One of my friends Susan, has six children, all married, all living away from Canberra, and she and her husband are still in their gigantic house.

When you enter the house you'd, swear you were in a used furniture store. She has furniture atop furniture.

She has her mother's silver, her grandmother's silver, she also has all their sheets and towels (in a room-sized linen 'cupboard') because her children might need them.

They, by the way, neither want, nor need them.Some of the sheets are still in packaging from after the 2nd world war.

The children have warned them they will just set a match to the house when they exit this world.

To be honest I think they have reached the stage where they are totally stymied by the very thought of starting to downsize.

When you are generally generous, but you can't give anything away, it's super problematic.