Buried Under Five Generations of Stuff

[Anonymous]

I love this TV show called Legacy List, which features families who need to downsize and sort through family heirlooms. You can check the company that works on this show and look at their resources for downsizing and get additional recommendations for people you can hire to help.

https://iammattpaxton.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this TV show called Legacy List, which features families who need to downsize and sort through family heirlooms. You can check the company that works on this show and look at their resources for downsizing and get additional recommendations for people you can hire to help.

https://iammattpaxton.com/

One of the Hoarders guys!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rule is, if nobody knows who is in the picture or anything about the item, throw it away.

But there's a market out there for old photographs including snapshots.

Prove it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rule is, if nobody knows who is in the picture or anything about the item, throw it away.

But there's a market out there for old photographs including snapshots.

This type of thinking will keep you in a state of perpetual inertia. Sure, there is a market out there for just about any of the junk that is cluttering up people's houses. But you have to FIND the customer in that market. The trouble and time are almost NEVER worth it. If you want to preserve your sanity and not live under a multi-generational pile of useless junk, you HAVE to let go. Donate what you can and put the rest in a dumpster. Putting stuff in the dumpster seems wasteful, but hose items have served their useful lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Minimalists recommend using the spontaneous combustion question to declutter sentimental items. To do this, take a sentimental item in your hand and ask yourself, “How would I feel if this item spontaneously combusted?”

Would you feel relieved? Then let that item go. Would you feel good, but a little bit of guilt? Then take a picture of the item and then let it go. Would you feel devastated? Then that’s an item that you definitely want to keep.

All I know is my kids and nephews loved when my aunt was able to pull up old photos of their Great Grandparents, etc. Anything can be digitized these days. We pay huge money to give our DNA to strangers in large companies to trace our family tree, and those databases are very vulnerable.

[Anonymous]

I'd love to know what kind of furniture minimalists have in their homes.

[Anonymous]

Make three piles: Donate, Sell, Keep.

Invite living people who might have an interest in the stuff for the chance to take anything they might want with them ON THAT DAY from the piles. If they can't take it that day, they give up their interest. Invite everyone with an interest on the same day, tell them to bring trucks and UHauls, and be prepared for some arguments if more than one person is invited.

Then, call one of those yard sale companies to sell what you don't want to keep and trash what can't be sold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Digitize, then donate photos and documents to a local historical society.

Agree. And if they don't want it, it truly is not worth saving.

[Anonymous]

the burden of passing "family" things down. People pass things down and make them think it is valuable or sentimental. It's mostly garbage but people can't part with stuff.

Just throw it away

[Anonymous]

What do you mean “my kids won’t take their stuff”? You announce a day a reasonable time in the future. Anything they do not take away by this deadline gets junked.

It sounds like you’d benefit from hiring someone to help you not only do this but to manage the psychological aspects of this. Keep only the stuff that is meaningful to YOU and enriching YOUR life. Keeping dead relatives’ stuff will not keep them alive. Getting rid of their stuff does not equate to getting rid of them. We are not all required to be archivists, even if other family members enjoyed that for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Brother put photos to the cloud. Very large project of all of Mom & Dad's history. Problem is Brother is never satisfied. No one else is looking at it "enough". Or talking about it enough. We thanked him profusely. Knew next generations would be grateful too. But most of us have our own lives going on right now. We don't have as much interest or dedication in reviewing and talking about the past. People are wired different.

[Anonymous]

Love Matt. He genuinely cares about his clients.