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Five years ago, I wrote on this topic https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-1067196.html. At that time, we decided against moving out of our home of 50+ years. However, time flies and we finally decided it is time to simplify our lives and reduce the burden on maintaining a home and burden on adult children https://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=1322966 . Thus, the actual task of disposing 2/3 of the stuff we accumulated over the past half century begins. Here I write about one often overlooked task of modern US living – keeping good financial records. Given my refugee mentality and pack-rat habit, I kept very good records. With a basement one has essentially unlimited storage place. Thus, I have the problem of disposing financial records (bank statements, cancelled checks et al for over half a century). Since we never moved or changed banks account, these paper records cannot be just put into the recycle bins to be disposed. People can get all kinds of personal and financial information by going through the recycle bins. Thus, there comes the problem of destroying these records from prying eyes. The only solution is either to shred these paper records (which will require a shredding machine and lots of time going thought the pages one-by-one) or burn them. We choose the latter. Still the task of burning over half a century of these records is not a simple chore. So far, we have burned one box every day in our fire place. But to make sure that every page is burned beyond recognition are still not simple nor is the job of cleaning out the fireplace each time and disposing the ashes. The task is still on going but we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

BTW, downsizing has become a business in the US. One can find all kinds of tips, information, organizations willing to help for a fee, and scams directed at seniors who need help with the task. Even when you are willing to spend money for help, it is still a stressful job over a period of months. Thus although we’ll be moving by mid March, we must keep our current home for a time before selling it since we don’t think we’ll be finished with the task on down-sizing.