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The great junk transfer is coming

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Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#121

Post by warning26 »

bentcorner wrote: post #86
SoftTalker wrote: post #10

After having to deal with all the stuff my parents left behind I swore to myself that I would not do the same thing to my kids. It's easy to say "just throw it out" but so many items have nostalgia and memories attached. Yet if I hadn't had to sort through it all, I never would have missed that stuff. I need to get on it. I'm not getting younger.

My dad is getting older and even though he doesn't say it I can tell he's contemplating his own mortality. He recently asked me if I'd like to take the old Vic-20, C-64 and Apple 2e off his hands. We have a lot of very fond memories we made together with that technology and it played a part of who I am today. But frankly I don't have the room nor do I have the time to do anything with that stuff. It'd just sit in a b…

You’d be surprised at how much that stuff will sell for on eBay — people will even pay the massive shipping costs. Retro computing is really popular.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#122

Post by kelseyfrog »

laurieg wrote: post #27

I feel like these days, stuff is incredibly cheap and therefore it's very easy to accumulate a huge amount of it. Sure, we have out sentimental items and useful tools we use everyday. But a huge amount goes un-used, sitting in boxes, closets, attics and garages waiting to be thrown away. I try to "live small". My apartment is relatively small. I'm still wearing clothes from high-school. I still the knife, fork and sp…

It's 2066 and a grieving 54 yr old has to figure out how to throw away boxes and boxes of their dead parent's funko pops.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#123

Post by Mountain_Skies »

Generational differences in tastes will take its toll on some of this more than other bits. I don't know anyone under the age of 40 who cares one bit about fine china and china cabinets. As more and more people who collected china die off, there's a bigger glut of it. Collections that took a lifetime and thousands of dollars to accumulate end up going for pennies at estate sales while the cabinets end up in a landfill. Pianos seem to be going the same way. Probably grandfather clocks too. There are some younger folks who are interested in these things but not enough to sop up the ever increasing supply coming in from estates.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#124

Post by Wohlf »

SoftTalker wrote: post #10

After having to deal with all the stuff my parents left behind I swore to myself that I would not do the same thing to my kids. It's easy to say "just throw it out" but so many items have nostalgia and memories attached. Yet if I hadn't had to sort through it all, I never would have missed that stuff. I need to get on it. I'm not getting younger.

My strategy from moving frequently was to leave things I don't use in the boxes, and if they're still there when I move again it's time for them to go. Now that I've settled down I set a period of time instead. This had the side benefit of helping me figure out the few mementos I really care about so I start taking better care of them.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#125

Post by ungamedplayer »

verve_rat wrote: post #118
nlnn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some woodworkers still use manual drills (I own two, along with a brace and bit). They're useful for very exact/delicate work, quiet drilling, and for getting into awkward places where an electric drill doesn't fit.

Yeah, I'm just starting out in woodworking as a hobby and a brace and bit is something I'm considering putting on the wishlist. The useless tools might have been a treasure trove to the right person.

You'd be surprised, there is a growing 'youtube' community of manual carpentry.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#126

Post by robocat »

silisili wrote: post #43

I'm not looking forward to dealing with my parents stuff, a major reason(other than their death) being that taste seems largely generational. They both seem to love giant wooden cabinets...for everything. They both have monstrosities of a TV stand/console/shelf, etc. It's actually nice quality, but nobody I know my age or younger really likes stuff like that. I can't imagine I ever will.

> being that taste seems largely generational

Some things have a bathtub curve of desirability: they go out of fashion but many decades later the good stuff becomes stylish again — retro or antique. Think ugly 50s Formica kitchen table and chairs, 70s cookware and fondue sets, or 80s children’s toys.

There is a public database[1] of registered car models by year in the UK going back decades: if you look at the data for say a super crappy Vauxhall Chevette station wagon, numbers drop sharply followed by a longer slow decline, and finally a ducktail uptick when they become collectable by mental enthusiasts e.g. one acquaintance I know with an original hatchback[2] “I would rather drive my Chevette into the sea - I will never sell it”, gotta agree . . .

[1] which I can’t find at the moment

[2] example https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/cult-classics/vauxhall-chevette...

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#127

Post by repiret »

robocat wrote: post #70

Cleaning up after your parents is a gift you give to them: look at it like them paying it forward for all the times the cleaned up after you as a child. Psychologically, mentally, and physically, parents can have difficulty tidying up their stuff. My friend’s parents came from very poor backgrounds and had a lot of trash. The father had a shed full of stuff that was useful to him - he knew what was in it and how to u…

My grandmother was an incessant collector. She collected anything in the shape of a chicken or with a chicken on it, and her house was lined with shelves of chicken nick-nacks. But she also had an impressive wind-up toy collection, a collection of cherubs, a collection of supposedly collectable porcelain dolls from QVC. Probably a few others that I've forgotten.

In the last few years of her life, she became very concerned with the work her children and grandchildren would have to undertake to clean out her house. She went through and added a note on a sticker on the backs of things for who she though should get them.

But in the end it was easy. My grandmother created an order of magnitude more grief for herself worrying about cleaning up after her than actually existed. And I wish that she hadn't had that burden on her.

Most of her children and grandchildren didn't have any sentimental connection to all of the things, and those of us that did went through and grabbed what we wanted. Once that was done, we called Goodwill and they came and cleaned out the rest.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#128

Post by onion2k »

tjojrtoiertj32 wrote: post #103
robocat wrote: post #70

Cleaning up after your parents is a gift you give to them: look at it like them paying it forward for all the times the cleaned up after you as a child. Psychologically, mentally, and physically, parents can have difficulty tidying up their stuff. My friend’s parents came from very poor backgrounds and had a lot of trash. The father had a shed full of stuff that was useful to him - he knew what was in it and how to u…

Yes, but seriously, the previous gens. hold onto a lot of junk.

Everyone who owns a house fills it with what other people call junk.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#129

Post by tjmc »

debbiedowner wrote: post #82
robocat wrote: post #70

Cleaning up after your parents is a gift you give to them: look at it like them paying it forward for all the times the cleaned up after you as a child. Psychologically, mentally, and physically, parents can have difficulty tidying up their stuff. My friend’s parents came from very poor backgrounds and had a lot of trash. The father had a shed full of stuff that was useful to him - he knew what was in it and how to u…

What are some examples of the obsolete tools? I can imagine a manual hand drill...

VB6?

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#130

Post by synu »

obnauticus wrote: post #41

This is what I think of when all of these headlines about boomer-to-millineal wealth transfers come out every few months. How is this a good thing? How does this wealth transfer help decentralize the wealth in the US? The only thing I’m probably being left is a vintage collection of HGTV Magazines and piles of depreciating assets.

I’m not being left anything either, but there is a lot of wealth in assets held by that generation in aggregate, and that’s the wealth transfer they are reporting on. Not just the junk in hoarders houses.
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