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The great junk transfer is coming

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Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#221

Post by PebblesRox »

donw wrote: post #139
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 watc…

> The top-level article is unbelievably crass.

I think it's written as an ad for junk removal services. The goal is for the reader to see the task as an overwhelming burden to be outsourced.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#222

Post by MafellUser »

robocat wrote: post #194
helmholtz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is cathartic to me for reasons I cannot explain. I hope, for my sake, that everything you mentioned really is something you're doing often. I love the idea of constant forward progress in downsizing not just your own possessions, but that of the near and dears too.

Oh, I definitely try to help, although it is very very important to be respectful. One friend showed me a bag with a heap of kiwi fruit fluff they had collected a decade ago. Nothing to see here. One friend had too many tables, so I thought it might help them to grok the absurdity of that if I gave them a bunch more tables (tables which someone else was discarding): that didn’t work because they now have tables stack…

For the tables, in some markets they're primed for being upcycled and you can make some pretty bucks.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#223

Post by jseban »

onion2k wrote: post #209
hiq wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it's a matter of preference, I just prefer to have less stuff, everything else being equal.

In that case it's a good argument for you to buy a smaller house, but if you accept that it's a matter of preference and not something that can be generalized then it's not a valid argument for other people.

Yeah I think this war on consumerism and boomer lifestyle is a bit exaggerated, and I mean, if you take away all the benefits and rewards you have to take away some of the demands too. I can recycle and share and rent and downsize if I can also downsize my working hours accordingly. A bit weird that the middle class now wants to get rid of the carrot and just have a bigger stick, that doesn't really add up for me.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#224

Post by wccrawford »

donw wrote: post #146
verve_rat wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'd love to go through all those "useless" tools. Oh no, Dad's old all-steel table saw that was designed and built to be repaired, and which has the same tolerances as a "precision tool" today, doesn't have bluetooth to pair with your iPhone? Guess you'll just have to toss it, then.

Unfortunately it probably also doesn't have all the safety features like a riving blade, either. That doesn't mean it's useless, but it does mean it needs more care to use it and novice woodworkers shouldn't rush in blindly.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#225

Post by MafellUser »

basisword wrote: post #217

Is it just me or is that article written by, and this thread full of, assholes? Your parents are dead and you’re complaining about having to sort through their stuff and deal with their horrible taste in furniture? If you don’t want to deal with it have it all collected and sent to landfill and get on with your life. I’m genuinely surprised at how miserable and selfish sounding a lot (not all) of the people in this t…

It's a bit of a cognitive dissonance yes but I do not think they are assholes as you said. They were clearly attached to the items and in essence they people those items once shared the connection. Having strong emotions is not a bad thing, you need to see over the petty complaining.

Quote from the article:

"Sons and daughters who have faced the chore describe wrestling with how to do it properly, respectfully and fairly (also cheaply and quickly) while ghosts hover. The whole process shakes awake buried sorrows, sibling rivalries, family dysfunction. It is never just about the the stuff."

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#226

Post by kossTKR »

robocat wrote: post #142
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…

And an altruistic gift for friends and family: take away their useless rubbish. Tell your aunt you need some wires from that old Pentium computer she has, and take it to be recycled. “Drop in” at your friends on the way to the dump with half a trailer full of rubbish, and ask if they want to fill up the other half for free. When there is a book market on, visit your friends and take away their old books to go to the…

This is great! I can recommend everyone doing this - it's weirdly satisfying to help out in other peoples places and not as much a "chore" as in your own home for some reason.

You can clean up, move stuff around, throw things out, get them a better vacuum, set up wifi, get them better lighting, decorate stuff, or whatever you're good at.

It's the same psychological mechanism at play when you can quickly give good advice and plan in other peoples lives but it's harder applying in your own.

I recommend trying to "optimize" your friends or parents homes if they are down / getting old - for me it's about getting rid of or organising their stuff stuff, making it easy to clean, set up good lighting etc. Always respect peoples history and stuff and history of course.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#227

Post by Beltiras »

Oh gods I can relate to this article. I am moving from Iceland to Tenerife in the next 2-3 years (just made up my mind last month) and I have a 163 sqm house full of "stuff" I need to reduce to 4 large suitcases in less than 24 months. I dread it but a bonus is that I won't leave a pile of garbage for my kids to clean up once I kick the bucket.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#228

Post by _yb2s »

drewzero1 wrote: post #138
debbiedowner wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I inherited a high quality NiCd cordless drill from my late grandfather. I was able to cheaply buy some new cells online, solder them in, and it's good as new! It has a multi-speed gearbox with a ton of torque... useful, but not a common feature on a drill.

I like the connection to previous generations, and remembering these people by using 'obsolete' tools passed down to me.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#229

Post by samatman »

MafellUser wrote: post #222
robocat wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I definitely try to help, although it is very very important to be respectful. One friend showed me a bag with a heap of kiwi fruit fluff they had collected a decade ago. Nothing to see here. One friend had too many tables, so I thought it might help them to grok the absurdity of that if I gave them a bunch more tables (tables which someone else was discarding): that didn’t work because they now have tables stack…

For the tables, in some markets they're primed for being upcycled and you can make some pretty bucks.

Careful with this, it's the thinking process which leads to hoarding behavior if unchecked.

Have you already refurbished a couple tables just for fun? It might make sense to flip some furniture as a hobby.

If you haven't, this is a recipe for being that guy with too many tables, whose friends drive by with a half-filled trailer and ask, politely, if maybe they want to throw something away today.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#230

Post by samatman »

Ntrails wrote: post #185
Aeolun wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lif…

> to me the only tangible remains of the time when my dad was a boy/young adult have disappeared. My parents, when they were young and carefree and enjoying life, used to make mix tapes. Loads of them. There was something almost magical about being able to listen to them in my old car, and experience a little window into what they used to listen to etc. Sadly my car went to the great scrapyard in the sky and now I ho…

I'm also sorting through my parents things (the article is timely), here's a drive-by suggestion: pick up a Walkman on eBay.

My folks have a rack of VHS cassettes of their performances in plays, which they ripped to DVD at some point. I haven't started watching them but I'm lucky to have them.

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