Don't bother saving things for your kids (toy, child, grandmother)
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Wow, it has never entered my mind to buy collectibles for future. I also don't have anything to show for my childhood, and wish some stuff was saved (nothing breakable!) - my baby dress, my early drawing. It is so cute to hold my husband's christening gown. The space it takes up is a baby hanger space, only.
All I save are my kids drawings/writing, their most cute clothes, and toys that are far from collectible, but all beat up and worn from playing. I think these will be the things that will connect them with their own childhood.
On the other hand, my husband has a house passed down from his grandfather, the original builder. As bad shape as it is in, we relish the thought of the 4th generation living on the same property, and will restore it eventually.
That is, our keepsakes are either very small, or very large unmovable objects.
I remember one person said: "The only memories left after us are our children and photos."
Well, you could leave behind a diary with some juicy personal stories in it, a la Bridges of Madison County!
If you don't love it, don't keep it. My parents had some nice antique furniture that sat around the house because they just didn't care for it. Eventually they sold it to a neighbor who was thrilled to use it to furnish her new house.
I think the only things you should save specifically for your children (unless they say otherwise) are some old photos or videos. They don't take up a lot of space and most people like to occasionally check out old videos in particular, especially now that you can put them online!
Hey, I still have my Christmas decorations from when I was a kid. My grandma has things that were passed down to her that all of us want when she dies. Lots of people want to keep things.
My mom has a set of china that I would love to have...she would never guilt me into taking it though.
When my inlaws moved into a condo, my husband was guilted into taking all sorts of stuff that was mostly junk. I thought that was completely unfair. If your kids don't want something, give it away or throw it away.
I had an idea a few months ago. I have quilts and other items made by family members long dead. I am dealing with the same problem of the next generation in the family doesn't want this stuff. I love my quilts and afghans made by my great grandmother and grandmother so it breaks my heart.
So my idea was to contact the historical society in the small rural town where most of this stuff was crafted and ask them if they would like it donated. They could either add it to their collection or put it up for auction to help support the local historical society.
Both my great grandmother and grandmother loved history and I think they would be tickled to know their quilts are in the historical society museum or went to auction to help support history in their town.
That is a great idea, but don't be surprised if they say "We'd love to take them, but we have so many already. . . ". We tried to donate stuff, like my dad's old engineering books and such, but the libraries we contacted didn't want them, either.
Just realized I missed the part about the auction. That might work!
I had a real problem while cleaning out and packing up both my parents and in-laws houses. Both of them were into yardsale/fleamarkets so when it came time to divide up/give away/ sell stuff i didn't know if the item was a treasured family heirloom or something they spent a buck on at the church fleamarket. If something means something to you- do your kids a favor and either point it out to them or put an identifying sticker on the bottom of it.
I had a real problem while cleaning out and packing up both my parents and in-laws houses. Both of them were into yardsale/fleamarkets so when it came time to divide up/give away/ sell stuff i didn't know if the item was a treasured family heirloom or something they spent a buck on at the church fleamarket. If something means something to you- do your kids a favor and either point it out to them or put an identifying sticker on the bottom of it.
yes! My MIL spent countless hours babysitting her mother for 3 years prior to her death, and didn't clean out or ask about a single thing. Once she was gone, we had no one to ask where stuff came from.
My mom has a set of china that I would love to have...she would never guilt me into taking it though.
When my inlaws moved into a condo, my husband was guilted into taking all sorts of stuff that was mostly junk. I thought that was completely unfair. If your kids don't want something, give it away or throw it away.
I ended up with an amazing dining room set because of a situation like this. Some family friends were downsizing to a condo, they let their kids come through and take what they wanted, no one wanted the set so they asked if I did (we had just moved into a house with a formal dining room). We snatched that baby up for $250, oak pedestal table with 6 chairs and a sideboard. The table has 6 leaves, seats 20 fully extended. It's well over 100 years old. Saw a similar set at an antique store priced at $10,000 .
When my grown kids were little I decided to start a few collections for them. Christmas decorations and nativity scenes come to mind. I was going to divvy these things up and send them on their way with some memories and family possessions.
Well son became atheist and daughter couldn't care less.
So now we have these 2 younger girls and I'm seeing it is a waste of space, money and time to try to save things for them as well.
For 40 years I have been hauling around my mother's "Good China", her crystal, her Hummel figurines etc and I"M SICK OF IT ALL. People don't entertain today like they did in her day and all her linen table cloths, china, bridge sets, etc are just a huge burden but I don't know how to get rid of it all. I've sold some on e bay, garage sales, etc but we still have way more than we should. I also have my MIL demitasse collection. Who in the world wants a demitasse collection?
So what I'm saying is if you want to buy something for your own enjoyment ---fine. But don't rationalize your purchases by saying "Someday the kids will want this" Chances are they don't want it either and we will all be doing ourselves and our kids a big favor by divesting ourselves of all this STUFF before we die. What a burden to leave for your children.
END OF RANT...can you tell I've been in the attic for 3 days?
Some stuff might be worth saving. One of my coworkers just received an enormous storage box from her mom. Inside, were diaries that she (my coworker)had kept from ages 8 to 23, along with stacks of letters she had either written or received, and some creative writing projects she had forgotten about.
She was so excited to receive and go through it all and definitely appreciated that her mom had kept it for her.
On the other hand my husband is still holding onto his deceased dad's old golf clubs (my husband never played golf with him or even watched him play), boxes of old photos of unidentifiable people, a tarnished silver-plated tea set we'll never use, and other sentimental junk. I don't see the point of keeping stuff that will live its entire life in a box in our basement, but to each his own.
Last edited by LisaMc46; 01-11-2012 at 10:36 AM..
Reason: add paragraph
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