Lost Treasures When we Pass..

[Krogen]

Poignant thread. My folks have both passed and some of their stuff is with my brother, sister and me. Some of it's essentially worthless. But I've come to realize that it's what we have left, in tangible form, of Mom and Dad. To hold something they made or used stimulates memories. It can be hard to let go, but sometimes you just have to. Now after I'm gone, I'll be grinning. Not just because of where I'll be, but because my heirs will be sorting through my stuff. I can hear them now. "what on earth did he buy THIS for?"

 

[Old 44 Guy]

At my advanced age I sometimes wonder what will become of my things. My living trust will take care of most but others will take some thought. My Pastor said "There are no pockets in a shroud".

 

[whitestang]

My Mom passed away in March and my sister has found lots of things that we don't understand why she kept them. She found a loan contract for the mobile home she and Dad bought when I was a year old. She also found life insurance policies on all of us that we did not know about. There is a lifetime of things she collected and it will take sometime to deal with it all.

 

[ACORN]

Poignant thread. My folks have both passed and some of their stuff is with my brother, sister and me. Some of it's essentially worthless. But I've come to realize that it's what we have left, in tangible form, of Mom and Dad. To hold something they made or used stimulates memories. It can be hard to let go, but sometimes you just have to. Now after I'm gone, I'll be grinning. Not just because of where I'll be, but because my heirs will be sorting through my stuff. I can hear them now. "what on earth did he buy THIS for?"

One day years ago my Dad and I were in his basement looking for something of which I cant recall. In drawers, in the coal cellar, above the heating ducts.
We paused. Dad looked around and said, “Boy, someday you’re going to have one hell of a mess to clean up!”

 

[pharmer]

My son gets my guns and any stuff he wants. Not much else of great value. I recently "trimmed" my family's century+ of collecting stuff to a few Rubbermaid bins in a single bay of my garage. After I go, my wife and son will do the same and it won't matter to me one bit. Joe

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Yes, if things aren't clearly labeled and documented.... I know a woman my age (70) found several family albums after her mother passed, but no inscriptions, dates...
I took a course in Property Law, learned about the Statute of Frauds passed in England in 1677, I recall the instructor said it required all transactions dealing with real estate to be in writing.
Ben Franklin said "If you want to get the measure of a man's character, share an inheritance with him."

 

[eb07]

This is why I shoot and enjoy every firearm I purchase. You can't take it with you.

 

[31FordA]

My Dad had accumulated a great deal of tools, cars, car parts, etc over the years, and occasionally someone would ask what his family would do with all of it when he was gone. Dad’s reply was “I don’t know and I’m not worrying about it. It won’t be my problem.”

Dad’s gone just over 5 years, and I’ve still got most of his stuff, plus all my stuff. Just sold his boat and one of the cars last week. When people ask me what will happen to all of it when I’m gone I tell them it won’t be my problem either.

 

[panther]

We used to enjoy going to antique stores and flea markets. It would get my wife all wound up to see 50th anniversary items and family portraits sitting on a shelf for a couple bucks. Somebody's life and memories that no one wanted. Most get sold at estate sales, bought by people who are renting a booth and the story behind the family reunion photos are lost forever. She actually bought a few old photos that reminded her of older family and hung them in the kitchen.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Yes, at one large second hand /estate sale shop I visit I see a lot of what I think should be family memories-photo albums, college diplomas, military commissions, etc.
But without knowing the family histories, the family dynamics...met my share of people who had lousy parents and grandparents, extremely dysfunctional families, etc. Some people need a Memory Hole to remove bad traces , bad tastes, etc. Like the people I have known who had a bad parent cremated and scattered them in the woods.

 

[wheelgun28]

My Mom is gone a twenty years a week ago. I still have stuff in my house that was hers. It falls into the to good to throw away and yet not worth selling. After she passed I had boxes and boxes of stuff, silver plated serving ware, crystal, chachkis. Donated what was donatable, tossed lots of it.

Last week I was moving some items around and found a silverplate candy dish. It was another not worth much, I just put it in the trash

My dad is gone just short of twenty years too...

Someone pointed out to me the best way not to accumulate junk is to move. If you move you filter out stuff and only keep the good stuff.

My wife hates stuff, likes simple no pictures, no clutter, plain. I on the other hand like stuff, memories, old items, etc. I find them warm and they bring a sense of home and comfort.

 

[ladder13]

My Mom is gone a twenty years a week ago. I still have stuff in my house that was hers. It falls into the to good to throw away and yet not worth selling. After she passed I had boxes and boxes of stuff, silver plated serving ware, crystal, chachkis. Donated what was donatable, tossed lots of it.

Last week I was moving some items around and found a silverplate candy dish. It was another not worth much, I just put it in the trash

My dad is gone just short of twenty years too...

Someone pointed out to me the best way not to accumulate junk is to move. If you move you filter out stuff and only keep the good stuff.

My wife hates stuff, likes simple no pictures, no clutter, plain. I on the other hand like stuff, memories, old items, etc. I find them warm and they bring a sense of home and comfort.

Moving sure helped us declutter . The house sold in 3 days after we listed it. We were shocked as sales were slow nearby.
The buyers wanted to take possession in 30 days. No way, too much stuff to get rid of.

I had a large shed loaded with lawn equipment, a full basement loaded with just about everything, and a 3 car garage.

What we found out was no one cares about most of your stuff, including expensive furniture that they either do not want to have to haul away, or they value at pennies on the dollar.

