Upbeat music Coming up on Legacy List with Matt Paxton.

Matt Paxton.

Good to meet you, man.

Matt helps his son De-clutter a home filled with family heirlooms.

She made him an Han Solo vest.

That is special.

He finds items that remind him of what a positive force his mother is in his life.

Oh, my.

Your mom sounds amazing.

I think I lucked out.

I think I hit the jackpot with her.

Moving into a new home is exciting, but de-cluttering and downsizing can be an emotional journey.

We need your help back.

I can see.

I see a lot of collections already.

It's paralyzing.

That's why it's important to start with a legacy list.

It's a list of a few cherished items with high emotional value that help tell your family's story.

Oh.

My name is Matt Paxton, and I have the best job in the world.

Me and my team of experts help people downsize their homes and move.

But we also help them find their legacy list.

You made my dream come true.

I can█t belive it.

This is why we do this.

Funding for Legacy List is provided by Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins Our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience, no matter the size or distance of your move.

Bekins is ready to help you get there.

You can find us at Bekins.com Bekins, this is moving.

First Light Home Care.

Committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

First Light believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing and personal hygiene.

Details at First Light Home Care dot com I'm in Evanston, Illinois.

Just outside of Chicago.

I'm on my way to meet with Matt Furatto, who needs our help Downsizing the family brownstone Once he cleans out the house.

He has to decide whether he wants to keep living here or move on with his life.

Matt.

Matt Paxton.

Good to meet you, Matt.

Very good to meet you.

How are you?

I'm Great, man.

A beautiful home.

Come on up.

Where do ya█ll live?

A middle floor.

Okay, man, do you do a lot of steps?

Look at this.

Yeah.

This is really cool.

All right, so who lives here?

I live here.

My mother lived here for close to 20.

Years.

On this floor, and then she suffered a stroke.

And so I came out from Washington, moved in.

I mean, it's been a four year journey.

Last year, we moved here to an assisted living memory care ward, and she gets good oversight and is involved in a lot of activities where she's at now, but I█ve sort of tried to make this place my home.

I had a job for a little while, some sporadic work, and it took some adjustment.

I've done the best I can.

I don't know that this is the place for me for the long term.

Although his mom is safer and in a care facility, he's now got to decide, Do I clean up this house and live here and start my life again in this town?

Or do I pack everything up and go to an entire new city?

What made you get into politics?

It might be in part from her.

You know, she believes in the capacity for improving the well-being of others through activism.

She's a doer, not a complainer.

Definitely a doer.

She was on a bus to Iowa to campaign for Barack Obama back in the primary.

Ironically, I guess I was in Iowa at the same time campaigning for Hillary Clinton.

So it comes from from both sides.

I think it's in your blood.

As I look around, obviously, this is the main room.

It's pretty clean.

What other spaces do you need our help in?

Well, I've consolidated a lot of things in the dining room.

All right.

You're right.

It's not a dining room, but it is a lot of art.

Man, whose art is this?

Was there a Sarah Simpson.

At the time Sarah Farrauto originals.

So that's your mom?

Yeah.

We had a country house right across the street from that barn That's me.

The shirtless boy and Little Pony and a bicentennial parade in Benson, Vermont.

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of Huck Finn ish type of paintings.

Yeah, that's.

That's me.

Fishing rod in my hand.

I think it has a nice quality.

It's sort of impressionistic, and it just captures the tranquility and the calm.

Basically, like childcare.

She could just park me down ther for hours.

If I put my kids on a bridge in the country, I'd go to jail.

(Laughter) Look at this backyard?

Thanks.

Your a gardener.

Become one.

I love it.

Yeah, a couple.

Tomatoes, mint, basil.

Help yourself.

All right.

Oh, you got a full garage.

So you've put some stuff online to sell?

Yeah.

Some is moving.

Some is not.

Yeah.

All right.

And I can bring some people in and get rid of the trash and the donation.

That'd be a big help.

And then the goal would be that this is empty.

Talk to me about the legacy list.

There's a couple items that are important to my mother.

I never met her father.

Okay?

Her father was the superintendent of the Central Vermont Railroad.

So one of the big items to me would be to find these watches that were in his family.

I don't know to what degree they're connected to the railroad, whether he got them from the railroad.

But I know that there's some pocket watches and they come from her paternal side of the family.

Second item would be something that my grandfather gave to my grandmother.

Their wedding was 1930, so it would have been at least 1930.

It is a small little painting on, I think, butterfly wings.

Butterfly wing painting?

Yeah, it's a small little painting and it kind of glistens.

Boy, I've never.

Right.

Seen one of those.

It's kind of unique.

That's really cool.

Predates my mother.

Okay.

The other thing would be I told you how I spent a lot of time fishing.

