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A movement in Sweden, called döstädning, or death cleaning, urges us to start decluttering early to keep others from having to do it for us.

Sometimes you get rid of things because they don't work. And then what do you do for a replacement, as you consider your downsizing goals? I contemplate my dead desktop.

When downsizing, you have basically seven options: sell, gift, donate, recycle, toss, re-purpose, and keep. I briefly explore each of these options.

Dolls with handmade clothes, miniatures, school and camp mementos, paper dolls, doll house furniture, and tiny bears with complete wardrobes. Facing up to my inability to deal with so much nostalgia.

For me, lists have been important for my slow-downsize to maintain a record and to keep me from losing my way. I provide some tips for list-makers, with the caveat that they shouldn't take the place of doing the actual work.

How strong is your tendency to save things, whether useful or not? How sentimental are you about possessions? Savers and sentimentalists face different challenges in downsizing.

The wardrobe trunk contained positive reminders of childhood, but the items had acquired a musty smell. I emptied it and dealt with the odor problem but put off some of the big decisions. Too many memories.

Boxes, tubs, trunks in the musty back room of the basement-an obvious second line of attack in my slow downsizing.

I remind myself of my own good fortune when considering other people's losses, especially during Hurricane Harvey.

Given the vastness of my downsizing task, I decided to start with my low hanging fruit--something easy and with a low attachment quotient: files from my 15+ year consulting business for which I often had digital versions. Taking these to the shredders was enormously satisfying and freed up space. I had some momentum to continue.

A large home with many spaces to store things, collections of meaningful family possessions, a penchant for saving things of my own, and a desire to preserve important memories. These are my starting points.