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Reminds me of all the other "collectibles" that I and many of my contemporaries have also squirreled away… the cabinets & shelves full of "Elvis" memorabilia, salt-n-pepper shakers, tourist snow globes, vintage toys, license plates, comic books, whatever. Just like folks have been doing for generations before us.
So maybe what we're seeing is the first generation where everything is now considered "disposable", simply because so much "stuff" has finally become so ubiquitous, cheap and easily available (and if it isn't, soon we'll just 3D print it)!
License plates are something I collect... started collecting around age 8... wanted one from every state... they are also quite popular when I have visitors from Europe.... later started collecting old ones back as far as 1910... some are quite valuable since there is a process to use them again on vintage cars...
Coins and License plates sum up my childhood collecting and later it expanded to vintage cars...
Coins take up very little room and even though it is a collection... they also have investment qualities just like my cars...
I have NEVER sold a car at a loss ever... use to buy old Mustangs to drive for a few months and then sell for a nice little profit... same with Camaro and GTO... almost always convertibles...
There are definitely millennials that like classic muscle cars...
Sure, there are still some of us out there. But the current trend is clean/modern/minimal. It is easier to maintain and people seem to want that right now. I remember when country decorating was huge - really cluttered with geese and dried flowers everywhere. Then the funky vintage look of the nineties like in the show Friends. I love to watch reruns just to look at the cool stuff in the apartments. I wonder, if the "stuff" didn't bother us then, why would it bother so many now?
I wouldn't be surprised if the show Hoarders is affecting how people think of stuff too. Everyone who likes stuff isn't a hoarder.
I don't put much value in the trend of the month. But the guy who sees a rusty vintage sign and has to have it for his wall will cherish it regardless of what's in 'style'. And those who like vintage stuff will likely be looked at oddly by the folks who want the open concept palace. I can fully understand heavy large furnature being a problem, especially if you live in a smaller home or apartment. And sadly all things old are not vintage or worth vintage prices. But through all the trends, there have always been those of us who like 'stuff' filling a room and those who want it all gone, and we'll continue to do our eclectic choice.
I saw an episode of Horders where the basement was packed floor to ceiling and in the end everything went since it wasn't taken care of. Sad since if they'd tossed the junk they had some good stuff. But then people who want everything so 'clean' don't get the difference.
I have a 'stuff' room and have an assortment of clothes and partially broken stuff and oddities I've found in it. But guess what? I need some red materal and I can go check out the clothes and find some. Or buttons or zippers and the like. If it still has a second life, why should I spend money to buy another of the stuff I can salvage? I think that is a value we SHOULD encourage, even if it means you have a room for random 'stuff'.
We had to dismantle my mother's house in a flash when at age 89 she sold it (under a little pressure from us) to move into another (small) house. She never in her life had thought about getting rid of anything (though thankfully was not a mag/newspaper packrat). We had to surreptitiously hire a guy with a truck and have a neighbor come over to distract her in the front of the house while we frantically threw stuff out of the back of the house into the truck in the driveway, willy nilly. We had no choice, as she would never have left the house. We threw out not only junk like dozens of aluminum cookie sheets and pots, etc etc but nice things as well. We had no time to think. To this day I feel badly about what should have been saved, but if she found out we had any of it we would have had h*** to pay. As it turns out she later made a list on paper of every blessed thing that was missing, and we never heard the end of it. Stress like you wouldn't believe!
But in truth, we did not want, nor would our grown kids have wanted, anything at all from her house (other than photos). Just too much to deal with.
I fully understand and appreciate where you're coming from. My mother wouldn't let go of a thing, neither would my grandparents. My grandparents were neater about it, though. As it was, I inherited all their stuff when my mother passed away suddenly. I lived in another state and had to clear out her apartment and storage unit with just a few days to spare, along with recovering from a foot surgery! Ok, we did what we could----then had a moving company come in, box it up and ship it from MI to TX! We then rented a storage unit for most of the boxes, and sorted through them 1-2 at a time. It took 2 years to go through everything! Fortunately, she left enough life insurance it wasn't a financial hardship for us.
Many elderly people simply don't realize how that much stuff can be a financial burden, either on them, or whoever inherits it.
But, again, what right does one generation have to purge another generation's posessions? Just because a person is elderly doesn't mean they have lost all their rights to make their own decisions, but.....when their lifestyle overlaps and eventually intrudes on yours, to the point of being a major financial endeavor, well..........for my mother, the cost of sorting out her stuff cost more than her funeral
Some will just take the CDs Bonds Stocks and what they can carry... if you call a liquidator they might even pay you to take everything and leave it broom clean...
I made an offer on a home that was furnished... the heirs took a few pieces and sold everything down to the appliances and bed linens for $1200...
The relative that passed was a telephone pioneer and had lots of old telephone stuff... it all went bye bye...
Hubby and I are boomers, not millenials, but we still don't want his 83 yo mother's stuff. She recently moved out of her 30 year home to a two bedroom apartment in an assisted living center. While preparing for the move she called me almost daily asking if we wanted this or that.
