It breaks my heart to see old photos at estate liquidations.
Often in a family, someone will come along in succeeding generations, gets hooked on genealogy, and all this history is lost.:)
Posted on 07/26/2017 7:30:41 AM PDT by Jagermonster
BOSTON—Two hundred stuffed animals, two violins, and a 7-1/2 foot-tall Christmas tree: That was just a corner of the possessions Rosalie and Bill Kelleher accumulated over their 47-year marriage. And, they realized, it was about 199 stuffed animals more than their two grown children wanted.
Going from a four-bedroom house in New Bedford, Mass. – with an attic stuffed full of paper stacked four-feet tall – to a 1,300-square-foot apartment took six years of winnowing, sorting, shredding, and shlepping stuff to donation centers.
Among the possessions the Kellehers are keeping are three hutches – one that belonged to his mother, one that belonged to her mother, and one that they purchased together 35 years ago. One shelf is carefully lined with teacups Rosalie collected during her world travels. Another houses a delicate tea set from Japan, a gift her mother received on her wedding day.
“We really don’t need them,” she admits.
That refrain is becoming a common one as baby boomers begin to downsize and discover (as many generations before them have) that their children do not want their stuff. In fact, they recoil in something close to horror at the thought of trying to find room for the collections of Hummels; the Thomas Kinkade paintings; the complete sets of fine china and crystal, carefully preserved and brought out at holiday meals.
For their parents, to have a lifetime of carefully chosen treasures dismissed as garage-sale fodder can be downright painful.
“When [people] try to throw something away, they feel like they are losing ... personal history, losing a bit of themselves, losing a little of their identity, and they fear if they get rid of it they’ll never have that same experience again,” says Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
What goes around, comes around! I hate urban industrial, myself, too cold. I’m not crazy about doilies either although I do flirt with old-fashioned shabby chic!
Insurance value seems to be no where near sale value these days.
What I am hearing is that brown furniture is not selling.
Wow, well there are a lot of hoarders out there.
It is an anxiety disorder.
I mean seriously how can someone bash one thing as junk when their own style is wall-to-wall Hobby Lobby?
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That will leave a mark...lol.
Miss Marm was responding to someone else.
You know, I was raised in a heavy Victorian homes by grandparents and great grand aunts, and when I was out on my own my first instinct was to never to own a brown piece of furniture.
In my late thirties I began to see the beauty of the older furniture and I have some but not a lot.
Yeah, I see that. I have an aversion to 60s furniture but as I’ve gotten older, I see some beauty in the sleek, mod designs...
Was he/she responding to my style? I don’t use Hobby Lobby, lol. I wish they’d get rid of that junk and get a bigger baking section!
I set stuff out here too with a free sign on it. It’s always one of the Mexican gardeners driving through our neighborhood that stops and takes it.
I have a box full of old photos from my mom. When she passed I let 2 aunts come take whatever they wanted. No one else is interested in them so I’ll probably wind up throwing the rest out.
Too labor intensive. Have you ever seen that show called 'Hoarders'? Most people think their stuff is valuable while in most cases it is really just junk.
I’ve moved several times, across the country once. I sold all my stuff before I moved. Now I wish I had hung on to a few wonderful pieces. One, a George Nelson “coconut” chair is now selling for $5,000==if you can find one. WE were friends with the Herman Miller company ad manager, got it wholesale in the first place.
Other than that...I miss a few things. My kids were offered stuff but didn’t want much. Some oriental rugs, other than that, zilch. I cannot give grannie’s silver service away. No one wants those things anymore. I think it’s been in its unopened shipping box at my nieces’s house for twelve years.
Guess what? No need to get attached to things. There’s always more stuff. Yard sales in upscale ‘hoods are your friends.
"....and I will back up a dump truck, and it will ALL go in the garbage."
Told my M-I-L that when she pulled this same line on me. Didn't go over well.
Funny thing is that she thinks she's "helping" with an "inheritance". Like storage sheds filled with old bug-infested furniture and stacks of Tupperware have any value whatsoever. We'll be lucky if we can pay someone to haul it away.
Yep. Valuables aside, there are a few things. Anything handmade, for instance, or a handful of family heirlooms. Photo Albums? Sure, so long as we know who's in them. Albums full of pics of the family dog from 1952....not so much.
I have my own used furniture and attic full of junk. Not looking forward to getting theirs.
One friend says that things make better companions than people because things don’t talk about you behind your back.
if we don't have the time to sit and find the one little gem in hundreds of hours of video, how do we expect our kids to have the time let alone the desire...
into the trash bin they went...
Bless you, and bless you for being straight with your kids!!
Wife's grandmother was a hoarder. Cleaning out her house was an adventure. Piles and piles of old magazines, newspapers, plastic bags and the like.
One habit was saving old Pringles potato chip cans. She had 100's of them. While I was tossing them in the dumpster, I noticed that one felt/sounded a little weird. Opened it up, and found a roll of 10's and 20's. $%@%$#$#%##!!!!. So, back through all of the trash we went, found I don't know how much cash stashed in odds and ends of stuff. Just going through the clothes (also hoarded) in her closets was daunting.
After a whole lot of hunting, we found her jewelry - Engagement ring and the like, at least the pieces the family knew about.
Whoever bought that house likely got themselves a small fortune, without ever knowing it.
About a block from me is a section 8 house and I think they are the ones taking the stuff. There’s people moving in and out of there every few months and an eyesore to the neighborhood. But if they can use it or sell the stuff have at it!
Oh my gosh,Pringle cans full of cash. Hoarders can’t help themselves,I guess.
I was VERY specific,where house deed and auto stuff are,where they could find any unpaid bills(usually empty),where the bank book and check book are,gave the number for my former employer a/c a life insurance policy, location of keys for a storage unit in my building,and where the paid bills,for the last 12 months are located.
They all were sent a copy of my will years ago.
That’s it-—except for the ubiquitous jar of pennies,nothing of value left.
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That whole industrial look fad is made up of people that have never had to work in a factory or with their hands, back or muscles.
My brother worked in a factory and we laugh at them. He couldn’t wait to get AWAY from that crap.
It breaks my heart to see old photos at estate liquidations.
Often in a family, someone will come along in succeeding generations, gets hooked on genealogy, and all this history is lost.:)
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