Possession divestment by sales in later life.

Residential relocation in later life is almost always a downsizing, with many possessions to be divested in a short period of time. This article examines older movers' capacities for selling things, and ways that selling attenuates people's ties to those things, thus accomplishing the human dis-possession of the material convoy. In qualitative interviews in 79 households in the Midwestern United States, older adults reported their experience with possession sales associated with residential relocation.

The reproduction of gender norms through downsizing in later life residential relocation.

Using data collected from qualitative interviews in 36 households, this article examines people's use of social relations based on gender to perform tasks associated with residential relocation in later life. Without prompting, our respondents addressed the social relations of gender in the meanings of things, in the persons of gift recipients, and in the persons of actors accomplishing the tasks. They matched gender-typed objects to same-sex recipients, reproducing circumstances of possession and passing on expectations for gender identity.