The other evening, I had an exchange with an old friend who was bragging about how she was getting rid of possessions in order to only live with what she needed. Most readers would assume that this person was a young 20-something idealist who is perhaps living in one of those 500-square-foot Manhattan studio apartments. In fact, my friend is a 60-year-old married woman living in a large house with her husband. What is the story? As a dedicated cold warrior who fights every day to stem the tide of minimalism, I was at a real loss by her comment. Yes, of course, as we all age, we think about downsizing. Its the great circle of antiques that I have often written about. You start buying when you are young. Perhaps the first few pieces are for your first apartment, then they go into your first home, then into the really big family home, then split out for the beach house and so on. In the end, however, as you get older and arthritis keeps you from stairs and you really hate cutting grass, you start to shrink back down towards that apartment. It is a circle. But my friend is not quite there yet in terms of moving to the small apartment in the retirement home. What then is the root cause of her desire to shed her possessions? It was the challenge of dealing with the inevitable cycle of losing ones parents and inheriting their things. That is an issue for almost anyone over 40. For me it happened in my early 40s, but others I know had to work through it in their early 60s. Suddenly you are faced with the nostalgic challenge of dealing with your parents possessions. This can be significantly accelerated if you find yourself also the recipient of the estates of aunts and uncles and grandparents. This was the case with my friend who became a minimalist because of the massive influx of stuff from her parents estate. Inherited estates are never easy to manage. It is the emotion that comes from deciding not only what to keep, but also memories of your own childhood. Sometimes, your own mortality is somehow being questioned when having to resolve that of someone else who has passed. So, I get the concern that my friend had for becoming a minimalist. It is, after all, about figuring out what to do with the sudden and often unexpected abundance that comes from now having two dining room suites. The answer is that you need to decide what you need now rather than what was in the past. My grandparents dining room suite followed my mother through two moves. When it came to me, I honestly could look at it and realize that it was a nice baronial set from the 1920s, but it was not what I wanted. It went to auction, and while I sometimes wistfully wonder what happened to it, the reality was that it never would have worked in any of my subsequent homes. Dealing with estates is never pleasant or fun. It is part of life. But, it need not be a killer to your own collection. Remember, make choices based on your needs now rather than solely on nostalgia. Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.