We are slowly decluttering for our eventual retirement. This was so very helpful! My grandmother passed away 6 years ago and the dress she wore to my wedding 27 years earlier was hanging in her closet…so I took it home and it’s been hanging in mine. I took it out recently, thought back, thanked my grandmother for how amazing she was, then took the dress to a thrift store.
Hi @cameronprince6938, I'm sorry about the loss of your grandmother. You did a great job to appreciate the dress and then let it go. It's not easy to do, especially since I think our own internal voices want to judge us harshly. You sent good energy back out into the world. I know someone will get a lot of love out of that dress. -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Jewellery was my Achilles heal, so I took all the pieces that meant the most to my jeweller and he was able to melt it down and fashion a gorgeous bangle which I have worn everyday since … that’s 12 years and counting! 😊
That's so cool! And so much more practical than lugging around a lot of jewelry that can get lost, stolen, or is hard to wear when you're traveling. Brava! -Judy
Hi Steven, We have great kids, but it made sense to let them purge or keep their memories on their own. I know that as they get older, they could potentially become more nostalgic or their circumstances change and then they want to have those items around. If they make the final call, then they can't blame us or "forget" that they told us to get rid of everything! Thanks so much for watching! -Judy
Oh my goodness! Judy, I have the exact same regret as you! We downsized so efficiently that I threw out all of my kids hand made memorabilia and have felt guilty about it for so long! Thank you for mentioning this as it has helped alleviate my guilt. Love your videos! I am working my way through each and every one of them! Can't wait to see your next adventure. Have fun!
Thank you so much for watching, Tracy, and for your kind words and sharing your own experience. I think we all tend to have too much toxic self-talk about the decisions we make. It was even helpful for me to make this video and put my own thoughts in perspective. Because the regret is as much about being perceived as being an uncaring parent as anything else. And really, life is way too short to beat ourselves up over our decisions. At the time I made the best decision I could and I am grateful that I don't have a huge box of memorabilia that I paid to store for years because I didn't make time to photograph everything (I didn't know about the BEST of the BEST idea at the time). We are so honored to have you watching through our catalog of videos. We know that our style has evolved from when we first turned on the camera two years ago, so thank you for watching our evolution! -Judy
Great video. The container of things I have yet to let go of is mostly composed of physical pictures and photo albums. It's a project I plan to attack the next time I visit my parents, where the container is stored. Curating those pictures and focusing only on the best of the best is certainly the way to go. I think that will help me to whittle it down to 5% of what I have now. Thanks for the motivation!
Hi Jim, thank you so much for watching! Yes, those pictures and photo albums can be quite overwhelming. I think we have conditioned ourselves that choosing pictures is like picking a favorite child, when it's actually nowhere close to the same. Some pictures are more memorable and worth saving than others! We are inspired to close out that last bit of photographs for ourselves as well. You can do it! -Judy
Great video! We are starting to prepare for retirement and the thought of having to get rid of so much stuff is overwhelming. You have some excellent ideas and "flipping the narrative" is exactly what I need to do. Now to just do it!!
Hi Lisa, So glad to hear this is helpful! Have you seen our full series on downsizing? We did a LOT wrong and have what I think are some good strategies that I wish we knew when we were first going through the process. I'l put a link below. Do you have a goal date that you are working towards to get it all done? -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Great video and tips! Downsizing and getting rid of stuff is so hard. Especially when you've accumulated these things over a lifetime. But you're right, you just have to keep the things that you cherish most. Plus, you will always have the memories of those truly special and important moments. We are retired and slow traveling now and we had a difficult time deciding what would stay and what would go. We don't have a home base, so we really had to downsize. We are lucky to be able to store these items with family. Ultimately, there are still a few more things that we could get rid of (or digitize), but we are happy with the 4 boxes that remain.
