What items did you inherit a ridiculous amount of?

[mrs. magoo]

Too much "family stuff". Kitchen wall clock, hanging lamp with prisms, mother's childhood dolls, quilts, letters, pictures (BIG pictures, as in wall hanging with 4" frames), salt & pepper collection (ugh, over 800 sets), scrapbooks of EVERYTHING we ever did while growing up, every Christmas/birthday/holiday card we ever received, and......and.....and (forever).

This is my house. When my grandmother passed away we took in so much stuff from their house and my father who lives with us is a hoarder and well you can not imagine the stuff we have in our house. I just do not know what to do with it all. My mother was a saver as well so I feel your pain. I have slowly started to get rid of things but every time I get rid of something my father questions me like I am being interrogated by the FBI.

 

[RedAngie]

$$$$ and a 28% interest in a business.

Plus 4 4-drawer metal file cabinets filled with cancelled checks and bank statements from the 1950s, the instruction manuals for large and small appliances that were discarded decades ago, some salvaged slightly burnt records from when that business had a small fire in 1966, tax returns, invoices from furniture purchased in the 1970s, and tons of other useless miscellaneous paperwork.

33 and 78 rpm record albums, a huge stamp collection with some from the 1930s, bags of women’s clothing with tags still attached, unopened boxes from QVC, etc. etc. etc.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I like the Christmas tree idea!

Before I read that, I was going to say to narrow the collection down to maybe 5 of your favorites to put on display in your room, and then donate the rest to a museum.

If a museum wouldn't want them, see about a local Girl Scout troop. Maybe they could use them for some sort of community service project? - My neighbor's troop goes caroling at a senior center. Little bells sound like the kind of thing they would enjoy giving to each resident before they left.

The Christmas tree idea is nice; the bells can't be hung, though. They have handles with no place to attach a ribbon, or at least most of them do as I recall. However, the Girl Scout idea gave me some inspiration. My Aunt and my cousin belong to our local VFW Women's Auxilliary. They do trips to senior centers to hold Bingo days. Next one is in a few weeks. My aunt is going to take the bells to hand out. I just have to dig them out of the garage now and clean them all up.

Thanks to you both, @TipsyTraveler and @PollyannaMom !

 

[barkley]

20 years from now people will be complaining about the ridiculous amount of TP they inherit when their parents pass.

i think many will inherit the boxes and boxes of scrapbooking supplies so many people my age (NOT ME) seem to have acquired while the following generation will inherit their parent's collections of funkos.

Really old pictures that we have no idea who they are.

i wish all the old photos i have were labeled on the back-i've done my best to label those that will sitting around when i pass.

 

[TippyThomas]

I wish I had photos of my parents. Pictures were not permitted in our community so there were never any taken. I'm sure many of the tourists in the area that passed through have pics of me and my family. They have no idea how much I wish I could see them. My parents would be horrified but I'd give anything to see their faces again.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

It hasn't happened yet, and hopefully won't any time soon - but both my parents were only children. All of my grandparents passed during a 3 month period in 2002. They were hoarders. My mother is a borderline hoarder herself ( my father passed in 2007). All of their belongings, plus my maternal grandmother's got moved into my paternal grandparent's house. I have literal nightmares about it.

Anyway - I will inherit dishes. Tons and tons of dishes, crystal, glassware, serving pieces, formal pieces, everyday pieces. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.

 

[HerRoyalHighness]

I've been leaning more minimalist the last decade or so due to family deaths. Look up "Swedish death cleaning". It's kind of decluttering before you die kind of thing.

My mother died when I was in my late 20s and my father remarried a few years later and moved into her house. That old hag inherited all his crap when he died so we didn't have to deal with it. Best thing to come out of that.

My grandmother on the other hand...she was a product of the great depression. I have like 2 things plus some pictures. My siblings are more emotionally tied to stuff just because it was [insert name here].

But I know my siblings took possession of a lot of stuff and it's sat decaying in their basements or garages for years.

 

[Nora03]

Thanks for starting this thread OP. I need to get rid of so much stuff that it’s daunting. We’ve lived in this house for 50 years. DH loves to keep empty boxes, but he’s starting to get rid of them. We do purge occasionally but we need to do much more. It adds up so quickly. DH cleaned up my email yesterday as I was running out of room. I had over 20,000 emails! Crazy I know. I also started getting rid of old receipts/bills, old appliance manuals, etc. I’m trying to set aside this task for once a week, otherwise our kids will hate us when we die.

