Unless these items truly hold sentimental value, it's worth selling them to a used furniture store or at a yard sale for a bit of cash. (I'll tell you why sell in a minute.) Or spend a few bucks to put an ad in your local "Pennysaver" type newspaper advertising item for sale.

SELL HIGH; BUY LOW Then negotiate with potential buyer so you get best price possible for item you're selling. That means you must suggest a price that's beyond what you expect to get. Why? Because these days potential buyers will almost always ask you to come down on price. In fact, I guarantee three out of four buyer prospects will try to get you to lower price. So start high so they feel like they're negotiating price down.

Why sell item in first place? Because you want to use cash you make to upgrade to a taller unit of same item. If you watch those home decorating/organizing shows on television, you may recall that there is a certain show that uses just this strategy. They have a big yard sale with all participant's useless items and use money to upgrade to more useful and stylish items for same space in home. The difference in home is usually extraordinary at completion. You're striving for a similar method and outcome.

NOW DOUBLE YOUR SPACE You want to use cash to buy a comparable piece of furniture that serves a similar function as piece you just discarded. You can even put new furniture piece in exact same spot where you had previous piece. But make sure new piece of furnishing is taller with more shelving or nooks. Remember, big two word secret in this article is "go vertical." So in end, you'll use same floor space in your home but double its storage capacity.

And when replacing your items with comparable items, don't hesitate to buy used furniture (even from same shop you sold yours too). If it's in good shape in regard to quality (e.g. no rotting, flimsy wood panels, etc.) but not exactly your favorite color, you can fix that. Get a four dollar can of spray paint and a primer spray coat and change color. Or get creative such as use some pretty contact paper to redo outside. And one final piece of advice: Don't forget to negotiate when you're buyer!

Jeremiah would be first one in my ancestral family who I would conjure up if Family Tree Maker offered a Digital "Conjure up Your Dead Ancestors" software program. He is person in my family's past I never met but who I most admire. I am sorry that I will never get to meet him face to face. That is, unless someone finds a photo of him and posts it to DeadFred.com.

How many of you reading this lost a relative during this horrible pandemic? If you have a story to share, send it to webmaster@deadfred.com.

Here are some links for more information on 1918 Spanish Influenza Epidemic:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/ http://www.nimr.mrc.ac.uk/millhillessays/1998/influenza1918.htm

This link will give you a example of mortality rate in month of October compared to other months of 1918: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paschuy2/1918.html?o_xid=0038314405&o_lid=0038314405&o_xt=38314405

From Schuylkill Co., PA. Compliments of Schuylkill County Ties