My Dad was a packrat! This is what we cleared out of his house!

Both of my in laws are on the down hill slide. They have 14 kids and none of them are grabbing the bull by the horns yet. My wife so is somewhat level headed gets frustrated with them bickering over what to do with the house and belongings. Trying to figure out what to do with 70 years of stuff is daunting. I am in Iraq and unable to help at all.
 
Well I come from a long line of hoarders... I get it honest. I can and do go through and toss stuff or "find homes for it with other hoarders" if I don't get to it or someone needs something.


My grandpa had a two story shop full and a yard full. I was to young and too far away to amass any of his stuff- my dad was too cheap n lazy to get any.

My dad had a house full of crap I got to deal with about fifteen years back. The man is an idiot... saves the envelopes your bills come in flyers,empty cigarette packs etc on top of potential good stuff... he started to do so in my house after he lost his and I moved him into a little bungalow when a great deal came along... He was filling it up as he believed he was entitled to untill he was told different by the landlord...

I have had the pleasure of cleanin house there a copuple times over the last ten or so... he does handyman work and the amount of used and broken crap is amazing.

He recently scared us with some memory issues and must have been scared enough that I was allowed to come in and simplify things to the greatest degree ever. No need for seven non working remotes and dead phones when you can't figure out what ones ya use....

I have been upset with this for years... he does not see that all he is doing is leaving me yet another mess and I refuse to wait anymore. If he insists he will be on his own because I can't deal with it anymore and when the time comes its never when its slow.

I believe the ONLY reason he is open is he was scared. He does not do much anymore and I started the rounds to the docs with him demanding we at least see if there was a fix for the memory stuff instead of assuming it was Alzheimer etc... we got real lucky in that it was not but just memory loss due to vitamin B12 ,depression and lack of a life beyond the tv... the meds are helpin him but he sees that he can't keep doin what he was and that its time ta clean up.

Moneys tight and the YEARS of spending 150 a month to store junk he has not touched since he put it there are drawing to an end.


As far as the hardware stor comment goes- yep its nice but ONLY if ya can find it... knowing ya have ten of something and not being able to find it when needed still gets a trip to Home depot :D
 
My Grandmother saved the plastic bags that loaves of bread come in.

Stacks and stacks of them neatly folded in the bottom of her pantry and held in place by bricks.
 
BarbC said:
My two sisters and I are going to inherit 452,736 Kodachrome slides.

Fortunately, we're very generous with each other and will do our best to make sure each sister gets her share.
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I'd just get one of those automatic digitizing machines and put a stack of them in there and let it go to town.

That's what we are planning on doing around Christmas- digitizing all the family photos that we have, simply for the reason that if we have a house fire or something, nothing is lost as everyone in the family will have a copy.

This is the scanner the Mrs. has, and it works great!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000782JIQ/ref=cm_rdp_product/186-7646094-0861840
 
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Wyatt Burp said:
For sale: One old leather sachel filled to the brim in a plastic bag with cigar tobacco saved from the ends of finished cigars. Tobacco is loose halving been removed from the last two inches of cigar. $400 or trade for S&W K-22.
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Would you take an RG .22 and some canned good past the "use by" date? :o
 
When my father died, my older brother had a dumpster with a 3 story chute delivered. Dad was an accountant and thought he had to have every tax return he had ever done for himself and hundreds of clients. If these people ever knew what info was now at the local dump, they would die.

When my old school grandma died, my mom was sorting out stuff to give to Goodwill. She found thousands of dollars in cash and gold coins sewn into the hems of dress and her purses. Granny never drove a car or wrote a check her whole life. Grandpa always wondered why grandma need $100 a week for groceries for the two of them. For me growing up she always shoved $20 in my hand " to have some fun with".
 
I went through the same thing a couple of years ago when my step-father died. I got the biggest dumpster available and my brother didn't help either. The experience taught me something about my own hoarding habits. :)
 
... My sister who just went kyacking couldn't help because she has "back problems". My brother weighs over 400 lbs. and is alergic to anything that involves work....
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We must be related! Certainly sounds like we have relatives in common... Funny how bad backs don't interfere with enjoyable activities, just undesirable work... :(

After you break your back doing all the work without them, be ready for their complaints about not getting a chance to go through the stuff like you did... :mad:
 
I went through this when my father passed on. He had two generations of stuff including items from two generations of business ownership. He knew it was going to be a pia and reminded me of it occasionally when we would be looking through the stuff for something, "don't be laughing son, this is ALL going to be YOUR problem someday..."