We would go up to Vermont.

One of our country houses was an old hunting lodge, and it had a big game fish map of the United States.

And I'd come down to the bottom of the stairs from the loft where I slept, and it would be right in front of me in the main hallway of our small cottage.

So it had like for each state, it had like the best fish in each state.

Yeah, it was framed.

So it was a painting or it was a illustrate?

Illustrated.

Okay.

But another thing that's important to me is my Star Wars memorabilia.

Okay?

I'm sure a lot of people have star Wars memorabilia.

And I really I seem to remember waiting in line with my mother to go see A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie, I think it came out in 77 and I became a huge fan and wanted to control the force, you know, have a lightsaber.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And she entertained that and went all in and would buy me the figurines.

We had a birthday party and she drew a giant Death Star pin.

The Proton Torpedo on the exhaust fan of the Death Star rather than pin the tail on the donkey.

Your mom sounds amazing, dude.

I think.

I think I lucked out.

I think I hit the jackpot with her.

I get it.

Like I get why you're like.

It's a no brainer.

I had to take - your mom took care of you.

Exactly.

I would just like to find the blanket.

I remember I had a fleece blanket and it had, like, the New Hope logo.

We can definitely help you.

I'm going to bring one of my team members in to pick through the house and remove any recycling or donate or discard that you don't want.

That would be so great.

All right, dude, thanks for your time and I will see you tomorrow.

All right.

We didn't have a lot of time to go through Matt█s stuff.

And I needed help from someone who could hit the ground running.

So I called Avi because I knew he would jump right in.

Matt, what's up man?

There you go.

How's it going man?

Doing good.

So did you get all all the research I sent you?

I did.

I did.

Some cool stuff.

Here's the box of negatives that I find in every house.

You know my tip on negatives.

Is that pictures of home of the house.

I don't care what it is.

Throw it away.

Doesn't matter what's in the negatives.

You never looked at it before.

You're not going to look at it later.

Well, this is literally Matt's mom's diary.

Matt's dad's diary.

Wow.

Look at how thorough this is This is everything they did.

I bet she described so vividly.

Two or three pages a day.

Our trip in Europe, 1980.

Every single place they went.

To live both in the city and the country and then go travel the world.

Matt's family is just very interesting people.

I'm deep in pictures.

Lots of pictures.

Wonder who this is?

That's Matt's mothers dad.

And that's the guy that owned the pocket watched that we are looking for.

Makes sense.

Look at his style Pretty sylish dude.

He worked for the railroad.

I'd be keeping looking because if it's a picture of him, we're looking for his stuff.

May be getting warm.

Let's see.

We got it here.

The Bausch and Lomb.

Honorary Science Award.

And that's to his mother.

Art, science, politics.

Yeah.

Where does it end?

Yes.

It's pretty awesome, lady.

This feels heavy, which usually means something.

Boom.

Guys watches.

Grandpa's watches.

Wow.

This has got to be what's on the legacy list.

Man, A Waltham and a Zenith.

Waltham would obviously be the most common.

This is my style.

You know, like that that.

I don't like to carry a watch honestly.

Then you can't be accused of being late if you don't have a watch.

It still works.

Listen, They don't make stuff like this Having a pocket watch just signifies you made it.

You know, you've you've arrived, you've achieved something.

You're moving to a new level, a new class.

I think this is just a nice small item that brings you back generationally and it brings pride to really hard work.

All right, boom.

Legacy List number one.

It's time to talk about time.

In 1656, Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens invented a clock controlled by the motion of a pendulum.

This device allowed clocks to tell time more accurately.

In the 1600s, Charles the second helped popularize the waistcoat, and gentlemen started carrying timepieces tucked in their coat pockets.

The pocket watch was born.

Wearing a watch wasn't just functional.

It was a sign of punctuality, a way to tell the world you were dependable.

It wasn't long before pocket watches were being mass produced.

They were especially popular with railroad workers who relied on them to keep trains running on time.

By the early 20th century, time moved from the pocket to the wrist.

At first, these wristwatches were considered trendy jewelry just for ladies.

That changed with World War One.

There was no time for soldiers to check their pocket watch in the trenches.

The wristwatch became a tactical necessity and a masculine accessory.

After the war.

The wristwatch effectively replaced the pocket watch as the timepiece of choice.

Will pocket watches ever come back in style?

Only time will tell.

His mom put labels on everything.

Avi, I think we got something.

Holy cow.

I sound like a Legacy List item.

It might be.

I was told it was a small painting.

Oh, here we go.

This is it.

I wish the Matt's mom was a staff on Legacy List.

It would make our job so much easier.

First gift from John.

This is Matt's, Grandma.

And she's labeled it.

