Posted on 06/06/2017 10:57:53 AM PDT by Drew68
Edited on 06/06/2017 2:11:09 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
For 30 years, Pat Fryzel stored her children
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
The problem is that people try to sell it themselves (and place much to high a price on things) or they throw the stuff away.
1.) select what you want.
2.) trash the old book reports.
3.) scan into digital the pictures or documents that you want to keep but lack room.
4.) let the kids have what they want.
5.) hire a professional to deal with the rest
It is exactly 2 years since my MIL died, we still have a huge storeroom of stuff. I would have given it all away but the SILs swear they want it but there it sits.
I don’t have children. You’ll pardon me for not getting knocked up out of wedlock like one of the common sluts that plenty of FReepers love to trash. It sure wasn’t my career keeping me from motherhood.
Hmmm, maybe my brother and his wife can be the keepers and distributors of the family heirlooms. Oh wait, they don’t have kids, either. Maybe “whichever” of them can get their reproductive plumbing sorted out and they can get right on that family planning.
Get a grip.
Every family is different. My widowed mother-in-law passed in late January of this year and my husband is the Executor. He and his 3 siblings have pretty much gone through everything in the house that they want and have allowed our two daughters to choose things that they wanted. All the family photos will be scanned and kept in digital form with the originals being preserved in acid free containers.
My father and step-mother are currently trying to decide if it’s the right time for them to downsize, especially since she has received an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. My father frankly does not want to accept the diagnosis and as a consequence, has already indicated that he doesn’t want to move anywhere because he doesn’t want to have to deal with ‘all the crap’. We’re hoping he changes his mind before things go into a crisis mode with step-mom not being able to help with decisions.
Peach
The stuff that most nice middle class people own is — not to put too fine a point on it — crap. The Hummel collection is Exhibit A.
TOOLS!
Nobody seems to have the skills or the interest in inheriting Dad’s tools.
I’ve got 4 sets of everything and the annual neighborhood garage sale reveals that nobody is interested in a vast array of power and hand tools.
I’m amazed at the 30 somethings with no exposure to home and auto maintenance.
Silver stays shiny a lot longer if stored in zip lock bags, or even a closed cabinet.
What’s the point of having it if you don’t display it?
I can’t believe that up to now, no one has posted George Carlin’s classic bit about “stuff”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryy_QgDXnX4
I do have several pieces of inherited furniture, because if I’ve upgraded from starving student to mid-American garage sale, it might as well be quality.
A couple of book shelves, a desk.
What I hate is my father trying to push items onto me “for my children”. An inflated valuation on items both emotional and financial.
I think we’re seeing the result of a near post-scarcity economy in the U.S. I don’t care about the stuff - I and my children like experiences - arcades, classes, activities, eating out.
My understanding is that legally “antique” begins at 100 years.
This story captures the emotion of dealing with a hoarder’s home.
Evolution of Dust, a Short Story
https://hubpages.com/literature/Evolution-of-Dust-a-Short-Story
Mrs. R2 and I downsized last year. From a 4 bedroom house where we lived and raised our kids for over 30 years.
And our kids didn’t want or have room for our stuff.
It was tough selling, giving away and even throwing away 30 plus years of possessions. Stuff that no one else wants. But it had to be done.
George Carlin knew about stuff. Plenty about it....
https://genius.com/George-carlin-a-place-for-my-stuff-lyrics
Actually, this is just a place for my stuff, ya know? That’s all; a little place for my stuff. That’s all I want, that’s all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody’s got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that’s your stuff, that’ll be his stuff over there
That’s all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That’s all your house is- a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you’re saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That’s what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff! Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore
more.....
My wife is looking at a 3800 sq foot house built in 1828. If we move, she wants to get rid of anything not antique and “antique up”.
Hummels are useful, at least.
For target practice.
Hah! beat you by 5 minutes —I thought Freepers would have posted it before the first 10 replies.....slackers......
They left a mess of stuff, some of which we are still using, but some of which we gave to goodwill.
Did keep the safe with the silver bullion though...
[Sell it on eBay and take a vacation on the proceeds!]
Selling it on eBay is a job in itself. People don’t want to pay more than $1. Then there’s the packing and the postage, and the fee to repost if the item doesn’t sell...
Lots of cabinets have glass sides.
Anyway, you can’t display everything. We use our silver as necessary, but since we have a fair amount a lot of it goes away till needed. It’s certainly been my experience that sterling used regularly doesn’t need polishing.
I think post scarcity has a lot to do with it. It used to be a household only bought a few truly “solid” pieces of furniture in their life, the rest was inherited, and then all that was passed down. Now a days solid furniture isn’t that hard to find, my house is mostly stocked with really good highly durable stuff (really should replace my computer desk, got one narrow bookshelf that has proved a challenge to replace with real wood, that’s about it), we no longer need to wait for people to die to get the good stuff, and subsequently by the time people are dying we don’t need it. That personal piece of family history just takes up too much space, more than folks want to commit to “remember” generations of family they never met.
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