granparents and parents 'stuff' siting in boxes

No parents or grandparents stuff but I've got boxes of my own stuff to sort out!

Sympathies to all... yes been there, dealing with relatives, several times now.

Times have changed so beautiful china teasets with gold trim are no longer valued as not dishwasher proof or microwave safe. All mugs now too! No longer servants to polish up the silver. I have a beautiful feather eiderdown of my gr grans but it is going to the tip I fear along with 8 modern quilts I no longer need altho quite clean etc. Even dogs shelters would not take the latter.

I am the family genealogist so some items I will treasure as fill out the bare facts of ancestor's life. I have my grandfather's ID tag. He died in WW1. I will bequeath a box of paperwork to a nephew who seems interested. For dear people who have gone ahead of me I keep a small box of items for each to keep with me, letters, photos etc. I imagine in time I will trim these down.

I think after years of hanging onto 'stuff' that might be useful and with a growing family, it is a hard habit to turn about. But chucking stuff also had a buzz to it. A satisfaction of a job well done, new homes found, space created. I try and 'throw away/dispose' of some item every day. If something is added to the attic, something must go. A new pair of shoes? dump an old pair.

I do not see the point of keeping bank information over 6 years as no longer of interest to taxman and presume estates of these people long since settled.

Have also been getting rid of ‘things’ mainly paperwork, excess bedding, ornaments, etc.

I think that books can also go, I have 100’s, possibly 1000’s, and I can’t possibly read or re-read all of them! Bought so many from charity shops or have been given books I don’t need, I’m sure someone could get some pleasure from them.

I read about an Australian who had lost his home at least twice to bush fires and he said it taught him that most ‘things’ are often unnecessary and can be replaced if needed.

BUT am still holding on to MUCH more than I need!

?

We made some old tea sets into cake stands which all sold better than the tea sets would

It’s surprising how judgments about value can shift. I’d already ditched some old Uni notes but then a request came for items for the 100th anniversary of my old Department. Such notes (from 50 yrs ago, not 100) are now of historic importance! Same for all the political circulars, papers at the time of the 1968 student riots and sit-ins, now a valued part of my old College archive as most people threw them away.

What about all the letters from first world war soldiers being discovered from time to time? All of historical interest and difficult to decide whether things are rubbish or not. Sad if they had been destroyed.
Being in the process of clearing out all my late husband's things, I find it so emotional that I can only do a little at a time. When I've finished I'll start on my own things!

It is unkind to burden your children with doing your own sorting and throwing out. When my in-laws moved they took many old things with them, a loftful in fact, and there it stayed until they departed. We had very young children so I had to stay at home and look after them and the DH had to travel hundreds of miles north to empty the loft and get rid of the house contents.

My own mother did the same - twice. We moved her from one sheltered home to another, where she took her things with her and stored them in cupboards. When she moved again to residential care we unpacked the cupboards and moved the same (and unused) contents for the second time to the dump.

I cant say "get rid" we moved house four years ago and had a huge clear out, however there are at least ten removal boxes in the garage,mainly my OH clothes which cannot be touched! having said that I was rummaging through some boxes last week, and found a box of my things, excercise books from my student Nursing days, notes from maternity sudies, with the names, weight, birth dates of all my deliveries, I CANT get rid of them, I thought how these "children would now be fifty five years of age, yes, I AM a hoarder! What a job my chidren are going to have!!

Nobody likes to get rid of books I know, there is a time though when they are past their read by date. We often get donations of books at our voluntary library and some are in dreadful condition, quite unsuitable for a library. People usually excuse this by saying they hate to throw books away -well so do I .

Had a clear out when we downsized.
We have loads of photos of family weddings etc.
Have sent some to nieces and nephew of the gps which they were pleased to get, some photos to my sister and brother.

You can sell loads of stuff on Ebay or where I live we have an Age UK shop that will take everything! We also have local to your area 'chat pages' on line for buying and selling items.