Sounds like you did an excellent job, Nick & Karen! We don't love that we still have a box of photos and albums that need to be digitized, but we're actually looking forward to it now that we're focusing on "best of the best" versus the method we started with. Thanks so much for watching and sharing your experience with us! Safe travels! -Judy
Not my type of video but I watched 3 of your Egyptian, the 2 south of France and the 2 Madrid, Barcelona as well as the health checkup in Thailand yesterday. The playlists do help and looking forward to more European vlogs. PS Duolingo is helping bring back the limited Italian I knew from 4 years of high school. I know a lot of words but have trouble making sentences. We’ll see how it goes.
Hi Ted, Our downsizing series isn't our typical content here, either. But we know people are retiring and want to travel, so we're trying to help them get there. You'd be amazed about how many people talk about wanting to travel but their "stuff" gets in the way. Don't worry; we have a lot of travel videos coming soon. We have some additional episodes coming from France (Lyon, Colmar, and possibly from our trip to Paris (it wasn't our first trip, but it was a great getaway while we were nearby). I FINALLY got to the end of Duolingo, but I still practice every day. I started working with a tutor on iTalki, which has been very helpful! It's quite humbling to showcase how little I know, especially after 3.5 years on Duolingo (!), but it's worthwhile if I want to improve. Lucky you to have already had a high school foundation. My tutor says the best way to improve is to listen to Italian podcasts or videos or books-anything you enjoy-every single day. Good luck! -Judy
I am getting ready to start the process of digitizing our family photos. This video is very helpful and I will probably have to rewatch this video a few times to help coach me through the process! 😊
Hi Linda, We wish you all the best of luck, but we think this method will make it go so much easier. Feel free to reach out if you have any hiccups along the way; we'd be happy to help! You can do it! -Judy
We think you will be so much happier with the "best of the best" method. Originally I had guilt about the idea of it, but truly it is freeing and will save you a ton of time. I don't think you'll be left with any regrets doing it that way. Thanks ffor watching! -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Really this is a very good concept to live life peacefully and smartly.. we should consume what we hv earned otherwise there is no use of giving major portion of life to accumulate things.
Hi Rupendra, We wholeheartedly agree. We wish we had learned the lesson sooner! We have a full downsizing series if you'd like to downsize your stuff to free up other parts of your life. It's linked below. Thanks for watching! -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Judy, Kevin - I was thinking that it MIGHT be easier for you two because, the essence of your lives is each other. I am pleased to say that I am SO HAPPY that you both have that! ♥
Thank you so much, Enrique! What was initially hard is knowing that neither of us will be here forever and will we feel differently then and wish we had more stuff to remind ourselves of our loved ones. But we feel pretty strongly that the memories don't go away just because the stuff does. Thank you so much for your lovely words about us. We are so incredibly fortunate to have each other and also very grateful that our lives have expanded to include this wonderful community of people like you, Enrique! -Judy
Thank you so much for watching, Sandra! Here's a link to our full series on downsizing if you missed any of the episodes. Best of luck on your downsizing journey! -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
Oh my gosh. Best advice ever, at a practical level. Thank you! I moved a lot, learned to let a lot go but there are always the things that cling like barnacles. I've got a new motivation to look at anything sitting in bins, out of sight. How did you deal with paper legal docs? Anything there that couldn't be moved to digital?
Thank you so much for watching, Stephanie! You expressed it very well with the term barnacles! Exactly! There is very, very little that can't be moved to digital. We have a small firesafe folder that our son is holding for us that has our social security cards, birth certificates, marriage license, and not much else. We had a scanner that has an automatic feed and ran things through. When we were younger, we kept every single utility bill or receipt or paper document, but we grew out of that sometime in our 40s! We have scans of our life insurance and our tax information, but we've never needed the redundancy of paper copies. We had stopped receiving paper copies of as much mail as possible, which means that what comes in is typically junk mail. We take photos of important receipts (and then crumble them up and throw them away) and then the photos can actually be searched from your phone! Shift them to a folder if you want them grouped together. Kevin and I have all our photos shared on our phones so that we each get a copy of the photos we take. If you have a specific document that you need help with, we're happy to give you recommendations. But as full-time travelers, there's nothing we've acquired in the last two years that we haven't been able to scan or has been scanned for us by our virtual mailbox service. I hope this helps. -Judy ⚙️Firesafe Envelope: findingginamarie.com/gear#portfolio-039efead-a3ca-4a62-97d7-926ae28e8781-lr35f5uo 📝 How to Stay Connected to Your Mail While Traveling the World: findingginamarie.com/articles/how-to-stay-connected-to-your-mail-while-traveling-the-world
I deal with the document storage also. Social Security card and Birth Certificate can be re-obtained, unless those may be needed quickly. If no family available for long term. Maybe a safe deposit box at a local bank. Perhaps keeping a monthly auto-debit going so the bank sees activity if this is not going to be a primary bank. Be sure to keep the bank account funded for the debits and yearly box fee.
