Ignore a loft at your peril!

after 18 years living in our first house in devon we moved to dorset. took me about 3 weeks to clear the loft. everything was boxed up, sealed and labelled. that was 1987.
it all came with us to dorset and most of it went up into our "new" loft.
eight years later the marriage broke down and i moved out - it took quite some time to go through every box in the loft to decide who had what.
it was then reboxed, sealed and labelled and moved to my new little house - and up into my loft!!!
it was added to during the following years until 2009 when i had the loft insulated and everything had to come down ...................... it took another 2 years to sort things out [knee replacement op and recovery] but it seems that most of it went back up!!
now my daughter and grandaughter are moving in with me and there's loads of stuff to go in the loft. we've got some loft boards and will start the sorting out as soon as we've recovered from that nasty cold [the repeating one] and a tummy bug which has laid us low.
i can see we'll have to get some more loft boards as there's then the stuff which will be coming from her marital home which we'll have to find room for.
i tell her that when i go she'll be able to stock the entire shop where she works [charity shop] but until then everything can stay where it is!! i LIKE my stuff whether it's on show or up in the loft and don't want to part with ANYTHING.
so my son and my daughter will have the fun of sorting everything out and deciding what to do with it - i won't know about it so i won't care ........... then!!

Lupatria it is fine if your family are all happy hoarders together and it impacts on no one else to their detriment. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy never mind my family.

I have a friend who is possessed by her possessions. When her sister and I spoke to her son about the problem in their home we said to him that when he next looks around he should reflect on the fact that when she is gone all 'this' will be his and sadly we would not be around or able to help him with the clearing. He did look at the whole situation with new eyes and is working with her to clear it all now. Knowing that he was the one who would be entirely responsible changed his mind entirely!

We kept putting stuff in the loft leaving it near the hatch so we could reach it. We've had loads of workmen in over the last 20 years and they've gone into the loft and moved everything away from the hatch, such that we can't get stuff down.

Problem is if we empty the loft now there's nowhere to put it so bit of a conundrum if thats the right word.

The thought of moving fills me with dread. I came to this house when I married 50 years ago and we had 4 children. OH then moved on to greener pastures. Every year I tell the children that we need to sort out the roof - a lot of the stuff is theirs. There are also old Christmas decorations, sleeping bags, rucksacks and suitcases. Obsolete TV's and music systems - and a rack full of home-made wine dating back to the 60's and 70's, totally undrinkable.
Whilst I can and do go up my loft ladder getting stuff down on my own is not a good plan so there it stays.

About 12 years ago I had to have a new roof. We emptied the loft and found that some things had "walked"with a previous set of builders. I felt that if we hadn't noticed things gone then we weren't missing anything. We have three loft hatches but there is nothing up there

We've been here since 1985. We regularly have a life laundry so like others have said I swear someone is planting stuff up there! We have things like suitcases, Christmas stuff and cot and high chair-all of which is used. However, before we are nominated for a sainthood, there is other "stuff" eg some furniture and crockery etc that we are sure DDs and DGC will be glad of-but not a bit of it-they all want new stuff these days, no make do and mend for this generation.

As for photos, last year we compiled an online album for our eldest DGD's 18th birthday with photos from each decade. That wasn't so bad as most photos of the last 20 years or so are mostly on computer.
In January we compiled an online album for our elder DD's 40th-what a job that was! Old photo albums. . . . But a good chance to clear them out. I was ruthless getting rid of views at least.
It's next DD's 40th next year so will have another rid out then.
We it don't want to leave a massive clear out job to out dear children.

We cleared the loft years ago and thought the rest would be easy. Wrong. Just over three years ago we downsized and it was horrendous. I know my partner took some boxes of stuff to charity shops which I had wanted to keep, although he hotly denies it. Yes, we have lost stuff and some of it I wish we hadn't, but they're only things and if anything is really important I'll replace it if it isn't too expensive. I'm happy that I'm not leaving it to the offspring to sort out when we go as I don't think that's fair. My parents are doing that so I'll have to repeat the whole process come their demise.

The odd thing is that OH and I are the only ones that have lived here during our ownership, we came as newlyweds (second time for both), and yet our loft was filled with his stuff, stuff from both my sons (one alive and one not) and stuff from his late father. And one little box of mine...

I should have added that despite all this 'stuff' angst we are planning to board out and use our next loft too! But I'll make sure I can get into it and will have full control!!! Lol!

After 20 years of living in the same house I thought I had completed the 12 labours of Hercules involved in moving.

But no - everything was ready, house sold, packed, decluttered, monies nearly sorted when the b----y Estate Agent says chirpily.

"Have you cleared out your loft?"

I had to hire a man to go up there and take all the "stuff" away in a van.