The older you get the less you need and the less your kids are going to want. Anything we want or need we most likely have stolen from you or purchased ourselves. As you’re sitting there with nothing to do in the later years start reducing! Eventually you’re going to end up in one of two places. One, an old folks home and it is only big enough to hold a small apartment full of items. The other will only hold an old green suit. Don’t leave your stuff for your kids to figure out what to do with. We will end up with just more stuff we are going to have to try to get rid of in the end. It all boils down to a yard sale. Give what you think your family wants, and donate the rest.
Wallpaper- I know, I know wallpaper is coming back in style. The Misses loves HGTV and I see people are making the horrible mistake of putting that crap back on the walls. Just do us a favor. Long before your hands are too stiff to tie your shoes so you make the switch to Velcro, start peeling that crap off the walls. Pay some poor starving college student or even better find a soon to be 18 year old scout and offer him your walls to donate for his Eagle Scout project.
Popcorn Ceilings- I only mention this for you old old farts. The ones that have no TV now that TV’s went digital. Take the time to remove that crap off the ceilings yourself. You’re going to die soon and the asbestos won’t hurt you as much as it will your son-in-law, and youngest grandkid.
Finally, don’t go kicking and screaming to an old folks home (Grandpa didn’t go kicking and screaming, he just couldn’t remember signing the papers saying he wanted to start living there). Our only regret is not sending Grandpa their sooner. His mind has gone, and most days he can’t remember 5 minutes ago. But one thing that is for certain, depending on the day there are 8 to 15 women to every man. I hope it isn’t the only reason he has started to enjoy his time there, but I’m sure it helps.
As you can guess my family (Pops, Brother-in-law Dave, and I) have been working on my grandpa’s house. Here is a picture of Pops taking his turn scraping the Popcorn off the ceilings that cover every inch of grandpa’s house. Not a great picture, but at least he does have a mask on. He’s pretty sure that when he removed the crap from the first ceiling at his house, a mask didn’t cross his mind.
