More Tales of Downsizing… and the Household Negotiations Involved

Special Thanks to the author SW Hubbard (Susan) for this article, which was originally published on JungleRedWriters.com. It is the latest in our Downsizing/Decluttering/Ridding Out Series.

February 22, 2023 — The writer Lucy Burdette asked SW if we are drawn to our profession because of our disposition, or does our disposition morph after years in the same profession? And more particularly, how does that relate to domestic relations chez Hubbard, now that you are both mostly retired?

SW Hubbard: As with any chicken-or-egg question, the answer is a little of both.

Most nurses are naturally compassionate, and I’ve never yet met a happy-go-lucky lawyer unconcerned with details.

But spending many years in one profession changes the way you view your personal life, and the skills you use in the office tend to come home with you to be rolled out on the home front.

Take my husband.

Kevin spent forty years in international supply chain management and lean manufacturing, retiring right before Covid, the crisis that made “supply chain” a household term. Having just missed what would have been the career challenge of his lifetime, Kevin now runs logistics at our house.

If I overbuy at Costco, he informs me that I’m violating the first principal of lean manufacturing: Just In Time inventory. That means we’re only supposed to have enough on hand to meet our immediate needs. But if he wakes up to find the Cheerios box empty—the dreaded stock out!—I’ve violated the KanBan Two-Bin Replenishment System. In other words, if I kept two boxes of cereal, and bought a new one every time one was used up (always rotating my stock to use the older box first), I’d never run out. This, of course, assumes that I maintain a shopping list, which I don’t. And after 37 years of marriage, that’s unlikely to change.

Every January, we hold a Kaizen Event, aka, an improvement project. This involves purging anything we haven’t used in four years. Surplus material moves into the Red-Tag Area for disposition to donation sites or the trash. Now, when I put something of Kevin’s into the Red Tag Area–say, a 25-year-old printed road atlas of our county which doesn’t show several interstate extensions—he edges it out into what I call the Pink Tag Purgatory, where he performs extended farewells and a little mourning ritual. However, disposition of my unused items is short and brutal. As some of you who follow me on Facebook know, I recently had to bake a large lemon bundt cake to save my bundt pan from the Red Tag Zone.

Finding New Homes for Stuff

But Kevin’s professional life skills and mine as a mystery author intersect when it comes time to find new homes for all the stuff we purge. Ten years of researching and writing the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series has given me a very solid knowledge of what common objects have increased in value (1970s and 80s lunch boxes, Corning Ware, Bakelite jewelry) and what once valuable items are, sadly, worthless today (large china cabinets, fur coats, silver-plated anything). “I can sell that!” is my rallying cry as I save stuff from the dump and sell it on Facebook Marketplace or Craig’s List. My heroine, Audrey Nealon, of Another Man’s Treasure Estate Sales, would be proud of me!

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Thank you SW Hubbard for your insights into downsizing and domestic negotiations! Does anyone else have comments or experiences they would like to share about downsizing and decluttering in your household.

Click here for more information on her Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series, including the pre-order for Book 10, Unholy Treasure, coming in December.

More by SW Hubbard at Topretirements:

Home Together All Day: Heaven or …

And on Downsizing:

Downsizing, Decluttering, and Ridding Out