The photo thing is so stressful for me. I've been working on it for a couple of years, and it's still not done. Ugh. We took a photo of our kids every time they changed their expression, blew their noses, laughed, cried, everything! Good grief. And now I have to go through all of it and feel guilty about getting rid of some of it. I've started putting them into albums for the kids that I will be giving them, making a photo album for us, and shredding the less desirable ones. I'd also like to scan them like you mention.
Hi Kathryn, I'm so sorry that photos are such a challenging process. We are here to say that you shouldn't feel guilty at all. They are way more than you can even enjoy when you have that many. Also, there are places that will enable you to take your scans and make books out of them, so you can make them more easily if you'd like. If you're happy with the process you're doing even though it's taking a long time, that's wonderful. But the photos that brought you so much joy at the time should not be a burden for you now. Are there other hobbies or activities you would rather spend your time on? If this feels like a hobby, great, but if not, life is SHORT and you shouldn't have to spend years of your life on something that's not bringing you joy. You aren't a bad parent for letting go of heaps of photos. We wish you the best of luck as you work through the process. -Judy
We are downsizing to retire in France next year. We will have a small apartment as a base for travel. I found this video extremely helpful, especially the part about digitalizing photos. Thank you!
We are so glad to hear that this episode was useful for you Anne! I'm not sure if you saw our full series of downsizing and our free downsizing checklist, but I'll link them all below. France sounds amazing. Where will you be locating yourselves? -Judy 🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html ✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 🎥 Preparing for Full-Time Travel: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF0Hm94IeHJksaTV37AcdchX.html 🎥 Navigating Full-Time Travel: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF1PzikjO5wvLLMtOE1UkdvH.html 🔗 Here's a link to our ever-growing articles for full-time travelers (you can find it by going to our travel tips and then filtering by Nomads): 📝 Articles for Full-Time Travelers: findingginamarie.com/travel-tips/?category=nomads
Great advice! We had to downsize earlier this year, but I still have a box of photos that needs to be curated. I like the “best of the best” approach and will use it. I also created a “gone but not forgotten” album in my Photos app for things I wanted to remember but didn’t need to keep.
Great tip for where to put the "things" you want to remember, Melissa! Thank you for sharing it. Ours just were random photos in our main album, but yours is a great idea.Kevin and I share all our photos so that we each have those special memories. -Judy
I also did “the best of the best” with my photos. I kept some, then gave both kids some. It’s funny how times change. Today’s generation rarely print photos! Wonder if they will regret it???
