YOURS, MINE AND OURS. How To Blend Two Households And Stay Sane In The Process
YOURS, MINE AND OURS How To Blend Two Households And Stay SaneIn The ProcessHow exciting, to be getting married! How joyous the occasion!How much extra ?stuff? you?ll now have! Gone are the days when agirl had a hope chest where she saved the things she?deventually need for marriage. These days, people are gettingmarried later in life, which means they often come into themarriage with a full house. Suddenly, you?re the proud owner oftwo of everything and not sure what to do.Here are a few tips to help make blending your lives easier andhelp others in the process:1. Go through each house together, and identify which items areduplicates. Talk about each item honestly. This is the time todecide whose wine rack you?ll keep, whose kitchen table you?llkeep, and so on. If you can legitimately use two of something inyour new life, such as televisions or stereos, go ahead and keepboth. Try not to be too attached to something simply because it?syours and realize that the more you streamline now, the easieryour move will be. If your kitchen table is circa 1971 and yourpartner?s is only two years old, be realistic about which tokeep. The idea is to choose the things that will blend well tobest furnish your new place, not to fight to keep everythingthat is yours.2. For things such as silverware and kitchen items, cookware,and other small items, do the same evaluation process as for thelarger items.3. As you decide which things to keep, tag the things you areletting go with brightly colored sticky notes.4. If it?s not winter where you live, pull your tagged itemsoutside and have a yard or garage sale. Don?t be greedy.Remember, you want this stuff to sell quickly so you don?t haveto move it.5. Everything that doesn?t sell, donate to an organization thatcan use it, such as your church or synagogue, The Metro AtlantaFurniture Bank (404-355-8530), a homeless or day shelter, or theSalvation Army.Presto! You?re down to one set of furnishings and you?ve donatedthings to people who can use them. When blending your personalfiles from two separate households, remember, it?s not necessaryto keep all your files in the same file cabinet. You don?t haveto combine your household files if you aren?t comfortable doingso. Just be sure that your filing system is easy to navigate incase your partner needs to retrieve any of your filedinformation.If you do elect to combine your household files, be sure keepfiles of the same type together, in a truly integrated filingsystem. For example, keep both your auto insurance informationunder the same category, instead of filing yours under CAR andyour partner?s under INSURANCE. Also, don?t keep all thepaperwork for any given subject in one folder. Divide it intotwo folders, one labeled with your name and one with yourpartner?s. You can successfully blend two households if you takethe time to set it up right in the beginning.
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