating them to a thrift store.

So, even though my week’s activities didn’t actually get rid of any books, my plan has them headed out the door in a systematic and efficient manner.

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., who connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Flickr photo courtesy of Ian Wilson

Is it possible to be happy with less?

While it’s true that a big focus of our current downsizing project is getting rid of much of the stuff that Linda and I have accumulated in our lifetimes, it’s really much more than that. If we’re effective in our efforts, it will mark a major lifestyle change for us.

For most of our 40 years of marriage we’ve concentrated on building our careers, raising a family, living responsibly and planning for our future. The stuff just sort of trickled in over the years while we pursued our version of the American dream. Now that our careers are winding down and the children are on their own pursuing their own dreams, we’re taking on a new challenge: Can we be happy with less?

We think the answer is yes.

For one thing, we’ve never bought into the “more, more, more” mentality that seems to drive many Americans in our unsustainable consumer culture.

As former Harvard professor Derek Bok said on PBS’ “News Hour” this week: “When you get more money, very quickly, you become adapted to it. And the things you have always looked forward to buying now become commonplace. And the other thing that happens is, your aspirations begin to rise, so that, if you survey the American people and you say, how much money do you need to live a really completely happy life, and then survey them 10 years later, you will find that, 10 years later, they want a lot more money than they did 10 years before. So, I think our aspirations are always leaping out in front of reality, leaving us about as satisfied and as frustrated as we were before.”

What if you went the other way and lowered your aspirations, would you be more satisfied and less frustrated? We think it’s possible.

For one thing, less stuff takes up less space and less space takes less maintenance. Getting rid of stuff is part of the answer; so is not buying things you don’t need. We’ve decided we really don’t need dozens of cable television channels and plan to drop our cable TV service in favor of an old-fashioned over-the-air antenna. We have access to plenty of channels over the air so why pay for something that we don’t really need? We’ll probably be ditching our landline phone service one of these days, too.

Ten years ago I became a fan of the UTNE Reader magazine. It was smart, educational and an easy read. In recent years, however, the magazine has gone through ownership and leadership changes and has repackaged its content and design into something I find far less appealing. Now, they’ve raised their rates making it easy for me to drop them from my must-read list.

Avoiding fees and shopping for bargains is the norm in our household and it’s served us well over the years, but what if everyone followed the same standard? What would our economy look like if we only bought things we truly need?

Unfortunately, many out-of-work Americans are being forced into this situation. What are they learning from the experience? Will they go back to their old ways once they return to the workforce? Is that a good thing?

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter in Urbandale, Iowa, where he connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Flickr photo courtesy of P_Linehan

Chief Downsizer tackles his music ‘problem’

As the major source of clutter in our family home, I have assumed the role of Chief Downsizer. I take this role seriously. As Chief Downsizer, it is my responsibility to dispose of as much unnecessary material as I can. It’s an awesome responsibility.

Admitting that I have waaay too much stuff is one thing, getting rid of it is quite another thing altogether. Take music, for example. In my lifetime, I’ve possessed phonograph records ranging from the brittle shellac 78s that were more popular in my parents’ day to the 45s and LPs that dominated the music scene of my generation. I’ve also owned reel-to-reel tapes, eight-tracks and audio cassettes, before switching to compact discs.

The records and tapes are clearly dead media these days and CDs are well on their way down the same path as online music takes center stage. So, how does one dispose of these relics?

Fortunately, there’s a market for vinyl and I hope to eventually tap into that. I long ago got rid of my reels and eight-tracks and the few commercially audiocassettes I still own are ticketed for sale at garage sale prices. CDs, for all their popularity, are not really well-suited for the collectible market because of their digital nature. They’re easily copied and their small artwork doesn’t have the same appeal as the artwork on a 12x12-inch record jacket.

While I plan to offer much of what I own at a garage sale, I’ve found that there are some online companies that will buy compact discs. After checking out a few of these places, I am selling a few CDs to SecondSpin.com at $1-2 apiece. I found the SecondSpin site easy to use and their offered prices to be reasonable. If this works out, I’ll sell them more. 

In the meantime, I’ve a bagful of books and CDs that I plan to take to my local Half-Price book store to see what they might pay. I’ll let you know how things turn out.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter in Urbandale, Iowa, where he connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Flickr photo courtesy of romp

Saying goodbye to a comfortable old friend

In the end, it was just a chair.

But, for the better part of the past 20-plus years, it was at the center of my digital world. It wasn’t a particularly handsome chair, with its odd burgundy-colored cloth upholstery, but I found it a comfortable place to park myself while I pecked away at a keyboard.

