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I kinda thought this would be an article about possessions and a lifetime spent gathering them; what they mean, if anything, and what to do about them as genera
by dmje 4y ago
I kinda thought this would be an article about possessions and a lifetime spent gathering them; what they mean, if anything, and what to do about them as generations change. That to me would make a more interesting read than one that focused on "whether books are still relevant" which was really where this one went.
I'm grappling with the former problem so maybe it's just right there in my consciousness right now. I've got a house full of parental possessions - including hundreds of books collected over a lifetime, and I've got to get rid of them. I love books but just don't have the space for more. The journey is hard and very poignant.
- cableshaft 4y agoYou might find the book 'How to Archive Family Keepsakes' by Denise May Levenick interesting. I bought it myself to read and haven't gotten very far into it yet (always so many distractions), but it seemed like it had some interesting and useful stuff in there. Part 1's title, for example, is called "I Inherited Grandma's Stuff, Now What?"
- dmje 4y agoOo, cheers, will check that out, sounds highly relevant!
- rr888 4y agoMy widowed father lives in a 4 bed family home. My widower mother-in-law lives in a 3 bed house with a massive basement. I have a 2 bed apartment that is full already. There isn't any space!
- bombcar 4y agoThere are services that will buy the entire house “still loaded” from you when the time comes. You go through, take what you want, and call them. You get less money overall but it’s very hassle-free.
- amatecha 4y agoI currently have a room full of furniture of a family member who passed recently (actually months ago). Can definitely relate to that struggle!
- soco 4y agoMy father collects cuckoo clocks, over hundred at the moment and not really the valuable kind. I need a plan...
- Koshkin 4y agoMechanical cuckoo clocks are pretty hard to find these days, are they not?
- bombcar 4y agoSounds like we have a lead on at least a hundred.
- wzwy 4y agoSeems like a sizeable collection to use as props for a horror story. Cuckoo clocks are scary.
- Freak_NL 4y agoI guess one of those tacky Instagram experience 'museums' might consider a room filled with cuckoo clocks as one of the backdrops offered as well.
- soco 4y agoA big room, to not look like a clock dump. I wouldn't mind decorating one of my rooms like that but I'd need that spare room first :)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- femto 4y agoIf he's that into cuckoo clocks he's probably in touch with other people who share the interest. Talk to him now to find out who those friends are. Those are the people you offer the clocks to. It also means you get to spend time with your father talking about something he likes. That time together is what you will be thinking about when passing those clocks on.
- sefrost 4y agoI read something like that recently you might like: > The great junk transfer is coming. A look at the burden (and big business) of decluttering as Canadians inherit piles of their parents’ stuff. Sorting, storing and disposing of old family belongings will be a labour-intensive challenge in the next decade as baby boomers age. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-great-junk-transfer-inheritance-decluttering-canada/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-great-jun...
- password4321 4y agoDiscussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31499766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31499766
- Gigachad 4y agoDoesn't seem like as big of a problem as people make it out to be. You hire a skip and move the vast majority of stuff in to it over a weekend. Maybe garage sale off the stuff that has some value.
- bombcar 4y agoRenting a roll off or even a normal dumpster is something everyone should do every few years, anyway.
- Gigachad 4y agoI have to question what people are doing where they can fill a whole dumpster with junk every few years. Perhaps buying less crap would be a good start.
- throwaway1777 4y ago100% agree. It is NOT normal to need a dumpster every few years…
- ogennadi 4y ago
- nine_k 4y agoBook are of course valuable! Paper is mostly not. OTOH art books and children's books are valuable exactly in their physical form, they are not just text.