I want my parents to get rid of junk so I don’t have to!

[Anonymous]

I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an only child and have cleaned out both of my parents' homes by myself. It can be a long process if you do it yourself (giving stuff away, listing on freecycle/ craigslist, auction art dealers, etc). As a PP said, there are companies you can hire that do all that stuff for you and then take a percentage of whatever money is made. I chose to do it myself because I knew I would discover things hidden away that I would want to keep.

+1 This

[Anonymous]

I active tell my parents please throw things away and sell off stuff you don’t want. Please take the money and travel.

I remind them I don’t want anything and please don’t make me get a 30 yard dumpster and empty the house into it when you die. So far no luck.

I’ll just go room by room and dispose of all the papers and stuff then hire someone to sell it all.

Maybe lll take a few art items to sell. But I have enough of my own stuff to toss that I don’t want their lifetime of crap.

They don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

My ILs downsized from a four bedroom house to a three bedroom apt and even cleaning that out is going to be a massive chore. We helped with the first downsizing but with their packrat ways there is still so much stuff in the apartment. It's so packed in there. Why do two old people need to shop at Costco? More papertowels and tissues than my family of four uses in months. There is no empty space in there--the walls are lined with full dressers and where there should be empty space there are stands and tables full of crap. They lived through the war but still...so much stuff.

[Anonymous]

My parents were amazing about this and there was virtually nothing for us to do when they passed away.

My best friend's parents had a lower level that they didn't use for living (the kids bedrooms and game room were down there) that was filled with junk from them, their parents and her father's business that closed. It took my friend and two other generous volunteers every weekend for six months to get rid of the crap down there so she could sell the house.

[Anonymous]

As a real estate agent, I find that people with the most junk are younger. Most have to remt two or three storage lockers to get their houses decluttered. hoards from older people are much more manageable than the volume of junk from yiumger people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

I’ve seen OLD family photo albums and family bibles for sale in antique stores. Always kind of sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

I’ve seen OLD family photo albums and family bibles for sale in antique stores. Always kind of sad.

PP here. I feel the same. In our family, we don't save everything do keep family Bibles, photographs, and quite a few letters. They're meaningful to all of us. If one of us doesn't want something, we offer it to the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

But it's this mindset that fills the next generation's house with clutter. I mean, who is going to display great grandpa's college sports memorabilia? If you saw someone who had this in their house you would think it was weird. But we can't let it go and it multiplies with every branch of the family tree.
Even photos, without context (captions, dates) are pretty meaningless. I admit I would keep a family Bible if it had names listed.
I have tried to get my hoarder parents to label or write about their stuff, so that there's context for what it is and why it was important to them. No luck yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

But what are you going to do with grandpa’s old swimming medals? Put them in a drawer? How is that better?

[Anonymous]

My mother is 78 and she is trying to decluttering her house As she does not want us to have to deal with it. I could see how overwhelming it is for her. My dad‘s house burnt down five years ago so he started from scratch so he does not have clutter in his house and he was a hoarder. I felt bad but it was a blessing in disguise that his house burned down. He was not home so it’s just his stuff that burned

[Anonymous]

It's not worth the battle.

Just keep in mind that upon their death, just call one of those Junk Haulers type places. They show up with a dumpster and haul furniture, tools, books, mattresses, whatever out of the house in like 2 hours. Done and done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

But what are you going to do with grandpa’s old swimming medals? Put them in a drawer? How is that better?

PP here. I would hang the framed medals on an office wall in my home, or a basement playroom, etc. These weren't just any old swimming medals, btw, and the framed case was beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you can do something. A neighbor of mine died and his son came later with a couple men and a dump truck. I know he kept some things but it was sad because of some of the things I saw being thrown away. One was an ornate family Bible with names and dates going back 100 years in the inside front pages. I pulled it out and took it home, then decided that was irrational and put it back.

Your post makes me so sad. It also reminds me of an estate sale in Ponte Vedra where a framed case of the deceased owner's swimming medals from a highly regarded university--at least 50 medals and more than a few were from MAJOR swimming events dating back to 1930's-- were on sale for $25. Just out there with the kitchen and living room stuff...can't believe that no one in the family wanted them.

But it's this mindset that fills the next generation's house with clutter. I mean, who is going to display great grandpa's college sports memorabilia? If you saw someone who had this in their house you would think it was weird. But we can't let it go and it multiplies with every branch of the family tree.
Even photos, without context (captions, dates) are pretty meaningless. I admit I would keep a family Bible if it had names listed.
I have tried to get my hoarder parents to label or write about their stuff, so that there's context for what it is and why it was important to them. No luck yet.

That type of item is not clutter to me.