Do you realize how handy a headlight aiming machine for old cars (round headlamps) is these days? :D
 
Treasures

When my grandma passed, among her treasures, we found a brown paper grocery bag filled with cleaned and neatly stacked, chicken pot pie tins-the aluminum, single servings. And, a brown bag filled with the rubber bands from the daily newspaper-deteriorated into a gummy mess.

She was born in 1885, and lived through many wars, recessions, and the depression. During WWII, everything was needed for the war effort, so NOTHING got thrown away.
Old habits are very hard to break.

I try to throw one item per day away, in order to simply things for the future. Very hard to do sometime, as I 'know' as soon as I throw it out, I'll find a need for it next week. LOL!
 
Thankfully my parents have never been packrats, but my wife is. She will keep every little thing that she can. I actually threatened divorce over it, because after moving six times in 5 years, I got tired of moving the same crap over and over again. This final move, I rented a dumpster and filled it up with nothing but crap. I like a simple house instead of digging through this and that to get what I want.

When my Dad passed, I was supposed to get everything of his, and nothing was to go to my worthless doper half-brothers. Well, I was 600 miles away when i got the news, and I didnt get to leave for two days. By the time I got there, they had already taken anything of value and sold it for dope and alcohol. I havent talked to them in three years, and dont expect to.

But the shoe is on the other foot now. Their father lives 30 miles from me, and he already has it stated in his will that all his firearms go to me, all the rest of his belongings are to be sold and split three ways, and if they contest anything, they are to get a "$20 bill to buy a case of beer and to piss off." That's exactly how it is worded. And guess who is executor of his will. :D
 
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My mother had a pile of ten year old Exxon gas card receipts on top of her desk, ready to be looked through if needed. On the other hand, her medical insurance was about to lapse for non-payment because the invoice was lost in the chaos. Unfortunately, this wasn't a case of being a pack-rat, it was a warning sign of dementia.

After her death, we did indeed fill a dumpster.

For anyone that has gone through this, you understand. For anyone about to go through it, you have my sincere, heartfelt sympathy.

And, as someone else has said, I'm inspired to simplify so my kids don't have to do it.

The Highlander
 
Couple years ago I was at a farm auction, leaning against one of the inevitable flat bed hay wagons full of stuff, waiting for the auctioneer to get around to some stuff I was interested. Near me was a slightly older couple occupied with the same activity. At one point the woman comments to the man, "Looking at all this stuff makes me realize I'll someday have to have one of these auctions for your stuff". "Recon so", said the man. "Looking at all this stuff here, I want you to make me a promise", says the woman. "What promise would that be?" the man asked. "Promise me that if you start to feeling poorly you'll clean out the garage before you go", said the woman.
 
I don't know how to reach back for the last thread we had on this subject? The half funny, half tragic stories involved in this particular life activity, are practically limitless. I'll just say the numbers of folks are legion that have shared these funny sad duties and experiences. I've done it with my folks, recently my in-laws, and several Aunts and Uncles My condolences on your loss Wyatt.
You've now been there, done that, and gotten the T shirt.
 
Spotteddog said:
I don't know how to reach back for the last thread we had on this subject? The half funny, half tragic stories involved in this particular life activity, are practically limitless. I'll just say the numbers of folks are legion that have shared these funny sad duties and experiences. I've done it with my folks, recently my in-laws, and several Aunts and Uncles My condolences on your loss Wyatt.
You've now been there, done that, and gotten the T shirt.
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Wow! Does that mean I'm a member of 'The Ratpack"?
 
We dealt with this a few years ago with my MIL. She didn't throw much away either. On the plus side we did find a dozen jars or maybe more of coins. We cashed in about $2000 worth and we still have a jar of old silver dollars and a smaller container of silver 1/2 dollars.

I have an uncle so cheap and greedy he will show up to a funeral with a U-Haul. I've seen it twice now. When my Grandmothers husband passed away my uncle weasled his way into the husbands family when they were going through his stuff.

The part that pissed off our family was he knew the kids were going to sell a new F350 and his house. While the house was old it is in good condition, sat on 5 acres in the city limits and had a huge barn on the property. Uncle was so worried about getting his share of stuff out of the house he didn't tell anyone. We would have bought the truck and house at fair market value as we were house hunting at the time.

The kids are wealthy didn't want the house or need the truck so they actually sold the truck at yard sale price and a neighbor shot a crazy low ball price for the house and they took it.
 
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