I basically gave away most of our furniture except for the master bedroom, so I wouldn’t have to pay to store it and then transport 500 miles away while having a new house built.
It would cost more than people were willing to pay.

A hard lesson to learn, what one thinks is valuable is only valuable to them, for the most part.

The lawn equipment brought a few dollars and what was left was given away. No more lawn maintenance for me, I hire people. I went from 2.3 acres to .4 acres and love it.

Not having a basement or shed has simplified most things now, no hoarding

I’m even selling down my gun collection, though very slowly.

Btw, my mom passed on 07/28/2001 and my MIL on 07/28/2015, the same day 14 years apart. Very strange.

 

[4barrel]

My wife had her grandmother's china and no one to leave it too. She contacted a cousin she hadn't seen in years and said she would be pleased to have it. My wife packed each piece and about 6 months later someone was going to her town so free shipping. The next week the cousin sold it in a garage sale.

 

[4WHLDRFTN]

many still out there... i pick them up every weekend

the good thing is that most won't throw them away as other items. some get ascared and take them to the PD tho

just last weekend a guy found a loaded s&w 44spl ('20s-'50s) took it to the PD

 

[wheelgun28]

Moving sure helped us declutter . The house sold in 3 days after we listed it. We were shocked as sales were slow nearby.
The buyers wanted to take possession in 30 days. No way, too much stuff to get rid of.

I had a large shed loaded with lawn equipment, a full basement loaded with just about everything, and a 3 car garage.

What we found out was no one cares about most of your stuff, including expensive furniture that they either do not want to have to haul away, or they value at pennies on the dollar.

I basically gave away most of our furniture except for the master bedroom, so I wouldn’t have to pay to store it and then transport 500 miles away while having a new house built.
It would cost more than people were willing to pay.

A hard lesson to learn, what one thinks is valuable is only valuable to them, for the most part.

The lawn equipment brought a few dollars and what was left was given away. No more lawn maintenance for me, I hire people. I went from 2.3 acres to .4 acres and love it.

Not having a basement or shed has simplified most things now, no hoarding

I’m even selling down my gun collection, though very slowly.

Btw, my mom passed on 07/28/2001 and my MIL on 07/28/2015, the same day 14 years apart. Very strange.

My wife tells me all the time "What are you going to do with all this(ahem) stuff when we move" Good question...

Our funiture while some was expensive good stuff is all 25 years old, the newer stuff is cheaper stuff. Even household items just arent wrth moving. Our plan for the house is take what we want, depending on where we move and space, mostly me and my stuff. Then have an auction company or fleamarket company come in sell the rest. Then donate the balance, dump the leftovers.

The real issue I have is not having kids is what to do with old photos and other family things, I think they'll just go to the dump when I'm gone.

One mistake we made when cleaning out stuff was mixing up boxes. We though we saved all the good christmas stuff and tossed the old paperback books and dust collectors... That was until one Christmas we opened the box of "decorations" and found it full of junk and no decorations to be found. It was very disappointing to say the least, still miss some of the items lost.

 

[Sistema1927]

We accumulate stuff, hoping that it will satisfy our deepest needs. It always fails, and shows that we were created for something different.

A wise man once said: "Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."

 

[billwill]

One of the most difficult things in life is to have to toss items that you saw your parents use everyday or saw them collect and fawn over like we do blue steel items. Brings a tear to my eye every time.

 

[ladder13]

My wife tells me all the time "What are you going to do with all this(ahem) stuff when we move" Good question...

Our funiture while some was expensive good stuff is all 25 years old, the newer stuff is cheaper stuff. Even household items just arent wrth moving. Our plan for the house is take what we want, depending on where we move and space, mostly me and my stuff. Then have an auction company or fleamarket company come in sell the rest. Then donate the balance, dump the leftovers.

The real issue I have is not having kids is what to do with old photos and other family things, I think they'll just go to the dump when I'm gone.

One mistake we made when cleaning out stuff was mixing up boxes. We though we saved all the good christmas stuff and tossed the old paperback books and dust collectors... That was until one Christmas we opened the box of "decorations" and found it full of junk and no decorations to be found. It was very disappointing to say the least, still miss some of the items lost.

My wife was an auditor for IBM, every box and wrapped item was tagged with an inventory number

When my MIL passed we hired an auctioneer. They came in, did an inventory, tagged everything and told us what would not sell. They set up inside the house.

My wife and her sister took the real jewelry and family photos beforehand, splitting it up with no anger issues.

The auctioneer took 1/3 the proceeds but it was worth it. Of course, some stuff never made it to the cash box, we think.

No idea if it were the auctioneers people or those who came to buy that had sticky fingers, as none of the family stayed there the entire time.

What was left either got tossed or donated locally.

Worse things could have happened, like a family fight. It all went ok.

 

[Golddollar]

This may sound a little unusual, but I have taken to watching the TV shows about hoarders. No doubt in my mind I have somewhat of a Great Depression outlook about keeping stuff. Watching what has happened to people who are chronic hoarders is giving me some incentive to gather together and toss some of the books, tapes and CDs that I have gone through once and probably won't go through again. There is a store down in Maryland that buys these things. I probably end up making enough to pay for the gas to get there but I gain some space and it's less for my executor to have to deal with.

 

[max]

I have a file on my computer called "gun gifts". It says who gets what. I have a friend who owns the LGS and he can sell the remainder to pay any costs and give my wife the rest. He is listed for a couple by the way.