Ignore a loft at your peril!

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.

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!

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...

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.

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'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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!!

We have lived in this house nearly 40 years and planned to move a few months ago, but that got cancelled. However, one good thing that came out of the plan was the decluttering and we managed to clear everything out of the loft and it all went down the tip! It was mostly full of empty boxes, DH had kept every box for every item we had ever bought! Plus black bags of old towels and blankets ( the moths had had a field day!) old suitcases, a couple of book cases, several boxes of wire coat hangers,etc, etc you get the picture, all absolute rubbish! Now it is completely empty and I have sworn the loft hatch will never be opened again!

When I moved into this house 10 years ago, the previous owner had left an old dining room chair and a large analogue TV which still worked . The chair was taken to the recycling centre and the TV was put outside until my Son in law had time to take it to an appropriate disposal facility. It was stolen from my back door. I have refused to allow anyone to put anything in the loft as I am too old to get up there now. So empty loft for me and nothing for my family to have to get rid of when I pass on.

DH emptied the attic of everything 5 years ago - I don't do loft ladders and heights. I was so glad he had done this as he died 6 months later and it was one less thing for me to worry about. Only the plumber has been up there since!

My father died in 1985 and my mother remained living in their house until she also died in 2013. She'd said they had nothing in the loft . When I sold the family home did not even think to send someone up there. About 6 months after the new owners were chatting to the neighbours they mentioned when they were in the loft they came across lots and lots (and lots ) of old irons,kettles,Pifco stand hairdryer and other 1970s style electrical items. I then had a childhood memory of my (electrician) father buying broken stuff from auctions thinking he would fix them and sell on. Guess he never got round to it !

Annsixty you could bait the wellie with peanut butter, tuna, or Chocolate. Either the wellie or a trap.

When we down-sized we just had to get rid of a great deal of stuff, but kept some things which went into the loft, these I am gradually getting rid of, some of them might be worth something, I do not know, but the other half will just not let go. I remember how distressing it was sorting out my Mother in Law's home after she left, it was FULL of things which were not really relevant. There were however a whole pile of EAGLE magazines in pristine condition from the very first edition - unfortunately we just let them go. Worth a fortune these days. There is nothing in the loft that is mine, I do not collect, so I just have to persuade the other half to let go, and then he seems really sad, having not realised the things were there anyway.

Totally agree. We need to be ruthless if we don't want our children having to go through our junk.

We have just moved house and, after only 16 years of what we thought was minimal living, it took us ages to sort our loft and garage and it was really hard work. We also helped an old friend move out of her home for over 40 years. I don't think she had ever thrown any thing out. In one loft there were 20 suitcases!

And who will ever go through those grandparent's photo albums full of distant views of distant relatives at the sea side? In the bin with them, I say!

Happy Easter.

My ex and I split up 8 years ago after a very long marriage. We brought up 3 children, now grown up, in a house which had to be sold. We had a loft, a garage and 3 sheds to clear. It was a huge task as most stuff accumulated over 28 years had to be given away or thrown away. I put what I thought I might need into storage as I was moving to temporary accommodation. When I finally got a small house of my own I was determined never to build up a problem like that again. I have never even opened the hatch into my loft and made it a rule not to store anything up there. I am ruthless about giving away things which I don't need.

About 3 years ago with help from my son we had a massive clear out in the loft. Now it is full again and we are planning another clear. The biggest problem is the hundreds of family photos we have going back donkey years. What to do with them,

We moved into this house 14 years ago. The previous owners told us they'd cleared out the loft. A few months later hubby had a look. They'd left loads of kids toys, a pram, and other bits and pieces. We spent days taking things to the charity shop. Now many years later we have three grandchildren and i wonder if we should have kept all that stuff. It would have been an adventure for them to go through it all!

Oh my, some of these posts bring back memories. Cleaning my parents home out was a nightmare. Nothing had been cleared for years, the loft was rammed and as for the garage ....... We have a loft which is completely empty, no garage and very few cupboards, so whoever follows me should have absolutely no sorting out to do. I learned my lesson early on this one.

Thank you Misslayed but does that mean I hsve to lurk in the dark kitchen at the ready? ?

I have just finished sorting my dad's place out and it has been such a timely reminder of what not to leave, for others to make sense of and deal with.

I have paperwork going back 50 years for old closed bank accounts and spiteful letters left after a family fallout years ago and worst of all photos on my mother in her coffin..........please think before you accumulate stuff that would be better destroyed.

On a brighter note I once helped my mate move house and she is a proper miser and found 9 thousand pounds in her loft which she had 'forgotten that she had' as you do.........so I guess it is worth a look,

Annsixty try the 'Dorset Wellie Method" to catch your kitchen mouse - lay a wellie down on the floor, the theory is that the mouse sees a dark hole and runs into the wellie, then you can easily carry it outside and set it free.