@thumper1: Hahahahahahahaha.
I would love to get rid of 75% of all the accumulated stuff from 32 years of marriage and everything we brought with us. My husband wants to keep everything, just in case. For instance, we have 2 huge plastic bins of National Geographic magazines. He won’t let me get rid of them because he might read them one day. We’ve had them for 25 years…that’s just the iceberg. I have started getting rid of knickknacks sitting around that have no emotional attachment, when he’s not around. I have 1/2 of my Xmas devorations weeded out. I’m off for a couple months, so I think I’ll continue to do this. But so much of it he would notice.
I am sure he could read those magazines online.
@tucsonmom your MIL’s bathroom sounds hilarious. Does she have lots of company? Or does she just decorate it for herself?
When my inlaws were moving, my husband called me on one of his outings. He was heading to a local hospital with boxes and boxes of National Geo, Smithsonian, and a couple of others. I said “stop and go straight to the landfill. That hospital does NOT need these magazines…and it will cost them to dispose of them”.
Old magazines get tossed after six months in this house. Luckily most of DH’s are now done online…ditto the books! Thank goodness for things like Kindle…and Nook!
Magazines don’t even make it to my apartment. I tossed them right in the trash as soon as I get them out of my mailbox. I get free ones from time to time. Occasionally when one of them do make it to my apartment, they are gone as soon as I am finished.
I just got through clearing out my mother’s 2 bedroom apartment (she moved in with my brother) and my father’s home in another state (he moved in with me) and am having nightmares about all the STUFF. Dad’s previous will carefully selected what of his stuff went to whom - he was going to will me all his books (some leatherbound, some Reader’s Digest condensed books). No thank you! Then there is the “coin collection” from my husband’s grandmother that has just been sitting in a corner of our bedroom for about a decade. I have sworn my kids will not have to deal with my stuff.
Don’t toss the coin collection. Just sayin.
Not only can you read magazines on-line, but they also have these new fangled inventions called libraries.
“Don’t toss the coin collection. Just saying.”
Or the leather bound books. Not saying you have to keep them but these items are likely wanted by others.
One reason I dread the passing of my parents and MIL is that we will have to empty out their homes. Egads. So. Much. Stuff.
I’m a boomer parent and would love for you, my children , to clear out YOUR stuff.
I have a basement full of stuff from my kid’s moving back from college and then moved out. But they still want some of the stuff. There is also too much stuff from my mother’s house even though we got rid of a large amount of her things. We sold, donated and gave away, distributed amoung all kin and dumped. I still have stuff in my basement though. Mostly sentimental. I also have all of her jewelry.
My F and M had moved out of the house I grew up in and moved to a much smaller retirement home. So they had already gotten rid of decades of stuff. But there was still so much to have to distribute, sell, donate or get rid of to sell the house. I was the executrix. It was a nightmare.
We all just accumulate too much stuff!
I told my father that he wasn’t allowed to die until he had cleared out his basement. I was (half) joking. He’s in good health for his age and has no immediate plans to downsize. I appreciate that he’s been working on it.
My daughter just got married. Someone DH worked with gave her a very nice sofa, loveseat and two chairs, along with an almost new washer and dryer. Those are all in my basement, along with one of her sofas that is in my living room because it won’t fit through the door of their apartment. Plus she has a bed, desk and dresser still here. So do my other two daughters. I just ignore their “bedrooms.”
One of my goals this fall and winter is to clear out alot of the stuff in my house. Unfortunately, DH is a pack rat (he doesn’t think he is) so it may take some convincing to get him to part with some of his stuff. He may eventually, but it might take whittling it down over several passes.
DH’s joke is that I consider clutter anything that belongs to him.
Well, yeah.
It was really hard downsizing for my mom. Everything was meaningful. I got it, but some things just had to go. We all divvied up everything and to ease her pain, we said we were taking it, then donated it. I did take her dining room furniture, including her china and silver. My waterford crystal is no longer sold - ballyshannon - I wish I could find it in antique stores! I use my stuff, I entertain a lot. I have nice jewelry I’ll give to my daughter, because I realize it won’t be worth a thing. I could also probably decorate a department store with my christmas stuff.
Lost my stepmom a few months ago. Dad re-did all of his estate planning. Before he went to see the lawyer, I told him to not leave me any money, as I don’t need it, and some of my other sibs do. He told me that he’d thought about it, and decided to do as I’d asked, but he is leaving my share to my kids.
The other day, he told me he is spending 8 hours a day getting rid of stuff, throwing stuff out, giving to charity, etc., so he can move to an Air Force retirement community in early 2017. He’s called charitable companies that come and take stuff away, too. He said “this is my gift to you, because you would be the one stuck doing it after I’m gone.” I am the only one who lives in the area, so he is probably right, and it is a wonderful gift he gave to me. I’ve been helping him some, but it’s unbelievable how much stuff they’d accumulated in 48 years. I figured it would take a year or so to do, but he surprised me by this flurry of activity this past month. He’s given me a little bit of stuff, not all of it stuff that I want, but it’s not so much, really. He’s being very strict with himself, because he will be downsizing significantly at his new place. He finds it liberating, actually.
I hope you guys are tossing the magazines into the recycle bins rather than the trash.
Your father is quite enlightened, Nrdsb4. Most of our parents were quite the opposite and saw value in every little thing they saved, and figured we’d see the value in it too. My mother has moved twice in her old age and I had to handle the move both times very quickly. Because of the limited time I had with both moves, I had to make quick decisions about what stayed and what went. In a way that may have made it easier since I couldn’t keep waffling about what to do. I still have some of her stuff in my basement, but I doubt I’ll be keeping much of it.