Though we’ve addressed the topic previously, and there are lots of good ideas out there about how to discard unnecessary or unneeded items cluttering your home, chances are most of you continue to have way too many possessions filling your closets or cupboards, with little likelihood of ridding yourself of these items anytime soon. And while you may feel no hurry- and no incentive- to plow through the mounds of stuff filling your home, it’s important to consider what putting off the project means: If you don’t get around to it, who will be left holding the (trash) bag when you’re no longer around? Chances are, it will be a loved one or close friend who will wonder what to do with your possessions and how to determine their meaning and value.

First, let’s consider why you’ve yet to declutter your home. Even if you’re not technically a “hoarder” (which is a real mental illness), you possibly have unhealthy attachments to items in your home. Whether you’re stocking up because you worry about some catastrophic event in the world, or you think maybe someday (maybe never?) you’ll have a use for that item, or perhaps you associate an item with a beloved person or memory so just can’t part with it, there always seem to be items we just can’t get rid of. Moreover, the Covid pandemic appears to have worsened the situation, as many people have dealt with their anxieties by just buying more stuff.

But what happens when you’re no longer around to make the hard decisions about what stays or what goes, what’s valuable and worth keeping, and what should be given away (or need be, thrown away)? It’s likely that will happen, and our children or other loved ones will be left sorting the trinkets from the treasures. And that’s on top of their grief and the challenges they face in their own lives. As one recent article called it, this “great intergenerational dump” is about to fall on younger generations who may bear the burden of their parents’ lifetime of acquisitions and reluctance to deal with a huge array of possessions. And it’s not just determining how to discard the physical items that weigh down those who must deal with your possessions. As one writer described it, “How we treat the stuff of past generations – and how we divest (of) our own belongings to the people we love – offers a lesson in what we value too much and perhaps don’t value enough. What matters in the end? What endures? That’s the challenge: what to take – and what to leave behind – when you close the door on your parents’ home for the last time.” For another writer’s perspective on sorting through the “virtual museum” of artifacts her parents left behind for her to sort through, pull out your trash bags and click here.

One possible way you can at least make this an easier process for those left behind is a new website called Artifcts that allows you to upload photos, audio descriptions, and/or videos of your cherished items and the history, meaning, and value they hold. Starting without charge, or paying a modest $89 annual fee for unlimited “virtual storage,” you can use the platform as a way to inventory your items, explain their monetary and sentimental value and guide the next generation as to what they should do when you’re no longer around. For some of your treasures, once you’ve uploaded the photos and descriptions to this website, you may decide you no longer need to hold onto the actual physical item, thereby saving loved ones from determining what’s to be done with it. For more on this platform and the background of its founders, grab your digital camera and click here.