I'd be tempted to keep one piece from each set just as a memory thing and give the rest away. I know it disrupts the set a little, but surely after all these years they are not complete anyway? Otherwise make sure it's a mustard pot or gravy boat which is least likely to be missed

When my Mum died I was left with so much stuff. Not just hers, but I found boxes of stuff that had come from both sets of grandparents in the loft. I have been sorting through slowly, reading letters and postcards that are up to 100 years old, and finding out things about the family I never knew! I still haven't finished more than 10 years later, due to a lot of family stuff of various sorts that has happened since my Mum died. I am determined to finish it this year and determined not to leave my children in the same situation.

I'm in this arena too and it's so hard to part with 'stuff'. Having done the awful deed when my Mother died, I vowed I would never inflict this on my children. I'm not doing too badly (but not well enough by far). One method I did adopt was to have someone completely empty and dispose of the contents of my loft whilst I was away. In all these years I have only wondered about two particular items and the result was a shoulder shrug. C'est la vie. At the end of the day 'stuff' usually only evokes memories and we have them anyway. I actually wonder if this hoarding comes under the heading of 'this might be useful to someone someday' since many of us remember days of frugality and hardship. Don't know but it certainly seems to be a common problem on this site.

I try to have a regular clear out and keep 'stuff' to the minimum. My only son lives in NZ and I would hate for him to be faced with clearing mountains once I shuffle off.
Books now, that's a different matter; got the Kindle but still cannot walk past a charity shop without checking out my favourite authors. I'm even running out of window sill space!

If it's stored in chests or boxes then the implication is you (A). you don't need it!
(B). You don't want to look at it
(C). It's one redundant
If you wanted or needed any of it you'd have it within eye-line or reach! It's mostly emotional stuff tethering you. Here's a tip.... Cut of a piece of material from fav garment....or take photos of fav things. Look at them occasionally .... and bin the lot!

This is such a horrible job...so much so that I’m conscious of my own children having to do the same. That said, I couldn’t get rid of everything. I kept family things like rings, certificates, photos, medals etc. Then I kept items I really liked a lot-there weren’t many-and my children chose a few things-we only kept stuff we liked enough to use. The rest went to charity. That still leaves me with more than a few boxes. The same for inlaws...add in the stuff that we mysteriously moved here years ago, and never unpacked, and that means there’s a lot more for charity/tip. I think it has to be done in stages sometimes though..it’s so painful. Good luck...you can only do what feels right for you.

Perhaps we should all read this:
www.amazon.co.uk/Gentle-Art-Swedish-Death-Cleaning/dp/1786891085/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=swedish+death+cleaning&tag=gransnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1516788578&sr=8-1

Recently moved and now living in a (cosy!) static, whilst awaiting a move to our new home. Have de-cluttered SO much stuff. Mostly to charity shops, some via Freecycle and the utter rubbish went to the tip. (DS & family lives abroad so very little went to them.) Here I'm now going through about thirty little "boxes" of slides - at least 50% are being chucked (why did we save so many views and blurry pictures?) and the rest will be put onto a memory stick. by to a specialist shop. We just don't need all this STUFF!

I did it in tranches. Keep aside what you want/might want. Charity shops for what you're sure you don't want
Then start again

Cornergran: Have just begun to take photos of the family stuff and the bits and pieces that have meaning for us. Will make a small album of them with notes so our family will at least know what they are looking at. Will do the same with the very few pieces of not valuable family jewellery (from my Mum and grandmother) and the even fewer pieces of mine with value.

What a great idea Cornergran, and you have actually started! Hurrah! I told my H yesterday my epitaph could be: "One of the world's great procrastinators... she FINALLY got round to it !!"

Car boot sale or antiques fair. It’s fun to do.

You might consider asking the National Trust or English Heritage if they want tea sets, silver, etc. Although they might not use it locally, they may have a niche for it somewhere. e.g. Saltram House near Plymouth have a lovely tea shop where they serve everything in cups and saucers with tea pots!!

Can't bear the words "went to the tip" when things could be reused.... Aggghhhhh!!!! Charity shops are always grateful for things, and think how many thousands of years it's going to take to degrade crockery...!!!!

For me its if in doubt chuck it out - charity shops, charity bags that come through the door, recycling anything but it as to go. I only have photos of my parents nothing else (there wasn't much anyway). I don't hold on to things generally anyway - bit of a minimalist.