Maarja wrote: "Wow, I wouldn't want to burden anyone with too much stuff to go through, I gotta start throwing stuff away" in my office! Yeah, I sure understand that one. I was "Lead Researcher" last year after both of my parents passed away. They had been retired for 30 years after a military career of 30 years. The accumulation was unbelievable. They also had been gardeners, so the little plastic bowls and the like that they saved "because it might be useful" was in the thousands. Not like the pack-rat houses you sometimes hear about, but it looked like they never threw anything away. The storage building in back was held up by the contents. It took two large dumpsters, and several sessions of lining the curb with full contractors bags to finish the chore. It was an unbelievably sad thing to have to do. Anyhow, I took the same attitude as you, and came back home, hoping to clean stuff up, but it is so very hard to do. Even after a year, I still have rented temporary storage for the overflow at my home. I recently had a conversation with my grown foster son. He lost everything to Hurricane Katrina; all their clothes, all the toys, furniture, and all the family pictures. Oh yeah, also the new home they had recently built. He and wife and three young boys have moved to the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He says "The experience has totally changed my attitude about keeping things, and what is important to me. I just don't keep things that I might miss if I lost them again." I don't really know where I'm going with these thoughts, especially given the business I'm in. Sonny Carter http://www.sonc.com Digital Imaging Specialist Cammie G. Henry Research Center Northwestern State University of Louisiana Natchitoches, LA A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>