Just like so.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Big art surrounds this house, and it's surrounded Matt his entire life.

But I can see why a little piece of art really sticks out for him.

Because it's tied to his mom and his grandparents and the love that they pass down.

I think the sky and the water is butterfly wings and I think everything else is painted.

This is absolutely incredible.

I can see why he's excited about this.

All right.

All right another Legacy List.

We did good in here, man.

Now that we found a couple legacy list items in the dining room, Avi and I are going to go look at the garage.

Another day.

Another garage.

So what are we looking Avi?

Fishing map?

Yeah.

And then we've got the Star Wars items, too, right?

Yes.

What do you got there?

Hmm.

Check this out, dude.

Dungeons and Dragons.

The garage It was an absolute time capsule for growing up in the eighties.

Got a Garfield.

All the cool stuff that Matt has saved from his life.

A kryptonite lock?

Yes, Kryptonite with everything.

And I got to tell you, it's awesome.

I might have something here What you got?

Let me bring it over to you, man Let's see what we got here.

So he told me that they had a birthday party.

Look at this.

Here is the cups from his birthday party.

The little wax paper cups.

This is.

I can feel this.

Oh, this is the Millennium Falcon.

Yes, sir.

There it is.

The Millennium Falcon.

Look at that.

What else?

And I want you to open that thing up right there.

That looks.

This one?

If that's got the... thats in the box, man.

Dude, this is worth some money.

I've spent a long career cleaning up stuff from the forties and fifties and sixties, and I'm so glad to finally find cool stuff.

My stuff.

Stuff from the eighties.

All right.

This is not the blanket.

But, dude, she made him this man.

She made him a Han Solo vest.

I hope to be half the dad that this lady was mom.

To him.

I know.

That is special.

This should be a legacy list item.

This is incredible.

Although I'm in Matt's garage in my brain.

I'm in my attic playing with these same toys with my brother.

I think I have found what we were looking for.

And the sheets.

Oh, my gosh.

What?

I had the sheets.

God, this is.

Bring me back to the early eighties.

Get the pillowcases, and we got the blanket.

This is a legacy list item.

Fleece blanket.

Just takes you back.

Oh, it's just like.

Oh, man.

Finding this, Star Wars stuff was right in line with, like, my own childhood.

It was really the first mass produced awesome thing that we could all get into.

And we did.

My favorite store was character and had to be Yoda.

He has so much power inside such a small body.

Kind of remind me of myself.

You know.

My sheets weren't this clean, bu Oh Matt.

What do you got?

You got it.

I think I got it.

Yeah, man.

Holy cow.

Look at that.

The big game, fish map.

The best fish in each state.

Hmm.

And Canada.

And Mexico.

Fresh and saltwater fish.

It's exactly what he said it was, but I sure didn't envision something this cool.

No, I definitely didn't.

envision this.

Wow.

This fishing map is just a symbol of all the time.

He took off with his mom.

And all the time he was able to spend with her when she was well.

Good find.

I would go as far as to say it's the catch of the day.

Please don't.

Please don't go that far.

Indigenous people have been fishing the lakes, streams and rivers of North America for centuries.

The Narragansett of New England used nets and spears to catch bluefish, striped bass and cod in the Pacific Northwest.

Salmon was king.

It's estimated that the native people of this region consumed over £320 of salmon per person per year.

Oof!

We're going to need a bigger boat.

Early European settlers also counted on fishing to put food on the table.

And it wasn't long before it became a big part of their economy.

Fisheries were part of a boom that fueled the growth of many coastal towns.

In 1602 one English Explorer was so amazed by the abundance of fish off the coast of New England that he renamed Cape Saint James to Cape Cod.

Over the years, the U.S. seafood industry has remained robust.

Here's something they didn't teach you in school.

Roughly 8 billion punds of fish are caught each year in U.S. waters, valued at a whopping $4.7 billion.

Fishing is also a popular recreational activity enjoyed by millions, whether it's fly fishing in Montana, deep sea fishing off the Gulf Coast, or dipping your line in a local pond looking for an escape from today's fast paced world.

Try fishing.

You might get hooked.

All the Legacy List items have been found.

And now it's time for me and the homeowners to go into the garage and kind of sort through some things and determine what's going to stay and what's going to go.

And take that bad boy.

Matt and his mom have already downsized into this smaller house.

There wasn't a massive amount of items for to move, but he did have some.

I tell you what, let's just say this is doing the research on it.

Matt, the movers and I were able to make some quick decisions, really work through getting things moved out.

And now this garage is a functional space.

This week we had a couple goals.

But the physical downsizing, we got a head start on the garage.

How does that feel knowing that a lot of that stuff is gone?

It's good.

