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Please, do your family a favorite and clean out the house while you can. We are in the midst of cleaning out a relative's house and while it could be MUCH worse (that's coming with my FIL), it is still so much. Food to a pantry, clothes to the thrift shop/Salvation Army, books to the library, and that's before hitting the drawers full of pictures and boxes, folders full of every receipt since the beginning of time and newspaper clippings, comics and magazines (what do you do with National Geographic now days?). We are also working at downsizing ourselves to move to a smaller place. Our children will be told they need to thank us in the future.
Oh, man. My mother had 20 years worth of Sears catalogs and never even shopped there. Stacking up taking valuable kitchen closet space. And she wasn't even a hoarder just had 4000 SF of crap for some reason all neatly put away as if it mattered. Like someone would want it.
I gave up after picking out the actual stuff that mattered. I called a "clean out company" and traded them her 20 years of Hummels (and whatever else they wanted) for the clean out. I had already ascertained that they had no value but the guy thought he could resell them at a flea market.
I wish you people lived close to me. I'd love to help you get rid of all that "junk". The advent of eBay has made things so easy.
Blue Willow Ware
old magazines
souvenir spoons
vintage clothing
That's just a few. I've bought contents of houses and rented hotel rooms advertising to buy that "old junk".
A tiny silver box with thirty half dimes inside
eight cartons of old sporting magazines
accumulations of old pulp magazines with a few dime novels
toy trains and erector sets
That's just a few. I've found plenty to keep or to sell depending upon my interest. There's no fool like and old fool, particularly when they want to clear out the house.
To everyone that mentions having to clean out houses: So did we. Both sets of parents. My parents were "keepers". There was a reason.
And it may be the same, or similar reason that you are doing all that hauling.
My parents were married with three children under 7 years old when the Great Depression came. They had three more five years apart. I've written posts about the stories one of the three oldest brothers told me concerning what it was like then. I won't repeat them here, but you could probably find them if you did an advanced search using my screen name and the word basement or depression.
Suffice it to say that there are reasons people keep things. Some are more explainable than others. My parents had good reasons. Some things just can't be forgotten. They haunt you for life.
But cleaning out that house was a major undertaking. I still have a couple of hundred pieces of depression and 50's decorative glass in the basement. We took about 3000 books to Planned Parenthood at that time and over a thousand more since. We still have some as do other family members.
Yes, it's a lot of work, but those items that you hate hauling out of their house are all representations of their lives. No matter how minor or silly they seem to you they were important enough to them to keep.
I agree getting rid of your own stuff so your relatives won't have to do it for you. I have tried to encourage some family members of mine who are hoarders to do so. But it hasn't seemed to help and I am not looking forward to the future responsibility of having to get rid of their stuff.
I agree getting rid of your own stuff so your relatives won't have to do it for you. I have tried to encourage some family members of mine who are hoarders to do so. But it hasn't seemed to help and I am not looking forward to the future responsibility of having to get rid of their stuff.
Call Wyoming. He's glad to help. Just remember that while you're selling that stuff to him he's calling you a fool.
Yes, this is a tough one. When I retired this year I vowed that I would start to clear things out. I've lived in the same house for almost 40 years and things do accumulate, despite having a few garage sales. But I had the opposite reaction from my grown kids. Between a sentimental daughter and a son who likes my decorative stuff I have to think twice before I get rid of things. But at least I can organize it. The good news is all our pre-digital photos are in numerous photo albums, all labeled and identified. The last few thousand photos they can find in my iPhone and on my laptop.
Please, do your family a favorite and clean out the house while you can.
My dad did this in the last years of his life; every time I'd go to visit, he would try to get me take "stuff" - and the stuff my brothers and I passed on got either thrown away, given away, or donated. By the time he passed away, there wasn't much left but the necessities and what he felt would have meaning to us - particular pieces of furniture, family movies, pictures, etc.
I find myself doing this to some extent (I'm 59). My second to the youngest son bought a place on acreage last spring and so far he has taken some of my garden tools, my Troy-Bilt rototiller, my expensive wheelbarrow, a lawnmower, and other miscellaneous.
Also, I don't hit the garage sales as much as I used to, and when I go to thrift stores, I think twice about what I buy; things I know I can use or to replace something broken (like a coffee maker, recently) I will buy, but trinkets and doodads get looked at and then put back on the shelf - stuff I would have bought a few years ago...... "just because."
Edited to add: My kids are probably going to have more trouble figuring out what to do with my animals. Even that, I am much less inclined to just automatically take an animal that needs a new home - I have told people that I am "a last resort" and that I will only do it in situations of life or death for the animal.
My mother was a packrat and the work was left to me after she died. Did the best I could but was so overwhelmed and btw, it's quite emotional too, I finally hired someone to do the rest after I had removed the valuable items.
I remember thinking...."if she weren't already dead, I'd have her killed for leaving this to me" .....
Quote:
Originally Posted by choff5
Please, do your family a favorite and clean out the house while you can. We are in the midst of cleaning out a relative's house and while it could be MUCH worse (that's coming with my FIL), it is still so much. Food to a pantry, clothes to the thrift shop/Salvation Army, books to the library, and that's before hitting the drawers full of pictures and boxes, folders full of every receipt since the beginning of time and newspaper clippings, comics and magazines (what do you do with National Geographic now days?). We are also working at downsizing ourselves to move to a smaller place. Our children will be told they need to thank us in the future.
We've started. We're a good way through the basement, but took a hiatus to work on the bathrooms and go to Las Vegas.
I might be after Thanksgiving (It's at our house) to get back to it, but it will be done. Three piles: Keep, toss, Goodwill, and the keep pile will further whittled down.
Just keep truckin'!
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