OT - Do Your Kids a Favor...

Fred19Flintstone

Throw away your junk!!  Since October I've been going to my Mom's house a couple of times per month and since New Years every weekend.  My siblings and I are trying to clear out belongings and stuff so the house can be put on the market.  My Dad's been deceased for a couple of years and my Mom is in assisted living.  I've been in charge of my Dad's workshop.  He inherited a ton of tools and he saved EVERYTHING!  Leftover pipe bits from plumbing projects and countless wire segments less than a foot in length.  You know, EVERYTHING!

I got the workshop cleared out and have moved on to his office.  I have been shredding file cabinets full of important things like tax returns from 1959 and business papers from the 70's & 80's.  It is incredible! 

So back we go to the thread title.  Do your kids a favor and throw away your junk! 

theyolksonyou

The crap we found in my wife's grandmothers attic....incredible. Some cool, mostly crap.

NPHuskerFL

There are some Polaroids I need to make sure disappear before I turn in for the long dirt nap. In my case the inferno and into the Atlantic and the Nebraska Plains.

Jeepster47

We spend half our life collecting things ... and then we're supposed to spend the second half throwing it out?  Geez. 

I agree completely with what you've posted, but the problem is we all dream of something like this $3M box of baseball cards showing up in the attic. 

Fred19Flintstone

My grandmother was an aspiring actress way way back in the day.  My sister found her portfolio in a box someplace.  Included in the portfolio, yep, you guessed it.  Nude pictures of my Grandma.  You would think your sister would warn you so you don't see it.  No.  The joke was too tempting so everyone got burned.  We all took a dose of eye bleach.

Eggcelsior

Fred19Flintstone said:

My grandmother was an aspiring actress way way back in the day.  My sister found her portfolio in a box someplace.  Included in the portfolio, yep, you guessed it.  Nude pictures of my Grandma.  You would think your sister would warn you so you don't see it.  No.  The joke was too tempting so everyone got burned.  We all took a dose of eye bleach.

Hopefully she was "aspiring" in her twenties, not seventies. That would make things slightly easier, albeit still "cannot unseen!"

UrbanForestTurnings

I feel for you man. Had to do that for the wife's uncle. He had crap all over. He would do picking on trash day. Some funny ass **** at times. Thank god my father-in -law was a neat freak. And my parents didn't keep anything around.my dad did pitch a few things that were from his parents.

UrbanForestTurnings

Fred19Flintstone said:

My grandmother was an aspiring actress way way back in the day.  My sister found her portfolio in a box someplace.  Included in the portfolio, yep, you guessed it.  Nude pictures of my Grandma.  You would think your sister would warn you so you don't see it.  No.  The joke was too tempting so everyone got burned.  We all took a dose of eye bleach.

That's some funny poop. Bring the pictures down . She wasn't my grand ma ) sorry had to say that

Tjcoley

Just make sure you look carefully. That generation tended to hide money in the house. When my aunt passed, we found tens of thousands of dollars hidden in the house. $100 in a bible, $200 under the cushion on the couch, $500 in an old teapot, $100 in a tissue box and on and on. The bank even noticed all the cash was from the 1950’s, 60's and 70's. Lots of old money and a few silver certificates. She lived like a pauper.

Fred19Flintstone

UrbanForestTurnings said:

I feel for you man. Had to do that for the wife's uncle. He had crap all over. He would do picking on trash day. Some funny ass **** at times. Thank god my father-in -law was a neat freak. And my parents didn't keep anything around.my dad did pitch a few things that were from his parents.

My MIL goes "Curbside Shopping" all the time.  She re-sells what she finds at the flea market.  I have never been to her home because she lives in South Florida and she visits here every summer and at Thanksgiving.  When she visits, her mini van is stuffed full of stuff.  I can only imagine what we'll have to deal with at her home when her time comes. 

NPHuskerFL

Jeepster47 said:

We spend half our life collecting things ... and then we're supposed to spend the second half throwing it out?  Geez. 

I agree completely with what you've posted, but the problem is we all dream of something like this $3M box of baseball cards showing up in the attic. 

But, instead find Mom's, Dad's, Gma's or Gpa's Polaroid collection. )

Fred19Flintstone

Tjcoley said:

Just make sure you look carefully. That generation tended to hide money in the house. When my aunt passed, we found tens of thousands of dollars hidden in the house. $100 in a bible, $200 under the cushion on the couch, $500 in an old teapot, $100 in a tissue box and on and on. The bank even noticed all the cash was from the 1950’s, 60's and 70's. Lots of old money and a few silver certificates. She lived like a pauper.

Yeah we found the cash stashes, but it took going through everything carefully.  I think the total was $1,500.

UrbanForestTurnings

Will have to find the gift that we got from my aunt. She moved from our home state to California. They said she just had a path in the house

Zmokin

I just went through that with my MIL.

first the kids picked out the stuff they wanted to keep.
Then we garage-saled a bunch, made some good cash.
next, donated a bunch and used neighborhood clean-up scheduling to throw away a bunch of junk.
Then we had the guys garage sale, used motorcycles and tools galore, made another tidy profit
then another neighborhood clean up to get rid of more junk while the house was in escrow.

i hear what you are saying, but I also know I use a lot of the junk I have, but odds are my son won't want all of it when my time has come.  But that is the price he will have to pay for his inheritance is disposing of the crap I didn't want to.

It's a trip down memory lane going through the stuff.

UrbanForestTurnings

Hell I better start taking pictures now. I just have one daughter. a few well placed photos would be funny as hell when I kick )