I'm in the midst of helping pack-up and prep my parents house for sale. They're seniors and my dad is showing all signs of early Alzheimer's so, we need to get them moved-out of their current situation. The amount of things they've accumulated over the decades is stunning. Every single wedding reception gift they kept, every promotional coffee mug and wine glass, every box for every computer program, yes even the free AOL offers...I even found several boxes of green-bar printer paper. I just threw-out four boxes of computer cables, all from the 80's and 90's, boxes of floppy disks and sealed-up but dried print cartridges. My mom prints every recipe she likes on the computer, my dad prints every email...I'm actually seeing that Progressive commercial, 'you don't need to print the internet'.

Ok, just had to vent, back to sorting and another trip to the dump....

Remember to shred those tax returns and all the documents with their SSN boldly displayed.

I worked communications for Christmas In April for 4 years or so and the amount of stuff people accumulate is amazing.

A bunch of them had so much stuff they had pathways from their front door that went through the house to various places and stuff was stacked everywhere outside of the path.

We filled 20 yard roll off containers from these houses on a regular basis.

It sounds like the same scenario when we moved my paternal grandparents to a new house across town.

They lived in a duplex up near Ohio State Univ since 1968, and my grandmother kept everything and collected everything. It took at least 3, 40 yard roll off dumpsters to get rid of everything.

When my mom and dad decided to relocate from Cols, OH to Florida, they started clearing stuff out at least 2 years in advance. We had lived in that house since 1989, and they had also had so much stuff. My dad had about 42 years worth of tools alone.

I hate to admit that I am just as bad...
you would think I would know better after having to respond to houses for over 12 years in LE that Flash-LB described.

Good Luck

We just moved my parents out of their 3400 sq ft house.

Dad 94 and Mom 89 being depression era people kept everything. We even found in the back corner the water softener from the house they move from 40 years ago.

That generation can't throw anything away!

It was no fun and I can't tell you how many dumpsters we filled.

So...I feel your pain.

You forgot that they grew up during the depression. My parents were the same way.

Just waiting. Mom and Grandma live together and are on the waiting list to move to a garden home in a retirement community.
Fortunately they are in a place financially the sale of the house can come after moving to the new place.
So we’ll go through the house after.
Grandma and Grandpa have lived in the house since the 60s. Grandpa passed last year. Mom built an addition on the back about 10 years ago and moved all her extra stuff to the barn out back that once housed the grandparents motor home.

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
Dad 94 and Mom 89 being depression era people kept everything. We even found in the back corner the water softener from the house they move from 40 years ago.

That generation can't throw anything away!

It was no fun and I can't tell you how many dumpsters we filled.

So...I feel your pain.

I felt awful for my dad after my grandfather (and shortly before him, my great uncle, who lived just down the street) passed away. My dad and my mom spent weeks going through all the accumulated detritus. They found things like the receipt for the piano that my grandmother (who died in like '87) had, which was purchased in the '30s. He and my mom did most of it by themselves, including all the legal issues, since everyone else avoided helping and I was too far away to help.

Depression-era hoarding, indeed. So sad.

Thankfully my 85-88 yo parents have downsized and continue to downsize.

I am taking on this challenge even now, at only 60.

It is very hard for me to toss my Christmas present from 1969. It still works. I’ve carried it around for 35 years.

I have that depression gene too. I find it difficult to toss anything and this is after dealing with my 90+ yr old parents home when they moved to a senior assisted living residence.

I'm getting rid of stuff bit by bit but if nothing else I understand my depression-era parents better now. My biggest issue is books, books, lots of books.

I'm from two depression era parents and they had a lot of "stuff" when I grew up.
By the time they were in their later 70's they had managed to get rid of most of the useless items.
The last one passed about ten ears ago and I still have some boxes I haven't gone through but there are a number of items that I'm glad they didn't throw away. Several historic, some family genealogy, some truly valuable mementos.
And yes, some things I probably should toss out as no one after me is likely to care.

My parents were both born in 1940 so, not quite Depression-era kids but, greatly influenced by the times so, hoarding & saving everything is very much a trait. There was a box of every cottage cheese container they probably ever purchased...washed and neatly stacked up.

One other trait that I've noticed with other seniors, over-purchasing. Thanks to warehouse stores like Costco, they've continued to shop there and continue to purchase in bulk despite not having kids in the house for 30-years. My dad is absolutely insistent on shopping there, getting his coffee beans, giant bags of chips, crackers, olives, etc....Need to find their card and cut it up. They've not picked-up on what other seniors have already started doing and minimizing their lives, reducing complications and 'things'.

OP, sorry you’re going thru this. I’ve moved 24 times so I have a pretty hard rule that is “if you haven’t used it in the last year-it goes” there are exceptions like tools and camping gear….
My mom has closets of clothes she’s never even put on…god help us. I know I will just have an estate sale for clothing and box up and sell the other stuff over the internet when it comes time.

My dad has sold a lot of his specialty tools like welders, pump tools etc since he’s retired…I could fit all his tools in the bed of my pickup now.

I feel your pain… My parents are not far behind.

'Moving parents is no fun..' Or worse, both pass away within months of each other and you're left with the estate sale, dump runs and selling the house and knowing they've never stopped buying and storing junk. Plus, they have two offsite storage sheds full of useless junk and old coffee table books..

 
When my father moved to a nursing home, and we prepared to sell his house, the most onerous task was getting rid of decades of National Geographic magazines.

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Originally posted by henryaz:
 
When my father moved to a nursing home, and we prepared to sell his house, the most onerous task was getting rid of decades of National Geographic magazines.

Funny, my dad kept all the map inserts. I grabbed a handful that I like, gave my buddy the rest as he wanted to decorate his son's room with them. The Nat Geo's we donated to the library, at least 30 yrs worth, along with several boxes to Life magazines

My father in law just hit retirement age and we moved them to a smaller house last year so that they could be closer to us.

I spent much time purging his garage and garden stuff. So much of it was just junk. Couldn't throw any of it out, had to tell him that I was selling it for a few bucks on FB or Craigslist. I'd present to him the money, and he'd turn it down and tell me to keep it--but he would absolutely rather hang on to three boxes of useless old computer and A/V cables than to give it away for free.

As a hobby, he's taken to buying junk that's on sale. Lately, it's from an merchandise liquidation store--the store buys pallets of merchandise returns (typically Amazon stuff) and then leaves it out for people to pick over. It's all literal junk. But it apparently makes him happy, so I have to find uses or places to put the things he buys us and demonstrate that we're putting it to good use.

My parents were raised in the depression, but for some reason they never took to hoarding.

Prepping, yes, having food, cigarettes, cash and other supplies for several months but that was it.

Friends mom died two years ago, I was drafted to help clear the house to make ready for sale. Her dad died ten years ago, there were still liquor bottles on the counter in his “den” like he had just walked out. It was the easiest room to clear. The mom was a hoarder that started when the girls moved out. We filled four huge metal dumpsters and they still had an estate sale with sewing machines etc…four sheds on the property, full to the roof with totes full of sewing stuff…all of it mice damaged