5 ms·

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 th

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 Labyrinth when they weigh her down w worldly possessions. There’s no way to train for it. It’s like the Kipple of Philip K Dick.

astrange 4y ago
> “Priceless heirlooms” weren’t of interest to anyone. Well, it's true. They are priceless, as in worthless. Those are usually things like furniture that could be valuable to someone in the area, but the cost of moving them is enough to make it worthless.
HFguy 4y ago
This is a bit of a random comment, but what you wrote was very evocative of similar experiences I've had.
danielodievich 4y ago
Nice use of "kipple" in a sentence. Props and respect!!!
- flybrand 4y ago
  Labyrinth and Kipple in same post; my recall of hoarding tropes is complete.
jahewson 4y ago
Oh yes, we had a few of these accumulators on my wife's side of the family. It's like the depression created an entire generation that couldn't bear to throw anything away. Five giant boxes of rags. Every tax return back to 1942. Every disposable coffee cup sleeve. Presents, never opened. Dresses, last worn in the 1980s. Every little white table-shaped thing that comes in a takeaway pizza box. 20 of the same wrench, all rusty. The old front door knob, long since replaced. Unopened, in-box power tools from the 1960s. Boxes of their own parents' stuff they never sorted through. 72 boxes of piano sheet music. All in a tiny post-war 3 bed family house. It took us 2 years to get through it all.
- voidfunc 4y ago
  This kind of hoarding runs on my mother's side of the family. My mother's mother lived through the depression and saved _everything_. When she was put into a nursing home we had to get the house ready for sale and there was quite a flurry of junk to throw out. My mother is a little bit better, but she definitely saves more stuff than necessary. Not to quite the scale of her mother, but it seems like a learned behavior.
- antisthenes 4y ago
  > All in a tiny post-war 3 bed family house. It took us 2 years to get through it all. Did it take you 2 years because you thought some of it would be actually valuable? Seems like a weekend job with a couple of buddies and a pack of beer. Buddies are also great for this, because they don't have any emotional attachment to the junk.
  - sbarre 4y ago
    It takes time because maybe you want to go through it all, to either learn and understand more about your parent(s), or to judge for yourself what is "valuable" and what is "junk" - both very subjective terms (with exceptions of course). It's easy to say "toss it all out in a weekend" when it's not your family's stuff.. hence your point about getting friends to help. :-) But sometimes efficiency and speed isn't the point. My SO is going through something similar and it's a very emotional and meticulous process, where you don't want to miss out on a chance to learn about your family's history as you sort through it all, particularly if you don't have much family left.
- dijit 4y ago
  Poverty does that to the brain, if you weren't aware. I have the same hoarding mentality, despite being extremely wealthy by my parents standards. My mum still keeps everything she gets her hands on, part of the reason is because reacquiring once discarded may not be possible. So better to be safe. While you get pretty good at using things to fix other things, these days everything seems to be single-use molded plastic with clips; once broken it often has no chance of being fixed. :\
dhosek 4y ago
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 specialized sub-collections with individual collectors who will treasure them as I did.
- fy20 4y ago
  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.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    Clothing that can't be sold can be recycled into rags, cushion stuffing, cleaning cloths etc.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I'm also kinda worried about my parents bookshelves. Some of it has probably bit over minimal resale value like book series still collected. Many things albeit interesting for period not so much actual value... I wonder how it will end up, let the people pick interesting stuff and then leave some value there and have someone buy it in bulk or get all of it and save the cost to recycling and processing it.
  - dhosek 4y ago
    When my grandfather died some 30 years ago, he left behind a significant library that was of little interest to anyone but him.

astrange 4y ago

> “Priceless heirlooms” weren’t of interest to anyone. Well, it's true. They are priceless, as in worthless. Those are usually things like furniture that could be valuable to someone in the area, but the cost of moving them is enough to make it worthless.

HFguy 4y ago

This is a bit of a random comment, but what you wrote was very evocative of similar experiences I've had.

danielodievich 4y ago

Nice use of "kipple" in a sentence. Props and respect!!!

flybrand 4y ago
Labyrinth and Kipple in same post; my recall of hoarding tropes is complete.

jahewson 4y ago

Oh yes, we had a few of these accumulators on my wife's side of the family. It's like the depression created an entire generation that couldn't bear to throw anything away. Five giant boxes of rags. Every tax return back to 1942. Every disposable coffee cup sleeve. Presents, never opened. Dresses, last worn in the 1980s. Every little white table-shaped thing that comes in a takeaway pizza box. 20 of the same wrench, all rusty. The old front door knob, long since replaced. Unopened, in-box power tools from the 1960s. Boxes of their own parents' stuff they never sorted through. 72 boxes of piano sheet music. All in a tiny post-war 3 bed family house. It took us 2 years to get through it all.

voidfunc 4y ago
This kind of hoarding runs on my mother's side of the family. My mother's mother lived through the depression and saved _everything_. When she was put into a nursing home we had to get the house ready for sale and there was quite a flurry of junk to throw out. My mother is a little bit better, but she definitely saves more stuff than necessary. Not to quite the scale of her mother, but it seems like a learned behavior.
antisthenes 4y ago
> All in a tiny post-war 3 bed family house. It took us 2 years to get through it all. Did it take you 2 years because you thought some of it would be actually valuable? Seems like a weekend job with a couple of buddies and a pack of beer. Buddies are also great for this, because they don't have any emotional attachment to the junk.
- sbarre 4y ago
  It takes time because maybe you want to go through it all, to either learn and understand more about your parent(s), or to judge for yourself what is "valuable" and what is "junk" - both very subjective terms (with exceptions of course). It's easy to say "toss it all out in a weekend" when it's not your family's stuff.. hence your point about getting friends to help. :-) But sometimes efficiency and speed isn't the point. My SO is going through something similar and it's a very emotional and meticulous process, where you don't want to miss out on a chance to learn about your family's history as you sort through it all, particularly if you don't have much family left.
dijit 4y ago
Poverty does that to the brain, if you weren't aware. I have the same hoarding mentality, despite being extremely wealthy by my parents standards. My mum still keeps everything she gets her hands on, part of the reason is because reacquiring once discarded may not be possible. So better to be safe. While you get pretty good at using things to fix other things, these days everything seems to be single-use molded plastic with clips; once broken it often has no chance of being fixed. :\

dhosek 4y ago

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 specialized sub-collections with individual collectors who will treasure them as I did.

fy20 4y ago
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.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Clothing that can't be sold can be recycled into rags, cushion stuffing, cleaning cloths etc.
Ekaros 4y ago
I'm also kinda worried about my parents bookshelves. Some of it has probably bit over minimal resale value like book series still collected. Many things albeit interesting for period not so much actual value... I wonder how it will end up, let the people pick interesting stuff and then leave some value there and have someone buy it in bulk or get all of it and save the cost to recycling and processing it.
- dhosek 4y ago
  When my grandfather died some 30 years ago, he left behind a significant library that was of little interest to anyone but him.