What did you do with your parents stuff?

[glocke12]

My father passed away two years ago, my mother is in assisted living, and sold my place and moved into their house. I am basically stuck with alot of crap to go through (furniture, dishes, boxes and boxes pf photos and papers, old books, etc.etc.).


To those that have gone through a similar experience, what did you end up doing with all of your parents stuff?

 

[ivtecDOu]

not my parents but with grandparents, but we donated a lot, tossed a lot, and sold a lot. hope that helps

 

[Xander562]

With my grandparents we rented one of those giant dumpster type things.

Like this:

Then we basically started going through room by room, taking what we wanted and tossing what we didn't. We also called all of our relatives and friends to see if they might want to rummage through the stuff we didn't want. I was in the 5th grade at the time so I don't remember how many weekends it took, probably 2-3 months? My grandmother was a pack rat.

 

[Gray-Wolf]

There are too many other family members to even be concerned with this. My parents, owe me nothing.

 

[rdowns]

Did this with my grandparents place. Family members took what they wanted and then we had a garage sale. Amazing how one person's junk is another's treasure. We called a local church and they were interested in taking a lot of it. The rest we trashed.

 

[benmrii]

... I am basically stuck with alot of crap to go through (furniture, dishes, boxes and boxes pf photos and papers, old books, etc.etc.).

The words you chose are telling. If you don't want any of it I would certainly call around to local churches, shelters, etc. to see where you might donate it. If what you have is what they need, some organizations such as homeless assistance/placement, will show up, load it and cart if off for you.

 

[Ugg]

My siblings and I moved our mother from her house to a small apartment. I feel your pain. Donate and give away what you can.

As far as photos, letters, etc, if you're not interested in your family's history, perhaps someone else in your family is. Ask around and see if someone else wants it. All that stuff can be amazingly revealing and like the people who collected it, once it's gone, it's gone forever.

 

[bandaros]

It's been 5 years and my dad's stuff is still all over the place.

We've just not had the time (or at least that's what I tell myself) to go through it all.

 

[glocke12]

My siblings and I moved our mother from her house to a small apartment. I feel your pain. Donate and give away what you can.

As far as photos, letters, etc, if you're not interested in your family's history, perhaps someone else in your family is. Ask around and see if someone else wants it. All that stuff can be amazingly revealing and like the people who collected it, once it's gone, it's gone forever.

photos and family documents are keepers. they are getting scanned so other family members can enjoy them.

the things that have been getting to me are things that were important to my parents, but arent important to myself or other family members...guess thats just all stuff that is given away....

 

[63dot]

It took many years.

My grandparents and aunt started a retail store in the mid-50s and my parents took it over in the early-60s and the store closed in 1989. Man, talk about a lot of stuff that hung around for at least ten years. We finally found a similar store and sold most of it on consignment.

I can't imagine even the most enthusiastic junk collector attaining that much stuff.

I had a friend whose father left him a rare gun collection of over 100 guns. My friend was so sickened by guns, for many reasons, that he just dumped them in the ocean. I understand this being a law student now and the incredible liability that involves selling weapons and possessing items which used to be legal many years ago, but are not today (post WW-I Thompsons, silencers, and the rare Japanese army grenade launcher). The craziest thing I ever saw for sell in a gun shop was a live round from a battleship from the second world war.

My parent's store sold antiques and one piece was a samurai sword which was old and very dull. It wasn't even a nice piece but we had to sell it to an antique store and massive legal documents had to be signed in the turnover of that sword just in case some idiot gets hurt with it. The legal fees, on both sides, cost far more than that stupid sword which is considered, by it's nature, a deadly weapon. The same is not usually the case for sword replicas.

One great, local pawn shop used to sell a ton of great stuff, including handguns but the insurance and liability protection, in California, became too costly. If a person commits a crime with a handgun, today's laws, and even cases going back over 150 years can implicate the gun shop owner, previous gun owner, and even gun manufacturer.