I'm not going to be reminded of the daunting task of downsizing every time I get out of the car.

I feel like the load is a lot lighter.

Okay.

The first item on your legacy list was the pocket watches.

Tell me about these pocket watches.

Whose were they?

Is it alright If I read.

These watches are very old.

One I think was W.R. Simpson's, John's dad.

So that would have been my great grandfather.

One is a very old railroad superintendent.

Gave to John being my grandfather.

So who is that from.

Who wrote that note?

It would have been my grandmother.

Okay.

Both those watches work.

Oh, these are amazing.

What does this make you feel like seeing all this stuff?

Well, it gives me a line to the past that I have never has been down.

Let's move on to the next legacy list item.

This is the butterfly wing art.

Here it is.

Holy cow, man.

Look at that.

What a beautiful piece.

First gift from John, I believe, about 1928.

We were not engaged.

It has a nice shininess, like a radiance.

For me, it was the symbolism of art in your family.

How significant is art in your upbringing?

I just think art and culture are important for kind of helping you understand who you are and what to put emphasis on.

As she's gotten older.

Is art still enjoyable for her?

It is.

One of the reasons I like where she's at now is because there's activities.

Some of those activities include drawing, coloring.

Just the activity brings her joy.

I found some of your drawing instructional books in the in the garage yesterday.

My mother is very proud of my art in a way that I'm not sure she should be.

The next item you asked us to find was the fish map.

Yeah.

Boy, did we find it.

I'm going to hand you the picture.

This is me and Avi We found it.

We were very excited.

I have to tell you.

Big game, fish map.

What a piece.

We found it, and we immediately got into it, like, Wait a minute, I've been here.

What's the fish I got here?

You know?

It became an experience.

It wasn't just a poster.

Just a neat map.

Has a an old timey feel.

And yet it's sort of informative, like.

Like a globe.

See different things in different places.

I kept going back to the story, you know, that paintings she made.

But you're like, Oh, yeah, I was up on the bridge and she's down here on the boat, landing, painting.

And I'm like, You're telling me like, it's a normal story.

Like, everybody's mom takes their son to Vermont for the summer and paints them fishing on a bridge.

Heads up.

They Don't.

You know, like, that's not normal.

I think it's normal for your mom.

The last part was obviously my favorite part.

This was a blast.

I will bring out the Star Wars blanket.

Oh, my.

Had matching sheets as well.

Look at that.

What does that bring back to you?

I mean, I feel like I'm waiting in line with my mother to see this movie.

I mean, you had some awesome stuff dude.

This is actually a really good piece.

I mean, historically, this is not accurate because I don't think Han and Luke ever rode the Land Cruiser.

Right.

But I don't know if I had Obi-Wan.

This blew my mind.

Oh, the cups.

Those are from my birthday party.

Maybe the one time I was allowed to have Kool-Aid.

Was your mom strict about stuff like that?

She did have a health food kick.

At one point, she talked to the other parents in the PTA about switching out candies for, like, carob chips.

That's always great to have your mom be the one.

I think I get beat up pretty bad.

Matt's Mom is an amazing woman, and you can see why.

Matt is the man he is because this person showed him everything.

Beautiful in life.

This is my favorite item I think I've ever found.

Walk me through.

Oh, my.

Walk me through this vest dude.

I don't know that.

I certainly can't put it on.

Do you remember it?

No, I really don't have any recollection of it.

I. I had a number of items that my mother did embroider at one point, but this.

I mean, she recognized something special in this story.

In this universe.

And she recognized, I guess, how much I enjoyed it.

If you want insurance that your child will look after you when you're in a time of need, you should embroider a Chewbacca.

on their six year old vest.

It's a guarantee lock.

Right here.

You know, I was thinking this was a story about how awesome of a son you are.

You are damn good son.

You can keep telling that story.

Let's be honest you're a really good son, But, man, if this is not a symbol of doing anything for your son.

Just an extraordinarily selfless, caring woman who is artistic and creative, and this sense of optimism that that inspires me even now.

He is walking into this next phase of life with the confidence and the appreciation that he took care of his mom.

But now he can focus on his life, and I'm really excited to see where it goes.

Thank you, man.

Proud to be here with you.

Thank you.

And thanks for sharing your story with Us.

And thank you for all your help.

It's been awesome.

Funding for Legacy List is provided by Wheaton Worldwide.

Moving Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones and your belongings get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at Wheaton Worldwide dot com.

Wheaton Worldwide Moving We move your life.

First Light Home care.

committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

First Light believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing and personal hygiene.

Details at First Light Home Care dot com Visit My Legacy List dot com to learn more about tips, tools and professionals to help make your own big life move easier.

Learn more about this episode or submit your story to be featured on the show at My Legacy List dot com.