Hi Diana, I actually think they'll have a lot less guilt than we did. Getting photos into albums was time consuming and we could never keep up with them all. And then there was the whole era of scrapbooking, which was even more intense. There are services that will allow you to "curate" photos into a book, so if someone does want to "print photos," they'll be more of the best of the best versus every single picture, which is what I did. -Judy
Unfortunately and regrettably, I am not a sentimental person - so, I had to fast forward this video while watching, hahaha 😊. Will forward this video to my wife, though :). She will definitely empathise with all your pointers :). She likes ur channel too ! On a more practical subject (haha), how do you secure your laptop in your AirBnB whenever you go out ? 😂 I have read horror stories about how electronic gadgets (esp laptops) are stolen from AirBnBs, when the guests are out. Such stories are rare, though. Do you use something like a Kensington lock to secure the laptop, or do you just lock it up in your big luggage bag ? Just wondering only :)
Hi Mike, You don't need to be a sentimental person, and in fact it's easier when you aren't. You just don't need things to keep your memories alive, which is great! Hello to your wife from us-we're delighted to hear she watches, too! ♥️ We lock our Airbnbs and we lock our hotel rooms. We don't use safes-we worry more about forgetting something in there than we do having something turn up missing (although we do have a checklist that helps remind us!). We've been extremely fortunate I guess, but there's a limit to what we're willing to do to keep our stuff safe. If we ever felt like the digital entry lock to our Airbnb could be or had been compromised, we might ask the host to change it. But even in your own home, there's a small likelihood of a break-in even when you live in the safest neighborhoods. We don't use a Kensington lock or anything to lock our laptops. We don't typically leave them out, but we also don't typically have housekeeping where someone can go through our stuff. Even in hotels, we typically keep our DND sign up. We're pretty trusting people overall, and while we know something could possibly happen, we're not willing to worry about the just-in-case things. It might bite us in the butt at some point, but we try to be glass-full type of people. I think the energy you put into the world generally comes back to you, and even if something went sideways, I don't think it would cause us to act differently. -Judy ✅ Don't Forget: Must-Do Checks Before Leaving Your Hotel or Airbnb: findingginamarie.com/articles/dont-forget-must-do-checks-before-leaving-your-hotel-or-airbnb
LOL, Phil, we'll take the extra comment on our channel! And just in case it wasn't clear, we used a service to digitize our videos, but we used a high quality flatbed scanner for our photos. However, we did not use the BEST OF THE BEST philosophy and did not make our way through all our photos. We learned this idea after we started traveling, so for now our son is holding our photos for us. BUT we plan to make it a priority when we're in the US again and get it wrapped up so it's not something hanging over our heads. -Judy
We are slowly decluttering for our eventual retirement. This was so very helpful! My grandmother passed away 6 years ago and the dress she wore to my wedding 27 years earlier was hanging in her closet…so I took it home and it’s been hanging in mine. I took it out recently, thought back, thanked my grandmother for how amazing she was, then took the dress to a thrift store.
Hi @cameronprince6938, I'm sorry about the loss of your grandmother. You did a great job to appreciate the dress and then let it go. It's not easy to do, especially since I think our own internal voices want to judge us harshly. You sent good energy back out into the world. I know someone will get a lot of love out of that dress. -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Jewellery was my Achilles heal, so I took all the pieces that meant the most to my jeweller and he was able to melt it down and fashion a gorgeous bangle which I have worn everyday since … that’s 12 years and counting! 😊
That's so cool! And so much more practical than lugging around a lot of jewelry that can get lost, stolen, or is hard to wear when you're traveling. Brava! -Judy
The comment about returning gifted items from the kids back to them so they can decide the items fate is a excellent way of handling.
Hi Steven, We have great kids, but it made sense to let them purge or keep their memories on their own. I know that as they get older, they could potentially become more nostalgic or their circumstances change and then they want to have those items around. If they make the final call, then they can't blame us or "forget" that they told us to get rid of everything! Thanks so much for watching! -Judy
Oh my goodness! Judy, I have the exact same regret as you! We downsized so efficiently that I threw out all of my kids hand made memorabilia and have felt guilty about it for so long! Thank you for mentioning this as it has helped alleviate my guilt. Love your videos! I am working my way through each and every one of them! Can't wait to see your next adventure. Have fun!
Thank you so much for watching, Tracy, and for your kind words and sharing your own experience. I think we all tend to have too much toxic self-talk about the decisions we make. It was even helpful for me to make this video and put my own thoughts in perspective. Because the regret is as much about being perceived as being an uncaring parent as anything else. And really, life is way too short to beat ourselves up over our decisions. At the time I made the best decision I could and I am grateful that I don't have a huge box of memorabilia that I paid to store for years because I didn't make time to photograph everything (I didn't know about the BEST of the BEST idea at the time).
