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The great junk transfer is coming

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Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#131

Post by fy20 »

dhosek wrote: post #83
flybrand wrote: post #8

When FiL passed away there were multiple buildings on their 50 acres full of stuff. Both he and MiL were only children. Everything over 200 yrs had flowed to them. “Priceless heirlooms” weren’t of interest to anyone. Auctions led to junk dealers. There is a hopelessness in realizing that lifetimes of activity were of little value, that nobody even knew what many objects were. I felt like the girl in the movie Labyrin…

I feel a bit that way about my life’s accumulation of books. I suspect that the vast majority will end up getting donated to the library book sale after I die (plenty of worn and ancient paperbacks). I have made a point of pre-segregating the books that will likely have a notable resale value, but those are not many. Perhaps when I’m older but not too old I may spend some time trying to connect some of the specialize…

I'd check if they can be donated first, rather than leaving that burden for your next of kin. The phrase also works the other way around: One man's treasure is another man's junk.

When we had to clear out the apartment of MiL, she had a sizable collection of books, and a bunch of clothes and shoes that had only been worn once. We tried the library and a few different charity shops, but for most things they said no. The books went in the trash and the clothes went in a clothing recycling bin - which I guess means they also ended up in the trash.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#132

Post by _carbyau_ »

chaostheory wrote: post #36

I feel with Millennials not being able to buy normal sized homes and the rise of minimalism with trends like Marie Kondo, this traditional junk transfer may end with Gen X.

I see it as a % game. A larger % the currently dying generation may have a bunch of useless stuff. The next generation will likely have a lesser %. But it's probably not a big difference in %.

This is just humans being humans.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#133

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

danielodievich wrote: post #69

A friend of mine has a dad who is known in certain circles (name withheld) and I quote "Mr XYX, the owner of the largest collection of non-running Triumph coupes in the USA". He got a lot of sh*t for what is essentially a junk yard from his city. His house is filled to the brim with model train cars, in the bozes still, and all the EBay printouts of the auctions he won and lost. I do not know what my friend's plans a…

Those Triumphs are junk; it's not like they're MGs or anything. :)

I kid, of course. On a serious note, when the time comes, contact the local British car club (yes, there is one). They'll help.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#134

Post by fy20 »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #109
debbiedowner wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've seen the guy from "my self reliance" (Youtube) use manual hand drill in the building of his remote cabin. No power for electric drill. A battery operated drill would probably fail rather quickly boring through a log with a large drill head. If I remember correctly, proper wood working chisel sets are still very highly priced. And the antique ones can be of higher quality.

"Highly priced" should be taken in context, for a retired person who has no other income it's worth to go to the effort of selling them on eBay or the like. For the type of crowd on HN who probably have relatively well paying jobs, probably not.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#135

Post by jjav »

ars wrote: post #28

I've started doing this in my life: I take pictures of items that have emotional meaning to me, and then throw away the item. I care about the meaning to me, what memories it gives me, not the physical item. It's really really hard though. But my kids will just have a Google Photos album to keep rather than a house full of stuff.

> But my kids will just have a Google Photos album

If google doesn't lock out your account at some point between now and death.

Seriously, relying on something like google as the repository of all memories seems extremely risky when we know how often they lock accounts for no reason and there is no recourse.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#136

Post by Aeolun »

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…

I don’t necessarily look forward to this, but I imagine it’ll be very satisfying sorting through my parents’ stuff and finding all the little gems.

Of course 80% of it is junk, but 80% of everything I save is junk too, so I can hardly blame them for it.

My dad recently threw out a lot of his old school stuff that we’d gone through and looked at a few times during various instances of cleanup over the course of my life, and I think I was more sad than him.

I imagine he has all that stuff somewhere inside his head still, but to me the only tangible remains of the time when my dad was a boy/young adult have disappeared.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#137

Post by cbhl »

shakezula wrote: post #68
tmountain wrote: post #13

It doesn't have to be this way. Synopsis of "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning" by Margareta Magnusson. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you…

This feels like the anti-hero to Kondoesque sparks-joy cleaning.

Even if you follow Kondo's methodology, your late parents' things are almost certainly "sentimental items", which Kondo explicitly states to leave for last.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#138

Post by drewzero1 »

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...

A NiCd-powered cordless drill would be my first thought, clearly obsolete since the widespread adoption of lithium battery tools and the rapid degradation in NiCd cells over time. A radial arm saw also comes to mind, replaced for most tasks by the more portable and generally safer compound miter saw. Tools made before modern safety devices, such as table saws without anti-kickback fingers or riving knife. Some tools rely on wear parts like specialty blades or belts that are no longer available. Analog multimeters and fixed-resistance soldering irons.

I've inherited my share of obsolete tools, including but certainly not limited to the above examples.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#139

Post by donw »

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…

Thank you.

The top-level article is unbelievably crass.

I have had to deal with this. Sorting through an entire lifetime's worth of knick-knacks, papers, Christmas cards, plaques commemorating achievements and milestones that probably wouldn't even make sense to a twenty-year-old, all of it.

Sure, it was hard. It takes time.

But so did changing my diapers. And dealing with infant-me crying through the night. And watching toddler-me be picky and waste food, which is a big deal when you get most of your groceries from a charity. All the scrounging and saving for Christmas presents, all the hours spent answering every question that I had as a boy, all the trips together to play in the snow during the winter...

Those things took time, too.

That sounds like a square deal to me.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#140

Post by formerkrogemp »

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…

Sometimes, the sentiment is nice, but this 'cruelty' is often times necessary. When your parent's health is in terminal decline and your family can't afford to hire a caretaker or your relative made poor life decisions and needs to live with you for awhile, downsizing and relocating may become necessary if you have to step up and take care of them, assuming there is a healthy relationship. Of course, trying to keep all of their things would be nice, but storage and extra space in the house are at a premium. The essentials and emotional items should be kept, but a lifetime of objects and memories cannot be kept in tough times in small quarters. Sometimes we don't have a choice when being cruel.
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