I don’t remember where or exactly when I bought it, but it must have been around the time I bought my first “real” computer, an IBM PC with an optional 20-megabyte hard drive, in the late 1980s. It was on this computer that I wrote my book, “The Day the Music Died.” In those pre-Windows and pre-Internet days, the computer was relegated to the basement where I was afforded the solace of a quiet area that was well-suited to conducting phone interviews and writing.

It was around that time that I bought the computer desk and hutch that I still use today. I suspect the chair arrived at the same time.

Over the years, the IBM was replaced by a succession of computers – Compaq, Gateway, Dell and Apple – and the basement office was relocated to what had been the domain of our family’s then-budding astrophysicist for many years. Although the computer desk made the move, the old burgundy chair was replaced by a sleek leather job.

In recent months, however, the burgundy chair was reunited with one of the older computers as a makeshift recording studio was created in the basement for the purpose of digitizing music from records and cassettes. This arrangement was humming along quite smoothly until earlier this week when a bracket snapped, transforming the chair from a comfortably functional piece of furniture to an uncontrollable flopping monstrosity.

My first reaction, of course, was to replace it. A suitable replacement could likely be found for under $100, a reasonable sum. But, since I am in downsizing mode, I backed off that initial reaction, realizing that a replacement chair could be a complication if we were to move where a basement studio is impractical or even impossible.

Instead, I moved a dining room chair that had been sitting unused in a guest bedroom into the basement, stacked some towels and a cushion on the seat, and went back to work on the digitization project. It’s not as comfortable, certainly, but is adequate for the job.

Linda thinks I should just get a comfortable replacement but so far I’m sticking by my decision. Unless I’m persuaded otherwise by strain or pain, I can revel in the fact that I’ve successfully eliminated a sizable piece of furniture from the household inventory.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter in Urbandale, Iowa, where he connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Congratulations! We’re messing with you … but only to serve you better, of course

Congratulations! … Important Tax Information Enclosed … In order to serve you better.

Call me cynical, but those phrases are red flags to me, alerting me to grab my wallet and hang on tightly. As my wife, Linda, and I go through our “self-guided shrinking shrinking adventure,” we are also mindful of how we manage our finances. We have a few simple guidelines that we follow and one of them is not to get suckered in by bogus claims like those above.

For example, we recently received a “congratulations” letter from a bank we’ve done business with for decades. The letter was positively lavish in its gratitude for our business over the years, so much so that it was “upgrading” our credit card. The fact that the upgrade carried an additional annual fee of $49 was buried in the last paragraph and the opt-out information was buried even deeper. Of course, when I called to opt out, they tried to sell me some other “products.”

The “important tax information” was just a ruse to tell me that I could do better than a basic certificate of deposit and could avoid paying taxes on interest if I just let their representative contact me. And a special pox on all those businesses that insult my intelligence with the lame “to serve you better” line. It almost means they’re changing things that make it better for them and worse for me. It’s not me that they really want to serve better, they just want to improve their bottom line.

We have a general rule in our house that we never let anyone else tell us what we need, when we need it and where we should get it. We know where to find house painters and steel siding (Angie’s list is good for this) and we know when we need these things. We never, ever buy anything over the phone, we don’t support charities that solicit us by phone and we don’t do surveys. We’re kind of mean that way, I suppose, since not everyone who calls us is a jerk, but we’re consistent and never give anyone encouragement to call back.

I believe this is also consistent with our downsizing mission. In seeking a manageable and sustainable lifestyle, we need to bring everything in sync – our possessions, our financial resources and our values and belief systems.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter in Urbandale, Iowa, where he connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

One family’s four-tier system for downsizing

Linda and I have adopted a four-tier system for getting rid of the clutter around our house as we downsize our personal belongings in anticipation of an eventual move to a smaller residence.

At the top of the list is auctioning off our most valuable expendables, probably through eBay. I say probably because we haven’t really decided the best way to do this yet. We do have a few collectible items that we’d like to find good homes for, but we want to get a fair market price for them as well. We welcome comments from anyone who has experience in this.

The second tier is to sell things locally, through Craig’s List, consignment shops and yard/garage/thrift sales. We’ve never had much luck with garage sales but our next-door neighbor has. We’ll try to “piggy back” on her next one.

The third tier is one we use a lot – just give the stuff away. We used to just drop stuff off at the Salvation Army or Goodwill but these folks are literally over-run with stuff that didn’t sell at garage sales so we’ve switched our donations to places like a battered women’s shelter for women’s clothes and family items and DAV and St. Vincent de Paul for the rest.