 

[AustinTink]

My parents were not collectors of any kind. Everything they owned had a function and they used it until it wore out. So, between all the siblings (there are many) we each just chose a few things that meant the world to us. I have my mom's cedar chest in my bedroom where I can see it every morning. It makes me smile.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Thanks for starting this thread OP. I need to get rid of so much stuff that it’s daunting. We’ve lived in this house for 50 years. DH loves to keep empty boxes, but he’s starting to get rid of them. We do purge occasionally but we need to do much more. It adds up so quickly. DH cleaned up my email yesterday as I was running out of room. I had over 20,000 emails! Crazy I know. I also started getting rid of old receipts/bills, old appliance manuals, etc. I’m trying to set aside this task for once a week, otherwise our kids will hate us when we die.

you don't delete an email once you read/finished with it?

 

[NMBCFangirl]

My Dad had ocd, and was a listmaker. He left behind huge stashes, we're talking hundreds and hundreds, of unused composition notebooks and yellow legal-size notepads. Those that were in perfect shape were donated to a school for use, and the rest got recycled.

 

[Nora03]

CdnCarrie - I do delete promotion and social emails. It’s the personal ones that I’ve kept. They often include information that I refer back to - travel dates, plans, etc. I save attachments like pictures into photos, but need to be better at deleting emails. We receive and pay all bills online now, so fewer paper receipts, I put warranties and large appliance purchases into folders (on computer). Most manuals are now online too. But we have a basement full of useless stuff. My DH almost had a computer museum - every computer and printer we had ever bought. They’re all gone now.

 

[Boopuff]

my entire childhood is on slides. Boxes, and boxes of slides. It's overwhelming. At first I had a very hard time getting rid of my parents "stuff". But the trinkets were from their trips, I had no memories attached to that stuff. I kept a few heirloom furniture pieces, gave away everything else. My cousin rented 2 (!) storage units to house all my late Aunts "stuff". 10 years... still has stuff... just sitting... I tell her, if she hasn't looked, touched checked on the 'stuff', it needs to go. I get some people have a very hard time getting rid of it...

 

[AndreaDM]

my entire childhood is on slides. Boxes, and boxes of slides. It's overwhelming. At first I had a very hard time getting rid of my parents "stuff". But the trinkets were from their trips, I had no memories attached to that stuff. I kept a few heirloom furniture pieces, gave away everything else. My cousin rented 2 (!) storage units to house all my late Aunts "stuff". 10 years... still has stuff... just sitting... I tell her, if she hasn't looked, touched checked on the 'stuff', it needs to go. I get some people have a very hard time getting rid of it...

Same here! I have very few printed photos of my childhood, they are all on slides! I know they can be converted but there are soooo many of them, that task is daunting!

 

[Kennywood]

You can get a printer that will scan the slides. Then you could save or print the pictures.

There are also companies that will do this for you.

 

[mom2rtk]

i think many will inherit the boxes and boxes of scrapbooking supplies so many people my age (NOT ME) seem to have acquired while the following generation will inherit their parent's collections of funkos.

Feel free to forward any boxes of scrapbook supplies to me! Or better yet, drop them off at a retirement or nursing home. They will be much appreciated.

 

[Boopuff]

Same here! I have very few printed photos of my childhood, they are all on slides! I know they can be converted but there are soooo many of them, that task is daunting!

Me... holding your hand... big sigh... I don't even know what I looked like!

 

[KellyKane]

China! 6 sets and counting. My husband is an only child and when his parents downsized we got all the china from his side of the family. His father, his grandparents, etc. He cant part with any of it so I try to just use it occasionally for every day dinners. I hate the thought of all of it just sitting in storage unused for most of the year.

 

[Boopuff]

China! 6 sets and counting. My husband is an only child and when his parents downsized we got all the china from his side of the family. His father, his grandparents, etc. He cant part with any of it so I try to just use it occasionally for every day dinners. I hate the thought of all of it just sitting in storage unused for most of the year.

Oh lordy... the china... It's so sad how much my mom, grandma, great gram all valued the "special" dishes. Now it's not even a thing! Both of my kids got a set (including silver set) and honestly, if they weren't Grams, they wouldn't have taken them. I go to Goodwill and see set after set of someones "good" dishes. breaks my heart. (and takes up loads of cabinet space!)

 

[kymom99]

We bought my mom a set of pfalzgraf dishes. She rarely used them because when she had company she often just used paper plates. My brother stored them for 10 years. I recently took them because we are building a new house and they are nice dishes. They don’t really match our colors but we aren’t snobs about that stuff. I’ll use them.