My wife likes to collect everything and also preserve everything — especially from the kids. We have stored away in an endless array of clear plastic bins clothing from when they were young to their homework assignments to the previous “vision” she had for the house — boxes upon boxes of pillows and curtains and more pillows and more curtains. To me, it’s maddening. I am tempted to call the junk man to just dive into my garage, which is now stacked floor to ceiling with a lifetime’s worth of junk, and just throw it away. If I did so, I don’t think she’d even notice, which is the irony.
I also have an entire store’s worth of art supplies, sowing materials, beads, blank canvases, paint and brushes. The list is endless and there’s barely anything of mine mixed in with the boxes, aside from 1 or two boxes of baseball cards and some tools.
I’ve spoken to colleagues and friends about this and it seems, if I might be so bold, the foraging of nonsense and storing of memories is primarily a female trait —- which of course is a FLAW since when we die our children will simply TOSS all of this shit away — post haste — sans the valuables.
This is why women can’t trade well —- too emotional, fixed on sentimentality —- always trying to get back former glory and unable to move forward with the new reality.
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When you die?
Buddy…
That shit is getting tossed in front of you. Every kids mom eventually gives them that box and they don’t want it. They’ll politely say an “I love you” then garbage.
Haha right, when your parents garage full of crap is headed for you and….. yeah let’s understand this I want nothing to do with your shit or mine. Countoffer submitted, 2nd time in 2 years yeah we’re whittled down to carry on luggage lol
Brick ?
Get a Winnebago and out all that in it. Better yet, an old boat.
When you croak, your kids will feel pain when they have to decide to get rid of stuff that they think was dear to you. Give it away now Mrs. Fly.
Yes, this is very true. The kids do not want it. When you are gone (really gone) they will trash it anyway. They will have their own lives creating their own memories. When we downsized I made numerous trips to the dump. We saved a few things in case they had kids (they did). We had the VHS tapes put on thumb drives and gave each a copy.
It was kind of theraputic at the dump plus I believe you will be saving your kids some sadness when they have to toss it.
All objects need curating, the bookshelf, the art, the tools, the garage; always improving by limiting space and culling in favour of quality. Don’t leave a mess for others to tidy and most importantly no skeletons, for example tax problems, can be left for others to deal with.
My brother and I ‘inherited’ my parents lifetime of junk when my father died. My brother, being my brother didn’t want to put it in a dump. So he tracked down several places that would back up a truck and take it away, allowing us to claim a donation. Did that make us ‘feel’ better? Nope. It was the only time he or I ever got a IRS audit. The amount we donated must have set off a ton of bells and whistles. We had to submit all the video of it getting packed up and moved out. Beware if you go through the ‘donation’ thing.