My father in law dumped 6 giant totes of my wife's childhood belongings on us right before we moved into our new home. It was a 1000 mile move so basically we had to pay hundreds of dollars for a bunch of crap she didn't even remember having.
The great junk transfer is coming
421–430 of 461 posts
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#422Cleaning 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.
Often because they were poor.
My father hoarded all manner of stuff in the garage. It took me days of work to clear it out. And yet I basically understood why each thing was saved.
That chunk of metal was used to repair the car when the front quarter panel rusted from salt. That brass got brazed onto that fixture. Those were the washers for the kitchen sinks. That leather chunk repaired his briefcase. That stuff was used to fence in the garden. That stuff was used to stake the tomato plants. He held onto furniture from my room until I was out of grad school and needed it. etc.
We flat out didn't have the money when I was growing up to just buy stuff from a big box store (and they didn't really exist yet). If we didn't have the material, it didn't get fixed.
A lot of children didn't grow up like this. None of the younger generation in my family want any of the furniture. They have the disposable cash from their parents that they can buy something "new". I would have killed at their age for the stuff I now throw out. C'est la vie.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
My generation collects tattoos and IG-able experiences. We'll be easy to clean up after (save for the environmental impact) .
There are definitely advantages to that kind of lifestyle. Also, it makes it much easier every time you move to a different house/apartment.
Also great cause we can simply say "Look I have no assets! Forgive my student debt!"
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#424My grandmother died about 8 years ago. One of the things I took when helping clear out her house was a white plastic chopping board - it was probably pretty cheap to buy, but I just hadn't got one at the time. I still use it almost every day... and remember her.
I think this is the spot-on critique of the attitude in the article. I was in college when my mother's parents died a few years apart. They had all kinds of stuff, but I actually appreciated getting some of their kitchen utensils. Not the flatware, but the knives ( not great ones, just okay ), the slotted spoons, the mixing bowls, hand mixer, things like that. I didn't have any of that stuff. It isn't worth much mone…
I was too young to care about those things, but I wish I was able to get some of my grandparents cast iron.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#425Earlier quoted context omitted.
Swedish garages are never used for cars. Their only purpose is to hold a whole lot of trash that "you may need some day". I've visited lots of houses when I was on the market, nearly all of them had a garage or basement completely full of what to me looks like trash (as the article says, to the owners, it's old stuff that has some sentimental value, of course).
> Swedish garages are never used for cars. A bunch of American garages are the same way. There are lots of 2 car garages in suburbs that only have enough empty space for 1 car, if any at all. I suspect that this may be more of a widespread phenomenon than I had realized. Growing up, I'd hear of all of these big tech companies that got started in some guy's parent's garage. I considered my parent's 1 car garage: mom c…
I think a part of the issue lies with the fact that most homes built in large suburban developments of the 21st century don't have basements. My dad kept his tools and camping gear and other less used stuff in the basement. I have to sacrifice a parking spot and still usually need to move a bunch of "stuff" in order to use my table saw or work on anything larger than a bench top.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hopefully all of my (by now many) physical books will get donated to the village library from where my mother grew up and where my parents live right now. I remember I borrowed a David Copperfield translation and never returned it, that happened about ~30 years ago. I still feel guilty about it from time to time.
Based on personal experiences trying to give away my collection of 2000's scifi/fantasy books, it's hard even to give them away. The physical book market is shrinking and a significant portion of new readers likely use ebooks/audiobooks instead so there's just far less demand for physical books. I think it's going to be very hard to even give books away in the coming decades, I can see the vast majority going to recy…
County jails. Having spent time in county jails, a lot of them have few or no books and people in them are desperate for something to read as jails tend to have literally nothing to do except stare at the walls (no TVs, radios etc). They all happily take book donations. Doesn't matter how weird or esoteric the books are, someone will read them. I read over 800 books in jail, and because beggars can't be choosers I read some weird and wonderful things.
Book charities won't send to jails, only to prisons, because they say people aren't held long enough in jails, even though I know people who have been waiting 11 years for trial so far.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I've found books surprisingly hard to get rid of. Local recycling center doesn't take them, and they are pretty heavy so you can't set out a big bin full of them for trash collection. Used bookstores are extremely picky about titles, authors, and condition. Listing and selling on eBay is not worth the time for the tiny amount of money you may make, and most of them don't even sell. I mostly just end up throwing them…
This is probably why a lot of book exchanges[1] have odd books. I remember sitting in a bar which decor were bookshelves with old books, I found a book about DOS 5.0 which actually amused me.
[1] https://londonist.com/london/books-and-poetry/bookswap_eastc...
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#428Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously could not finish the opening story. I understand a small tinge of disdain for the effort required, but surely deep down a sense of gratitude and nostalgia should be mixed in no? Do people really not have no love for their parents they inherited the belongings of? The fact of the inheritance occuring is a hint that we're already filtering for kids who did not have an amiable relationship with their parents,…
Why can't you love someone, but not appreciate a new project they've given you that creates hundreds of hours of unpleasant work? Sure, you might bear it willingly out of that love, but you don't have to like a new tedious, dirty, frustrating project just because you love(d) the person who left it to you. To take it a step further, the junk is usually a result of your loved one's insecurities and fears. It's largely…
I imagine a person's view on this is highly correlated with the level of hoarder their parents are.
For me, it will only be a sad single day project as part of the grieving process. Hundreds of hours is just a totally different story.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh no, this reminds me that I have a box in my basement with my grandparents' wedding china that they got in the 1940's or something. My dad gave me the box, and I'm not allowed to throw the thing away as long as he lives. But it's completely useless. It's pretty, but you can't ever use it. It's not dishwasher safe, it's extremely fragile, and I cannot imagine ever hosting some kind of event where it would be appropr…
> ...there's not gonna be a market for things like this ten, twenty, years from now. You never know. Vintage fans are a thing, after all (1940s and 1950s are quite popular). When the time comes, ask around - there might be someone keen. Worth checking with family too - there might be someone who'll love and use it just for that connection.
The point of the parent poster was that the market is going to be completely saturated when the boomers die, because there's way more boomers with stuff like this laying around, than vintage fans who would appreciate it.
Re: The great junk transfer is coming
#430I'm just curious how boomers lived through the great depression.....
The article says, "The parents of baby boomers, the oldest generation alive today, were savers, having learned in the lean times of war and the Great Depression to treasure what they owned."
Yes but boomers were born after World war 2 (1945) ... The great depression was 1929 - 1939... Before WW2.