We are so honored to have you watching through our catalog of videos. We know that our style has evolved from when we first turned on the camera two years ago, so thank you for watching our evolution! -Judy
Great video. The container of things I have yet to let go of is mostly composed of physical pictures and photo albums. It's a project I plan to attack the next time I visit my parents, where the container is stored. Curating those pictures and focusing only on the best of the best is certainly the way to go. I think that will help me to whittle it down to 5% of what I have now. Thanks for the motivation!
Hi Jim, thank you so much for watching! Yes, those pictures and photo albums can be quite overwhelming. I think we have conditioned ourselves that choosing pictures is like picking a favorite child, when it's actually nowhere close to the same. Some pictures are more memorable and worth saving than others! We are inspired to close out that last bit of photographs for ourselves as well. You can do it! -Judy
Great video! We are starting to prepare for retirement and the thought of having to get rid of so much stuff is overwhelming. You have some excellent ideas and "flipping the narrative" is exactly what I need to do. Now to just do it!!
Hi Lisa, So glad to hear this is helpful! Have you seen our full series on downsizing? We did a LOT wrong and have what I think are some good strategies that I wish we knew when we were first going through the process. I'l put a link below. Do you have a goal date that you are working towards to get it all done? -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Great video and tips! Downsizing and getting rid of stuff is so hard. Especially when you've accumulated these things over a lifetime. But you're right, you just have to keep the things that you cherish most. Plus, you will always have the memories of those truly special and important moments.
We are retired and slow traveling now and we had a difficult time deciding what would stay and what would go. We don't have a home base, so we really had to downsize. We are lucky to be able to store these items with family. Ultimately, there are still a few more things that we could get rid of (or digitize), but we are happy with the 4 boxes that remain.
Sounds like you did an excellent job, Nick & Karen! We don't love that we still have a box of photos and albums that need to be digitized, but we're actually looking forward to it now that we're focusing on "best of the best" versus the method we started with. Thanks so much for watching and sharing your experience with us! Safe travels! -Judy
Not my type of video but I watched 3 of your Egyptian, the 2 south of France and the 2 Madrid, Barcelona as well as the health checkup in Thailand yesterday. The playlists do help and looking forward to more European vlogs. PS Duolingo is helping bring back the limited Italian I knew from 4 years of high school. I know a lot of words but have trouble making sentences. We’ll see how it goes.
Hi Ted, Our downsizing series isn't our typical content here, either. But we know people are retiring and want to travel, so we're trying to help them get there. You'd be amazed about how many people talk about wanting to travel but their "stuff" gets in the way. Don't worry; we have a lot of travel videos coming soon. We have some additional episodes coming from France (Lyon, Colmar, and possibly from our trip to Paris (it wasn't our first trip, but it was a great getaway while we were nearby). I FINALLY got to the end of Duolingo, but I still practice every day. I started working with a tutor on iTalki, which has been very helpful! It's quite humbling to showcase how little I know, especially after 3.5 years on Duolingo (!), but it's worthwhile if I want to improve. Lucky you to have already had a high school foundation. My tutor says the best way to improve is to listen to Italian podcasts or videos or books-anything you enjoy-every single day. Good luck! -Judy
I am getting ready to start the process of digitizing our family photos. This video is very helpful and I will probably have to rewatch this video a few times to help coach me through the process! 😊
Hi Linda, We wish you all the best of luck, but we think this method will make it go so much easier. Feel free to reach out if you have any hiccups along the way; we'd be happy to help! You can do it! -Judy
Yes photos are so hard to curate. I have got rid of the blurred etc now need to go back through them to prioritise.
We think you will be so much happier with the "best of the best" method. Originally I had guilt about the idea of it, but truly it is freeing and will save you a ton of time. I don't think you'll be left with any regrets doing it that way. Thanks ffor watching! -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Really this is a very good concept to live life peacefully and smartly.. we should consume what we hv earned otherwise there is no use of giving major portion of life to accumulate things.
