Pictured is a hurricane lantern sitting on top of a garbage bin. Why? Because I'm getting rid of it.
Finally.
I rescued it years ago from my parents' home. This was among the 100,000 other items they saved over the course of their lives, including my favorite baby doll when I was two years old and innumerable bric-a-brac porcelain figurines with broken or missing hands. Why I latched onto something so insignificant as a hurricane lantern remains a mystery. I guess it is because I remember when it was put to its best use -- lighting our home when the hurricanes came.
Now I'm unloading it.
I realized today something I've seemingly known all along; that things themselves have no value. Even sentimental objects eventually have no real meaning. It is the memories associated with those objects that last forever, not the objects themselves.
So do yourself (and your heirs) a favor -- unload all that stuff that is taking up too much space in your life and which, truth be told, you can easily live without.
You will still have the memories.