I was 26 or 27? My aunt and uncle bought it though, and my cousins call it home when they are back from college so that's kind of nice.

Short version: My mom moved out and filed for divorce less than a month after I left for college, so I left when I was 17 and never saw the inside of it again.

Long version: My jackass of a father held onto the house for five more years after my mother left, refusing to allow my mother into it (joint title) or to have it appraised as part of the divorce settlement process until a judge ordered him to do so and cited him for contempt for not complying. In four years, he trashed the house, the in-ground pool, and let the yard go to shit, all to keep my mother from getting her half of the full value of the home. He then had the back rent he was ordered to pay for the years he denied access to the property discharged via bankruptcy.

The house I will be sad to see go was my grandparents'. It was passed down to one of my mom's siblings and is still in the family. When we sell that, it will be a sad day (and we will be investing in a clean-out company to clear out the 50+ years of stuff that is in there).

We sold it when my mom died. I was 23 and in grad school, and my brothers were still in college. Our father was never in the picture, so my brothers and I had to clean out the house and get it listed with the help of our aunts and uncles. It was gut wrenching. We literally had no home to go back to during school breaks. We had to stay with aunts and uncles over Christmas and other holidays.

My parents were divorced and the parent I lived with sold the house I grew up in when I was in college and bought a condo in another city. Added sharper definition to the notion that "you can't go home again."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents are 88 and 84.
They moved to a senior living place 2 years ago but my mom refused to sell the house because she's a hoarder and so the house is still sitting there full of years of crap (and some nice antiques). I have no siblings so someday there will be an estate sale, after the crap has been thrown out. I'm talking years of Southern Living magazines, mayonnaise jars, travel size soaps from hotels etc. it will be a nightmare. Yes there is some stuff in there I might want buried under the hoard but my main emotion is irritation that they wouldn't let me deal with it earlier. As for the house I just hope a happy family moves into it someday. I don't want it.

I'm in the same boat. Parents former home (in a town several hours away) is sitting vacant and is falling into disrepair, but they won't sell. It's been in the family for generations and they just can't find the will to do it. It's worth next to nothing, but has tremendous sentimental value to them. Siblings and I have houses of our own and don't need/want it. It will have to go when they die, and it's going to be a mess to deal with.

There are companies that do hoarding clean ups specifically, and it's well worth the money when the time comes. You can tell them certain things you want to look for, but they will cart out all the crap, deal with the dumpsters, any safety hazards, etc.

We had to do this with a relative, and the company was just a godsend. They had seen it all before and knew what to do.

I'm 49 and my mom is living in the only childhood I've ever known. They moved there when I was 9 months. Dad died there and my mom refuses to move out. I'm sure we will sell it once she's gone. It will be very sad, I'm sure. That said, the house needs lots of improvements (parts of it are literally falling apart) and mom's kind of a hoarder, so I'm not really looking forward to having to deal with that. But yeah, letting go of a lifetime of memories in one place will be hard.

My parents sold my childhood home to me when I was 35.

It was a great neighborhood to grow up in. Living there with my own kids for the past 10 years has really highlighted for me how different childhood is these days in this area (we live in Rosemont (Alexandria)). A lot less free-ranging / random meeting up & playing outside than in my day.

My parents sold the home we grew up in when I was 24 and my sister was junior in college. They bought an even better, gorgeous house in the same town, so it wasn't sad at all! We love the new house even tho I never lived there full time and my sister only lived there for a summer or two and a few months after graduation.

I think I'll be sad when my parents sell their current home. It's a beautiful place with a pool. We've had so many great memories there that I will be sad to see it go when they decide that it is too much.

We sold it after they passed.

My parents moved when they retired. I was 32, my dad was 65 and my mom was 66.

My mom sold the family farm when I was 30. She'd been widowed for 10 years and none of us kids were interested in farming - well, we would have been interested but there's just no money in it and our area was rapidly developing into a suburb of a large midwestern city. My mom sold the farm to a developer which set her up nicely.

It didn't bother me when the house was bulldozed. It was the razing of the barns that killed me. I really don't think about it much when I'm home to visit (mom bought a house nearby). The land is unrecognizable. There are like 1,000 houses on it. The creek has been replaced with rain gardens and retention ponds and all the land features that I would have recognized were re-landscaped. Plus, the surrounding farms are gone now, too. I miss the dairy farms.

My father sold the family home after 45 years living there. Glad that I was able to go back to it for many years and that my kids were able to visit their grandparents in my childhood home. My dad spent the last 5 years alone in the house after my mother died and then moved to something smaller which works better for him as it is more manageable for an elderly person. I've only driven by once or twice since he moved. Nice memories, but sad to have that chapter of life gone forever.

My parents sold my childhood home to downsize in the same town about six years ago. I acted like a complete baby and really regret it. Now that I'm married with two children of my own I realize that a family makes a home and that a house is a house....although I miss it.

My parents sold the house I grew up in when I was age 35 and moved to a condo in the same town. ow they are selling that condo, which in a strange way is also sad. it is strange for me to think that I have no home base in the town I grew up in, even if I haven't visited there in years.

I think what you are feeling is totally normal.

Anonymous wrote:My parents are 88 and 84.
They moved to a senior living place 2 years ago but my mom refused to sell the house because she's a hoarder and so the house is still sitting there full of years of crap (and some nice antiques). I have no siblings so someday there will be an estate sale, after the crap has been thrown out. I'm talking years of Southern Living magazines, mayonnaise jars, travel size soaps from hotels etc. it will be a nightmare. Yes there is some stuff in there I might want buried under the hoard but my main emotion is irritation that they wouldn't let me deal with it earlier. As for the house I just hope a happy family moves into it someday. I don't want it.

I'm in the same boat. Parents former home (in a town several hours away) is sitting vacant and is falling into disrepair, but they won't sell. It's been in the family for generations and they just can't find the will to do it. It's worth next to nothing, but has tremendous sentimental value to them. Siblings and I have houses of our own and don't need/want it. It will have to go when they die, and it's going to be a mess to deal with.