Hi Rupendra, We wholeheartedly agree. We wish we had learned the lesson sooner! We have a full downsizing series if you'd like to downsize your stuff to free up other parts of your life. It's linked below. Thanks for watching! -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
Judy, Kevin - I was thinking that it MIGHT be easier for you two because, the essence of your lives is each other. I am pleased to say that I am SO HAPPY that you both have that! ♥
Thank you so much, Enrique! What was initially hard is knowing that neither of us will be here forever and will we feel differently then and wish we had more stuff to remind ourselves of our loved ones. But we feel pretty strongly that the memories don't go away just because the stuff does. Thank you so much for your lovely words about us. We are so incredibly fortunate to have each other and also very grateful that our lives have expanded to include this wonderful community of people like you, Enrique! -Judy
This is a great video! I have decided if my kids don’t want it then I will give it away. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for watching, Sandra! Here's a link to our full series on downsizing if you missed any of the episodes. Best of luck on your downsizing journey! -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
Oh my gosh. Best advice ever, at a practical level. Thank you! I moved a lot, learned to let a lot go but there are always the things that cling like barnacles. I've got a new motivation to look at anything sitting in bins, out of sight.
How did you deal with paper legal docs? Anything there that couldn't be moved to digital?
Thank you so much for watching, Stephanie! You expressed it very well with the term barnacles! Exactly!
There is very, very little that can't be moved to digital. We have a small firesafe folder that our son is holding for us that has our social security cards, birth certificates, marriage license, and not much else. We had a scanner that has an automatic feed and ran things through. When we were younger, we kept every single utility bill or receipt or paper document, but we grew out of that sometime in our 40s! We have scans of our life insurance and our tax information, but we've never needed the redundancy of paper copies. We had stopped receiving paper copies of as much mail as possible, which means that what comes in is typically junk mail. We take photos of important receipts (and then crumble them up and throw them away) and then the photos can actually be searched from your phone! Shift them to a folder if you want them grouped together. Kevin and I have all our photos shared on our phones so that we each get a copy of the photos we take.
If you have a specific document that you need help with, we're happy to give you recommendations. But as full-time travelers, there's nothing we've acquired in the last two years that we haven't been able to scan or has been scanned for us by our virtual mailbox service. I hope this helps. -Judy
⚙️Firesafe Envelope: findingginamarie.com/gear#portfolio-039efead-a3ca-4a62-97d7-926ae28e8781-lr35f5uo
📝 How to Stay Connected to Your Mail While Traveling the World: findingginamarie.com/articles/how-to-stay-connected-to-your-mail-while-traveling-the-world
I deal with the document storage also. Social Security card and Birth Certificate can be re-obtained, unless those may be needed quickly. If no family available for long term. Maybe a safe deposit box at a local bank. Perhaps keeping a monthly auto-debit going so the bank sees activity if this is not going to be a primary bank. Be sure to keep the bank account funded for the debits and yearly box fee.
The photo thing is so stressful for me. I've been working on it for a couple of years, and it's still not done. Ugh. We took a photo of our kids every time they changed their expression, blew their noses, laughed, cried, everything! Good grief. And now I have to go through all of it and feel guilty about getting rid of some of it. I've started putting them into albums for the kids that I will be giving them, making a photo album for us, and shredding the less desirable ones. I'd also like to scan them like you mention.
Hi Kathryn, I'm so sorry that photos are such a challenging process. We are here to say that you shouldn't feel guilty at all. They are way more than you can even enjoy when you have that many. Also, there are places that will enable you to take your scans and make books out of them, so you can make them more easily if you'd like. If you're happy with the process you're doing even though it's taking a long time, that's wonderful. But the photos that brought you so much joy at the time should not be a burden for you now. Are there other hobbies or activities you would rather spend your time on? If this feels like a hobby, great, but if not, life is SHORT and you shouldn't have to spend years of your life on something that's not bringing you joy. You aren't a bad parent for letting go of heaps of photos. We wish you the best of luck as you work through the process. -Judy
We are downsizing to retire in France next year. We will have a small apartment as a base for travel. I found this video extremely helpful, especially the part about digitalizing photos. Thank you!
