Major Life Events
How flexible is your home? If you gained a family member or lost a family member or began losing mobility how comfortable would your home be?
My grandparents are finally looking toward moving to a smaller location. They have lived in a huge pile of a house for around 40 years. They bought the house to house their hoard of 8 children. As the kids grew up additions were made, renovations were done, and eventually the house was basically emptied of children. But my grandmother continued to throw rather large dinner parties that demanded the space.
However, now my grandmother is having troubles with arthritis and my grandfather has just had knee surgury and neither of them really feel up to the task of maintaining so many rooms, let alone climbing the stairs to the main level then more stairs to the bedrooms then more stairs to get to the basement.
A major question in this becomes what to do with all the stuff? My grandparents have been doling out stuff for years and still seem to have a steady supply. Books, photo albums, music (LPs, CDs, and sheet music), equipment (my grandmother has an impressive sewing room and my grandfather a well stocked work shop), furniture, art, and enough canned foods for several years.
Do current technological advances help alleviate this issue somewhat? Most of my photos are on disks and my hard drive. My art is documented digitally to allow me to take it with me anywhere. My music collection is mostly on my harddrive and my iPod. My books are still a problem. My electronic devises take up a good percentage of my material wealth. And they can be trimmed. I don't really NEED a desktop computer in addition to my laptop, but it is nice. Perhaps it's also that I have less of an attatchment to my things. My desk is from a friend. I found my drafting table, my couch, and several other things on the side of the road. My bed and shelves I have actually invested something in. But all the shelves fold down flat. The bed is just too good to pass up, though tatami mats and a (good) futon would have been very nice as well. My rabbits' cage takes up some space, but as far as they are concerned, they should have the run of the house all the time anyway.
A flexible arrangment that allows for easy manipulation, addition and subtraction of building elements and rooms could possibly save people the future hassle of this. Maybe. It's still very hard for me to think of what can be done with books. I'm not one to give up my books.
My grandparents are finally looking toward moving to a smaller location. They have lived in a huge pile of a house for around 40 years. They bought the house to house their hoard of 8 children. As the kids grew up additions were made, renovations were done, and eventually the house was basically emptied of children. But my grandmother continued to throw rather large dinner parties that demanded the space.
However, now my grandmother is having troubles with arthritis and my grandfather has just had knee surgury and neither of them really feel up to the task of maintaining so many rooms, let alone climbing the stairs to the main level then more stairs to the bedrooms then more stairs to get to the basement.
A major question in this becomes what to do with all the stuff? My grandparents have been doling out stuff for years and still seem to have a steady supply. Books, photo albums, music (LPs, CDs, and sheet music), equipment (my grandmother has an impressive sewing room and my grandfather a well stocked work shop), furniture, art, and enough canned foods for several years.
Do current technological advances help alleviate this issue somewhat? Most of my photos are on disks and my hard drive. My art is documented digitally to allow me to take it with me anywhere. My music collection is mostly on my harddrive and my iPod. My books are still a problem. My electronic devises take up a good percentage of my material wealth. And they can be trimmed. I don't really NEED a desktop computer in addition to my laptop, but it is nice. Perhaps it's also that I have less of an attatchment to my things. My desk is from a friend. I found my drafting table, my couch, and several other things on the side of the road. My bed and shelves I have actually invested something in. But all the shelves fold down flat. The bed is just too good to pass up, though tatami mats and a (good) futon would have been very nice as well. My rabbits' cage takes up some space, but as far as they are concerned, they should have the run of the house all the time anyway.
A flexible arrangment that allows for easy manipulation, addition and subtraction of building elements and rooms could possibly save people the future hassle of this. Maybe. It's still very hard for me to think of what can be done with books. I'm not one to give up my books.
posted by Heather at 8:12 PM
1 Comments:
What I have found is we have strange subconcious emotional attachments to the abundance of items we have. I have dropped off several bags of clothes that I dont wear, that don't fit me, or that i have just decided to pass on to the ARC, and yet i still have a full closet and dresser.
Grandma and Grandpa have a pretty lite load compared to many other people, but they have enough stuff to fill their house without it seeming cluttered. Where as, in a smaller house in college, we seem to have 2 couches, 2 lounge chairs, tables up the ass, yet a lack in some kitchen equipment. We see sitting down a more important thing than being able to make a perfect flambe appearently.
As Americans in particular, I dont think we are taught very well to "buy what you need and only what you need." Even the poorest people in America have a better life than peasants in Africa and India. Look in the World Almanac and compare T.V's, computers and cars per person in America and other countries, its amazing.
*Megan
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