The final tier is to toss it in the trash. We hate to do this, but much of the stuff we toss goes into our local recycling program so it’s not a total loss. Plus, once a year, we can put anything at the curb for pickup, which gives us an opportunity to ditch some larger items. In the early years of the program, trucks circled our neighborhood, picking up the more desirable trash. This year someone picked up an inoperable dual cassette player/recorder and a well-worn frying pan from our front yard.

A big target in our downsizing efforts is anything designed for a single use that can done with something else we have on hand. For instance, my George Foreman grill is headed directly to St. Vincent de Paul. I also have a hot air popcorn popper and electric crepe maker in my sights but am meeting some familial resistance.

I’ll keep working on that.

Lay off the gas, people. One thing the recent oil spill off the Gulf Coast should accomplish is a re-examination of America’s addiction to oil. Here in Iowa we have a 70-mile-per-hour speed limit on our Interstates. It was 65 a few years ago when it was inexplicably raised to accommodate the lead feet among us.

Being the curmudgeonly miser that I am, I rarely drive at 70, preferring to set my cruise control a few miles below that. I get better mileage at the lower speeds and would rather save a bit of oil for my kids until they can sort things out for their post-carbon world. As you might guess, I get passed a lot.

On a recent trip to Council Bluffs (120 miles), I set the cruise control on my Toyota Prius at 68 mph. I passed 10 vehicles, was passed by 37 (a ratio of 3.7 to 1), and got 44.4 miles per gallon. On the return trip, I set the cruise two MPH lower, at 66. I passed six vehicles but was passed by 125 (a ratio of 20.8 to 1) while my mileage improved a bit, to 46.5 MPG. I’d like to try an even lower speed, but fear it might be too dangerous.

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and chief legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., who connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Get rid of the junk you eat, simplify your life

One of the ways we’re cutting down on clutter in our house is by making a conscientious effort to eat healthier. Besides eliminating the junk from our diets, this also means eating fresher.

It’s amazing how this simple change can eliminate clutter and simplify your life.

I do most of the grocery shopping and cooking in our family. That’s not because Linda can’t do either. It’s because she works weekdays which is the best time for grocery shopping and my work time is much more flexible than hers. Plus, I enjoy cooking and she catches a break during the week, freeing her up to do cooking when she can better enjoy it, too.

One of the problems with my shopping is that I’m something of a hoarder. When something is available at a good price, I load up on it. Since the best price breaks often come in large packages, I tend to buy rice in 20-pound bags and potatoes in far larger amounts than we need. Holiday hams and turkeys after the holidays at drastic markdowns frequently find their way into our freezer. All of this takes up space and forces us into a “we’ve got to eat this” mode. It’s a habit I’m trying to break since the time will come when we won’t have the space for food that we have today.

Eating fresh foods serves a dual purpose. First, it’s better for you. Food prepared from scratch is more nutritious and tastes better than processed foods. Second, it takes less space. A pantry full of canned goods or a freezer full of processed meals is more a liability than asset if you cook your own meals from scratch.

Eating fresh, though, has its drawbacks, especially if you live in a four-seasons state like Iowa. The local growing season is relatively short and we don’t like to buy out-of-season produce that has to be shipped hundreds (or thousands) of miles and doesn’t taste as good as the in-season bounty.

We get around this some by growing our own. Pictured is my square foot garden, which is off to a great start this spring. The garden consists of a dozen 4 x 4-foot squares with slightly raised beds of soil that is much improved from the area’s heavy clay. So far, we’ve planted a salad square (lettuces, arugula, spinach, beets, turnips, carrots and radishes), onions, eggplant, broccoli, edible pod peas, cantaloupes, cucumbers, butternut squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries and herbs (lavender, oregano, chives, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme and mint). We also have rhubarb and horseradish in a separate area. Still to be planted: green and wax beans, basil, lemongrass and okra.

That’s a lot of variety in a relatively small area. Our garden will allow us to vary our meals with fresh produce through the summer with some left over for the freezer for side dishes and soups next winter. What we don’t grow, we can pick up at various farmers’ markets in our area.

Though we don’t eat a lot of meat, we’re not vegetarians. I like bacon, barbecued ribs, chicken and an occasional burger and Linda loves seafood, but meat is not a big part of our food budget. That helps our family’s bottom line. In addition, this year we plan to buy more of our meat products from local producers.

If you want to know more about modern food production, marketing and how it relates to the obesity epidemic, check out the documentary, Food, Inc.; the book, Fast Food Nation; or the ABC-TV program, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”

Linda and I hope our modified eating habits will lead to better health and vitality and less clutter. We’re not there yet but we’re convinced we’re headed in the right direction.

Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and senior legacy planner at When Words Matter, Ltd., in Urbandale, Iowa, where he connects generations through their stories. To learn more, visit his web site, check out his Passing It On blog, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.