We are so glad to hear that this episode was useful for you Anne! I'm not sure if you saw our full series of downsizing and our free downsizing checklist, but I'll link them all below. France sounds amazing. Where will you be locating yourselves? -Judy
🎥 Downsizing for Retirement or Full-Time Travel Series: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF2xRusfMEQvN-5LZZqdnQIf.html
✅ Downsizing Prep Worksheet: findingginamarie.com/request-downsizing-prep-worksheet
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
🎥 Preparing for Full-Time Travel: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF0Hm94IeHJksaTV37AcdchX.html
🎥 Navigating Full-Time Travel: ua-cam.com/play/PLNT98lWfwdF1PzikjO5wvLLMtOE1UkdvH.html
🔗 Here's a link to our ever-growing articles for full-time travelers (you can find it by going to our travel tips and then filtering by Nomads):
📝 Articles for Full-Time Travelers: findingginamarie.com/travel-tips/?category=nomads
Great advice! We had to downsize earlier this year, but I still have a box of photos that needs to be curated. I like the “best of the best” approach and will use it. I also created a “gone but not forgotten” album in my Photos app for things I wanted to remember but didn’t need to keep.
Great tip for where to put the "things" you want to remember, Melissa! Thank you for sharing it. Ours just were random photos in our main album, but yours is a great idea.Kevin and I share all our photos so that we each have those special memories. -Judy
I also did “the best of the best” with my photos. I kept some, then gave both kids some. It’s funny how times change. Today’s generation rarely print photos! Wonder if they will regret it???
Hi Diana, I actually think they'll have a lot less guilt than we did. Getting photos into albums was time consuming and we could never keep up with them all. And then there was the whole era of scrapbooking, which was even more intense. There are services that will allow you to "curate" photos into a book, so if someone does want to "print photos," they'll be more of the best of the best versus every single picture, which is what I did. -Judy
Unfortunately and regrettably, I am not a sentimental person - so, I had to fast forward this video while watching, hahaha 😊. Will forward this video to my wife, though :). She will definitely empathise with all your pointers :). She likes ur channel too !
On a more practical subject (haha), how do you secure your laptop in your AirBnB whenever you go out ? 😂
I have read horror stories about how electronic gadgets (esp laptops) are stolen from AirBnBs, when the guests are out. Such stories are rare, though.
Do you use something like a Kensington lock to secure the laptop, or do you just lock it up in your big luggage bag ? Just wondering only :)
Hi Mike, You don't need to be a sentimental person, and in fact it's easier when you aren't. You just don't need things to keep your memories alive, which is great! Hello to your wife from us-we're delighted to hear she watches, too! ♥️
We lock our Airbnbs and we lock our hotel rooms. We don't use safes-we worry more about forgetting something in there than we do having something turn up missing (although we do have a checklist that helps remind us!). We've been extremely fortunate I guess, but there's a limit to what we're willing to do to keep our stuff safe. If we ever felt like the digital entry lock to our Airbnb could be or had been compromised, we might ask the host to change it. But even in your own home, there's a small likelihood of a break-in even when you live in the safest neighborhoods.
We don't use a Kensington lock or anything to lock our laptops. We don't typically leave them out, but we also don't typically have housekeeping where someone can go through our stuff. Even in hotels, we typically keep our DND sign up. We're pretty trusting people overall, and while we know something could possibly happen, we're not willing to worry about the just-in-case things. It might bite us in the butt at some point, but we try to be glass-full type of people. I think the energy you put into the world generally comes back to you, and even if something went sideways, I don't think it would cause us to act differently. -Judy
✅ Don't Forget: Must-Do Checks Before Leaving Your Hotel or Airbnb: findingginamarie.com/articles/dont-forget-must-do-checks-before-leaving-your-hotel-or-airbnb
Did you guys digitize all of your photos yourself or did you use a mail service to digitize?
So I pobably should have finished watching the video before leaving a comment 😅
LOL, Phil, we'll take the extra comment on our channel! And just in case it wasn't clear, we used a service to digitize our videos, but we used a high quality flatbed scanner for our photos. However, we did not use the BEST OF THE BEST philosophy and did not make our way through all our photos. We learned this idea after we started traveling, so for now our son is holding our photos for us. BUT we plan to make it a priority when we're in the US again and get it wrapped up so it's not something hanging over our heads. -Judy