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I've moved houses 3 times in the last 3 years. The pain of moving all my personal belongings made me realise how much unnecessary stuff I had accumulated. So I

I've moved houses 3 times in the last 3 years. The pain of moving all my personal belongings made me realise how much unnecessary stuff I had accumulated. So I made it a point to throw or give away many things that was no longer really needed. It was a revelation and now I am more mindful to storing anything for long-term without thought. I still have more than 2+ decades of stuff in a storage - books, sentimental stuffs, things I thought may be useful or needed in the future etc. Still figuring out how to go through all that.

Bluecobra 9mo ago
I’m in a similar situation, after dealing with the deaths of multiple parents I don’t want my descendants to have a huge burden of stuff and I’ve been on a mission to purge as much as possible. Facebook Marketplace has been great to get rid of a lot of the more bulky stuff. It’s great, you post a picture and someone comes to your house to pick it up cash in hand. Low value stuff gets donated to goodwill or my local Buy Nothing/Free Stuff group on Facebook. Also been doing a tidy amount of sales on eBay for smaller/more valuable items. Still have a lot of progress to make. At least my game collection on Steam will be easy to clean up.
arethuza 9mo ago
A few years back we "decluttered" our house in order to make it more appealing for sale and put all the stuff in storage. After the property eventually sold we went back and looked at the stuff we had stored and probably threw out 80% of it.
laborcontract 9mo ago
This applies to both physical and digital goods. I've tried to think hard about how to keep my digital life in order in a way that my kids will be understand to make some sense of. I'm not there yet but I am mindful of it. Trying to explain the sentimental value of your belongings to others is like trying to explain a dream.
- rationalist 9mo ago
  I'm not a hoarder, but my dad is. I have a couple of items from my dead grandparents, and it's a connection. It's a tangible connection that feels more real than something intangible like memories. As for my dad though, I have no idea. He recognizes that it's a problem, but can't stop. It's stuff like plastic ship models, or stuff he wants to buy on eBay - postcards from defunct airlines that he used to fly on.
  - laborcontract 9mo ago
    That makes sense, but don't you think hoarding muddies the signal? Do you know what of your father's you'd want to keep of his hoarded goods?
    - rationalist 9mo ago
      There is nothing that he has hoarded that I want to keep. I have told him that. I have told him that he has so much stuff, that it would be impossible for me to recognize the $1,000 model boxes from the worthless model boxes, and that when he dies, I'm just going to have to wholesale the lot for probably a penny on the dollar. I told him him that the people who will pay money for plastic model kits are the same age as him, and if they all die around the same time or before him, there will be no one to buy the model kits.
      - criddell 9mo ago
        I've had the same discussion with my parents. They wanted me to go through their home and mark down everything I want. I don't want any of it and frankly dealing with a full house of stuff after they die is something I dread. I wouldn't even know where to start. Are there companies you can hire that will take care of everything?
        a2tech 9mo ago
        Yes, they’re called clean out companies. They’ll swoop in and put everything in a dumpster. You can engage an auction house-+cleanout company if you think they have anything worth selling.
mythical_39 9mo ago
Put it into a storage locker. Pre-pay 5 years of fees on the locker. Wait 5 years. This is what we call a 'self-sovling-problem'
- thisislife2 9mo ago
  To be clear, it is in storage for the past 2+ decade. It was moving houses every year, the last few years, with only the essentials, that made me realise how much of a hoarder I was. Nevertheless, dumping it somewhere and "forgetting" about it is not much of a solution - as someone else said here, you are just passing on the problem to the next generation.
  - tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
    I think the implication is once the fees stop being paid it ceases to be your problem. The storage company will sell the contents of your locker.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- klatchex_too 9mo ago
  Where I live none of the storage companies will let you pre-pay 1 year of rent let alone 5. A major part of their business model is giving low initial rates and then raising the rent over and over knowing what a pain it will be for the renters to move to a different storage place. The industry acronym for the strategy is "ECRIs", existing customer rate increases, and it is a profitability metric they track.

Bluecobra 9mo ago

I’m in a similar situation, after dealing with the deaths of multiple parents I don’t want my descendants to have a huge burden of stuff and I’ve been on a mission to purge as much as possible. Facebook Marketplace has been great to get rid of a lot of the more bulky stuff. It’s great, you post a picture and someone comes to your house to pick it up cash in hand. Low value stuff gets donated to goodwill or my local Buy Nothing/Free Stuff group on Facebook. Also been doing a tidy amount of sales on eBay for smaller/more valuable items. Still have a lot of progress to make. At least my game collection on Steam will be easy to clean up.

arethuza 9mo ago

A few years back we "decluttered" our house in order to make it more appealing for sale and put all the stuff in storage. After the property eventually sold we went back and looked at the stuff we had stored and probably threw out 80% of it.

laborcontract 9mo ago

This applies to both physical and digital goods. I've tried to think hard about how to keep my digital life in order in a way that my kids will be understand to make some sense of. I'm not there yet but I am mindful of it. Trying to explain the sentimental value of your belongings to others is like trying to explain a dream.

rationalist 9mo ago
I'm not a hoarder, but my dad is. I have a couple of items from my dead grandparents, and it's a connection. It's a tangible connection that feels more real than something intangible like memories. As for my dad though, I have no idea. He recognizes that it's a problem, but can't stop. It's stuff like plastic ship models, or stuff he wants to buy on eBay - postcards from defunct airlines that he used to fly on.
- laborcontract 9mo ago
  That makes sense, but don't you think hoarding muddies the signal? Do you know what of your father's you'd want to keep of his hoarded goods?
  - rationalist 9mo ago
    There is nothing that he has hoarded that I want to keep. I have told him that. I have told him that he has so much stuff, that it would be impossible for me to recognize the $1,000 model boxes from the worthless model boxes, and that when he dies, I'm just going to have to wholesale the lot for probably a penny on the dollar. I told him him that the people who will pay money for plastic model kits are the same age as him, and if they all die around the same time or before him, there will be no one to buy the model kits.
    - criddell 9mo ago
      I've had the same discussion with my parents. They wanted me to go through their home and mark down everything I want. I don't want any of it and frankly dealing with a full house of stuff after they die is something I dread. I wouldn't even know where to start. Are there companies you can hire that will take care of everything?
      - a2tech 9mo ago
        Yes, they’re called clean out companies. They’ll swoop in and put everything in a dumpster. You can engage an auction house-+cleanout company if you think they have anything worth selling.

mythical_39 9mo ago

Put it into a storage locker. Pre-pay 5 years of fees on the locker. Wait 5 years. This is what we call a 'self-sovling-problem'

thisislife2 9mo ago
To be clear, it is in storage for the past 2+ decade. It was moving houses every year, the last few years, with only the essentials, that made me realise how much of a hoarder I was. Nevertheless, dumping it somewhere and "forgetting" about it is not much of a solution - as someone else said here, you are just passing on the problem to the next generation.
- tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
  I think the implication is once the fees stop being paid it ceases to be your problem. The storage company will sell the contents of your locker.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
klatchex_too 9mo ago
Where I live none of the storage companies will let you pre-pay 1 year of rent let alone 5. A major part of their business model is giving low initial rates and then raising the rent over and over knowing what a pain it will be for the renters to move to a different storage place. The industry acronym for the strategy is "ECRIs", existing customer rate increases, and it is a profitability metric they track.