My love of doing household inventories began in the mid 80s after my Aunt Sara passed away. Mom was the executor of her estate and among her estate papers were two handwritten inventories. One was of Sara's possessions and the other was of possessions that had belonged to her parents. Mom showed them to me one day and ever since, I was hooked. I thought they were extremely interesting. I loved the history behind it. They showed what the pieces were, where they came from and who they had belonged to. And it gave me a sense of what households contained during certain periods of time. I just loved it.
Naturally, I had to start doing inventory. I mean, what 13-year-old boy wouldn't want to do that? I started with Grandmother's house. I listed everything. Well, almost everything. I didn't do clothes or personal items like that. Just antiques and collectibles and knick knacks. That was my thing. I loved finding out about the pieces and their history. And she was more than willing to share that information with me. I went on to do our house and my Aunt Billie's. In the long run, it did help when it came time for those estates to be settled as well.
I would like to get an inventory of my own home completed this year. I want to do it more for the history than for any other reason. I don't know if my nieces have any interest in the history of things, but when the time comes I want them to know. It might make them look at something a little differently knowing it belonged to their grandmother or great grandmother. Either way, I will be satisfied that it is done. It might be a good project to start on this cold, rainy Saturday morning. We shall see!
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