“Using The Summer To Help Us Age In Place More Efficiently”

Taking advantage of the warm summertime temperatures to get outside and enjoy golfing – and to examine our equipment to make sure that broken or unnecessary items can be eliminated to reduce clutter.

Engaging in outdoor activities

With the summer, and all of us in the northern hemisphere should be experiencing this season now, we naturally think of outdoor activities. They can be organized such as playing softball, tennis, volleyball, or golf, or they can be more solitary pursuits such as hiking, swimming, birdwatching, or biking.

Regardless, the summer allows us a range of opportunities outside. We get to leave our homes for a little while and experience the sun and fresh air.

Indoor activities are great and plentiful, but outdoor activities are important as well. It gives us balance.

Evaluating our equipment

Some of us will be getting out our bicycles, swim fins, softball gloves, golf clubs, tennis racquets, and similar recreational equipment for the first time this season. This is the perfect chance for an assessment of that equipment to determine if it is still safe to use, functional, and something we desire to have.

Maybe we put it away after using it last season with the intention of getting it cleaned or repaired. Now a season later, it looks the same as when we last used it, and we may not even be able to use it in the condition that it’s in. That gives us two choices: replace it or discard it (donate it if it still has some intrinsic value). A third choice would be to get rid of it and not replace it – deciding instead to pursue a different activity that is more to our liking now.

Regardless, there are several times throughout the year when it is appropriate to evaluate the items that we retain and make a determination about whether we really need to hang onto them anymore. So, as we look at the summer recreational equipment that we are getting out of the garage, basement, closet, attic, or off-site storage unit, we have the perfect opportunity to decide that it’s time to part ways with some of it. We may replace it with a newer model, or we may just move on to another activity that does not involve the items we are discarding.

Evaluating doesn’t automatically mean eliminating

As we look through the items we have been storing since last summer, in preparation for using them again now, we may realize that they no longer have any value or meaning for us. So, we should not keep them. On the other hand, we should not feel that we have to get rid of everything that we have not used in at least a year. At the end of this season, we can take a hard look at what deserves to be put away for the year and what can be eliminated. Some items will continue to serve us well, and others won’t. It’s this second group that we can discard or donate.

Let’s enjoy the summer season of outdoor activities and get an extra boost from it knowing that when we put our items away at the end of the summer that we will have eliminated ones that no longer need to be retained – because they are broken obsolete, or we have lost interest in that activity.

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