38 photo albums
a living room suite from the 60s in harvest gold
plastic dishes and margarine tubs
hubby's skis and other sport items from when he was in junior high
hubby's clarinet from music class in school
almost all of her late husband's clothing, which did not fit hubby
There are many more items I can't recall. I was always polite when I declined, but it just got to be too much. She sent the clothing anyway and it reeked of mothballs. She just could not handle throwing anything away.
Now that she is moved in she calls and worries over the fact that her closets are full of stuff she does not use and has no room for.
I still have my trumpet, and play it sometimes, over 50 years since my last band class. I even bought an alto horn because I'm less likely to pop a blood vessel playing it. My family could put together a pretty good band on clarinet, flute, sax, piccolo, piano, guitar, trumpet and alto horn. We all still have our instruments. My nephew who was 1st trumpet in the Georgia Tech marching band just switched to a flugelhorn. Making music is one of the great joys in life. Your husband should think about it before passing on something as compact as a clarinet case.
If you really don't want it, donate it to a school, if you know one that still has a music program. Even a cheap used student clarinet goes for $200, a real financial burden for many young parents.
Nobody wants their parent's stuff! You boomers didn't load up on stylin' 40's and 50's kitsch, their parents had no interest in collecting Arts and Crafts or depression era stuff and their parents had no desire to fill their homes with Victorian era fussiness.
It's just the natural order of things.
My in-laws collected antiques. When they died the estate sale brought over $50,000 just from the contents of their house. My wife and I kept some art work, tools, antique clocks, jewelry and some keepsakes. OTOH, my mother gave away everything of value before she died, including the contents of her safe deposit box and the contents of my father's shop. I got more tools, a travel trailer, and some of my grandfather's unique possessions. I had already borrowed, scanned and captioned all of her photos, and distributed electronic copies to dozens of relatives. She held a couple large garage sales and cleaned out the attic.
My wife and I are in the downsizing phase, and are already giving away anything we can sucker the next generation into taking. When we remodeled the house we sold two pickup/trailer loads of stuff to an upscale 2nd hand store and pocketed $1600, which we thought was a great deal for stuff we didn't want. I still have to clean out the barn, but I'm keeping the tractor until I am too old and decrepit to climb on it any more.
I have two boys (Gen y'ers or millenials?) that have no interest in this stuff..... My first grandchild, a girl, will be here in July. I don't think she will have an interest in this stuff.
So why do I had it all? Because I know what it meant to my mother. Oddly enough, there's nothing I canthink of that belongs to me that means as much as these items meant to her. I guess I probably should put them on consignment somewhere, but I doubt there's a market. So what to do?
I think that sometimes people jump to conclusions without really asking.
When my future mother-in-law's last parent passed away her children were approximately 18, 13 and 8.
She and her sister went through the entire huge, huge house (I think it had 5 or 6 bedrooms, a full basement, and a finished attic stuffed with antiques and "stuff" ) in just a few weeks. Because, both parents had inherited items from different sides of the family , they had multiples of numerous "nice things" like fine china & silver and candlesticks and collectible odd's & ends.
Although, my future MIL did save one set of china & one set of silver for her daughter she told me later that "it never even occurred to her that her sons would get married in the future and that they, or their spouse, might want grandma's or great-grandma's china & silver" and she & her sister just gave away, sold for pennies on the dollar or threw away many of those items.
My future husband was 18 at the time and his mother never even asked him if he wanted anything from the estate and he did not think that it was his place to ask for anything.
Guess what? Both of her son's did get married and, in fact, both of them & their spouses would have loved to inherit good china & silver & other antiques from grandma & grandpa, but it was all gone.
Every few years my MIL would sadly mention how regretful she was about her haste to get rid of everything.
An interesting thing was that my MIL kept telling her kids not to make the same mistake that she did.
Guess what? Her daughter did the very same thing when she got rid of her mothers ( my husband's mothers) things within days after her death. Since the daughter only had a son it never even occurred to her that her niece (a granddaughter) would really appreciate some of grandma's "girly" collectibles such as Hummels & dancing ballerina figurines or even her nephew (a grandson) would appreciate one or two to save for his future daughter.
All of those items were sold to a consignment shop or thrown away. Not even one thing was saved or given to the grandchildren. Two of the grandchildren were 22 and 26 at the time and did not think that it was their place to ask for anything unless it was offered to them (and was completely surprised when everything was disposed of within days of grandma's death). Frankly, my husband was pretty shocked, too.
Just something to think about.
Last edited by germaine2626; 04-05-2015 at 06:07 PM..
Seen it both ways so I guess there is no one right answer.
One of my friends went to a retirement home willingly... the steps in her home were getting to be too much for her... she and her husband built the home.
When she moved... her only child decided to move into the family home... otherwise I would have bought it... a few acres in a park like setting.
Anyway... she passed unexpectedly on the 26th of the month... the family had the place cleared in 48 hours so they would not be on the hook for next months rent.
Filled large boxes and gave it all away after asking residents if there is anything they wanted...
On a separate topic... the local Lowes and Home Depot cannot keep moving boxes in stock... don't know if this is a SF Bay Area thing or not... lots of people on the move in a very heated Real Estate Marker and many are using moves to downsize possessions...
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