Sold!

If it were up to me, I would sell (almost) everything in my house for $50,000 dollars, and then I would use that money to start over. With $50,000 I could get the things that are really necessary (shelter, clothing, food) and enough "extras" to keep my kids and me going for quite some time. I could probably manage to do that with $20,000, but then whoever got what I currently own would be getting quite the bargain.

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The things I would keep:

• Photos
• Washing machine
• Vacuum cleaner ... this is an old canister vac (belonged to my Grandmother); it is the best vacuum cleaner I have ever owned.
• Shredder ... purchased this year, and this is one of those "indispensible" items.
• Stereo ... this gets used pretty regularly, so it's either keep this one or purchase another.
• Sewing machine ... I don't use it very often, but Owl does
• Some clothing ... mostly things for the kids, although there are a very few items of my own that I wear often enough to keep.
• The hanging wicker chair my parents bought for me when we lived in Italy; every time anyone sits it in they declare it to be their favorite chair.
• Music ... nearly all the CDs I own and everything purchased electronically. I'd probably have to purchase an external hard drive to remove the items from my current computer so I could put them on the new computer I'd buy.

The things I would replace:

• Computer ... I would purchase a laptop rather than a desktop, mostly for the convenience of portability, but also because most current laptops are faster than my old dinosaur.
• Kitchen items ... pots, pans, dishes, cups, utensils. I don't think I'd take anything from my current kitchen (although maybe the two frying pans I purchased this weekend).
• Clothing

Things I might replace:

• Books (although we have a great local library...)
• TV/VCR/DVD Player
• DVDs ... this, of course, would depend upon the previous line

Of course, I'm sure that there are other things I would come across in the process of boxing up my current belongings to give to the new owner. Also, since this type of decision is currently not completely up to me, this is just a "pipe dream".