Canada’s population is aging: there are now more people in this country over the age of 65 than under the age of 15. This older population is looking to the future and seeking more freedom and less home maintenance; alternately, they are unable to stay in their homes due to changed physical, mental, or financial concerns, that entail moving out of necessity, even unwillingly. In the process, many baby boomers are downsizing, decluttering their existing homes where they raised their families and accumulated a lifetime of goods, including significant personal belongings that are markers of personal identity. This process of downsizing and purging leads to emotional roadblocks when these individuals are confronted with these sentimental, personal belongings: items that they would either like to pass on to the next generation or dispose of, but find doing so extremely difficult. This study examines this phenomenon both from the perspective of older persons who have recently downsized and from individuals of any age who have recently moved and have been faced with the reality of parting with significant belongings.
This study seeks to answer the questions: what is the connection between personal objects and memory? How might we use storytelling to access, preserve, and share these stored memories, ultimately working toward the development of a framework that would allow for these stories to be shared, ensuring that the object retains its value while passing it onto someone else, in a way that minimizes a sense of pain or loss on the part of the original owner?