4 ms·

I’ve already told my wife that when her parents die we are just going to burn the house down. I’m just half joking. I truly don’t understand people that fill u

I’ve already told my wife that when her parents die we are just going to burn the house down. I’m just half joking. I truly don’t understand people that fill up their homes with stuff. You can’t take it with you. And I have no intention of sorting through it. It’s all going straight to the landfill.

ta988 4y ago
Don't throw things, get specialists that can sell and redistribute it. You can negotiate to not get money back and they can even take care of what's really trash.
- djbusby 4y ago
  Yes. Well, this process takes months. Do you want the empty house to sell or use? Or would you rather wait 6+ months while stuff slowly clears out? Edit: for the replies: that works in populated areas. Rural MO, WS not so much. Edit2: also, arguing with kinfolk about stuff or waiting for probate (in the absence of a Will)
  - bseidensticker 4y ago
    There are definitely people who will move every single thing out of a house in a weekend for free. That's how storage unit auctions are done, and buyers even pay for it.
    - Cerium 4y ago
      Exactly, if you want a house empty you can make it empty just about as soon as you would like. The only question is who pays and how much. As you say - if it is junk you will pay some, if there are some things of obvious value you can come out ahead.
  - 1123581321 4y ago
    Shouldn’t take nearly that long. Get another quote from a professional with a warehouse so they can work from there. Or schedule an estate sale as soon as legally able.
ryandrake 4y ago
> I truly don’t understand people that fill up their homes with stuff. I almost replied this way, too, but then I remember the junk drawer I have full of DB9 serial cables, Firewire cables, PCI SCSI cards, 256MB RAM chips, 2GB spinning hard disk drives, three prong computer power cables, mice, webcams, power strips, power bricks, and a fully functional Dell OptiPlex GX620 with a screaming Pentium D 3.2GHz CPU. I keep all these things out of some insane sense that "One Day I Might Need It And Will Be Glad I Kept It." Same reason I keep scrap wood, extra floor tiles, and 1/4 full paint cans in my shed.
- klyrs 4y ago
  I had such a collection. It spent a decade in storage during a transient period of my life, and I emptied my storage when I got a house. I made a decision that I was going to empty every single box, whether or not I'd go on to repack them. I saved a miniscule fraction of the computer stuff, in the face of the evidence that I had not needed it for an entire decade and had no plans to open a computing museum.
  - eropple 4y ago
    I just did the same thing last weekend, from boxes that had been kicking around a few moves, which is where most of my "buildup of crap" came from personally. I'd lived in a series of apartments with more storage space than actively usable space, then I'd met a girl, she owned a house so moved in there, we bought a house together, COVID hit so we sold that house for another with a yard for us and for the dogs, then we split up and I kept this house because she had her eye on one not far away. Five years after some of these boxes were packed, I finally went through them. I found a few things to keep, like the thank-yous from charity events I've run, but I don't need a monitor stand for a monitor I don't have anymore or all those VGA cables. My studio and my wood shop are pretty well-organized now. Aiming to keep them that way. The rest of the house--I dunno, I live pretty lightly outside of those two areas.
- ars 4y ago
  Are you me? :) And whenever I think about throwing it out, I actually do end up using something from the pile :) My only consolation is that it's all easy stuff to throw out for the next generation - there's no emotional stuff there.

ta988 4y ago

Don't throw things, get specialists that can sell and redistribute it. You can negotiate to not get money back and they can even take care of what's really trash.

djbusby 4y ago
Yes. Well, this process takes months. Do you want the empty house to sell or use? Or would you rather wait 6+ months while stuff slowly clears out? Edit: for the replies: that works in populated areas. Rural MO, WS not so much. Edit2: also, arguing with kinfolk about stuff or waiting for probate (in the absence of a Will)
- bseidensticker 4y ago
  There are definitely people who will move every single thing out of a house in a weekend for free. That's how storage unit auctions are done, and buyers even pay for it.
  - Cerium 4y ago
    Exactly, if you want a house empty you can make it empty just about as soon as you would like. The only question is who pays and how much. As you say - if it is junk you will pay some, if there are some things of obvious value you can come out ahead.
- 1123581321 4y ago
  Shouldn’t take nearly that long. Get another quote from a professional with a warehouse so they can work from there. Or schedule an estate sale as soon as legally able.

ryandrake 4y ago

> I truly don’t understand people that fill up their homes with stuff. I almost replied this way, too, but then I remember the junk drawer I have full of DB9 serial cables, Firewire cables, PCI SCSI cards, 256MB RAM chips, 2GB spinning hard disk drives, three prong computer power cables, mice, webcams, power strips, power bricks, and a fully functional Dell OptiPlex GX620 with a screaming Pentium D 3.2GHz CPU. I keep all these things out of some insane sense that "One Day I Might Need It And Will Be Glad I Kept It." Same reason I keep scrap wood, extra floor tiles, and 1/4 full paint cans in my shed.

klyrs 4y ago
I had such a collection. It spent a decade in storage during a transient period of my life, and I emptied my storage when I got a house. I made a decision that I was going to empty every single box, whether or not I'd go on to repack them. I saved a miniscule fraction of the computer stuff, in the face of the evidence that I had not needed it for an entire decade and had no plans to open a computing museum.
- eropple 4y ago
  I just did the same thing last weekend, from boxes that had been kicking around a few moves, which is where most of my "buildup of crap" came from personally. I'd lived in a series of apartments with more storage space than actively usable space, then I'd met a girl, she owned a house so moved in there, we bought a house together, COVID hit so we sold that house for another with a yard for us and for the dogs, then we split up and I kept this house because she had her eye on one not far away. Five years after some of these boxes were packed, I finally went through them. I found a few things to keep, like the thank-yous from charity events I've run, but I don't need a monitor stand for a monitor I don't have anymore or all those VGA cables. My studio and my wood shop are pretty well-organized now. Aiming to keep them that way. The rest of the house--I dunno, I live pretty lightly outside of those two areas.
ars 4y ago
Are you me? :) And whenever I think about throwing it out, I actually do end up using something from the pile :) My only consolation is that it's all easy stuff to throw out for the next generation - there's no emotional stuff there.