should childhood possessions be removed?

As you are moving invite your children to help sort out possessions; the one with the house can take her stuff; the two in university accommodation could surely be allowed to store a few boxes until such time as they have permanent homes.
I have a loft stuffed with my children's possessions; any request for them to remove it is met with 'Oh, just get rid off it' as in: 'you climb up to the loft, you sort it, you bin it and you take it all to the tip.' Consequently, most of it is still there.

Yes I have lots of 'stuff' from my dear M&D too. A beautiful hand bound book, given to my mum by her mum, with pages to write in, so have my mum & her mum's, my gm's, hand writing, something to treasure. Suitcase full of old photo's, found some of my dad in the 2nd World War in North Africa & his billycan! Found some of his dad, my granddad that I had never met or knew about. A long hand embroidered 'purse' with baby booties in, don't know if they were my mum's when she was a baby or my sister & I's. Lot's of china, silver, cut glass etc. All this would have gone into a skip, if I hadn't have gone over night after night to clear & sort and save. Also found a gold ring of my dad's with his initials on! My brother ordered the house clearance, against my will. He was the executor, being the eldest child, m&d saw them once every 3mnths, and I saw them nearly every day, looking after them both when they got old and ill.
Still I have all the family heirlooms/treasures [smiles]

I think it totally depends on the space you have available for stocking their stuff. My son and his girlfriend have their own house, but it's rather small. So yes, he still keeps some posessions here, like a backpack he only uses for festivals, a few matrasses he picks up if and when they have friends staying over etc. , and all of his Lego, wich he'll certainly take with him once his baby-boy is up to it. My daughter is married and lives in London, in a rented place. We live in Belgium. She left a lot of posessions here, especially books. I boxed all of them and keep them in her room wich is now a very beautiful guestroom - with a nice tower of boxed books. We have the space, the children don't. They're welcome to leave belongings with us. After all, this is still home, I don't see why they shouldn't.

I've got several boxes of items belonging to my DS and DD who both left home between fifteen and twenty years ago. Occasionally I mention this fact to no avail. So unless I chuck them out there they will stay .

We've still got stuff from DD in a cupboard. She has a sort out every so often but luckily we don't need that particular space. DS has taken all of his. In return we have LOTS and I mean LOTS of toys from years back which the GC play with which has stymied any idea I've had of having a magazine type home - or a tidy home

When my Son came home on a visit from Uni once, he cleared all his paper work, stuffed into a plastic bag, and then went back to Uni. When I asked him about the paper rubbish, he said to just chuck it. I was tempted, but decided to check it out. Found a £500 premium bond, lot's of bank papers,cards & papers of importance! He has had two premium bond wins, over the years, but as he has estranged himself, they are left sitting in his old bedroom!

Perhaps you can compromise here.....make a memory box for each of them. A much smaller box with less things in them. You and your AC will still have some memories to keep, while if there are only three of these boxes stored up in your attic they will not take up much space. Perhaps go through family photos and add a small album each of childhood memories. They may not want them for a while but once they have children of their own the nostalgia might kick in. Think if you had been moving into say a small flat with no attic/loft space at all they would have had to taken their own things away. This way could keep everyone happy.

When I downsized I had an entire attic full of my sons’ stuff. In the end I was forced to wheel out the old empty threat I used with their toys: “if it’s not cleared by the weekend it’s going out for the bin men”. It did finally work though (at the eleventh hour!)

Ask your kids about their belongings. Not long after I left home my parents wanted to move. They got rid of all the stuff they still had without asking. Not long after I moved out I asked for my sledge, as winter was approaching and they had already chucked it.

The best thing is to present each child with a box of their possessions and request that they take the items they want and chuck the rest.
When my parents down-sized (we were about 14) we were told to remember to go to the new house after school. I'm damned if I can recall what we did at lunchtime as we didn't have school dinners - when we got to our new home we found that loads of things had been unceremoniously chucked. Elder brother got a load of fab jigsaw puzzles. We didn't have a huge amount of toys but I'll always hanker after my old dolls house.

Well I have to admit 50 years ago I left home - and thought I was going out into a brand new life and did not to keep any of my teenage stuff/childhood stuff...my mum had to downsize and stuff had to go - would like some of that stuff now but hey ho! Put it in the loft in sealed boxes - and let them sort it when the time comes.

I’ve just downsized and threw a lot away, however, I have kept the school reports, some artwork etc, generations of Lego, playmobile & choice of cars & FP garage as these are now fun for my Grandson. I asked my children what they wanted, my son sold his trainset ? and my daughter took a few things as well. The rest went to people I knew or the charity shop. I even gave my beloved new dolls House ( that I had not made up) to a friend. Sometimes you have to be ruthless.

My friend was left with her sons huge fishtank when he left. The fish were still alive, but desperately needed a proper clean out. It was at hers for around 8 years in the end, with her ending up having to feed the fish at least. Her son always claimed he would come and sort it all out, but never actually did.

I have nothing from my childhood - I returned from my honeymoon to find my mother had thrown everything away as "I didn't think you would want it any more"!! I still think of my doll, Susie, (which was a great comfort to me during my childhood). Funnily enough when my mother moved abroad I was left with boxes of her stuff to deal with. Going through them I found lots of things from my brother's childhood - when I asked her why they had been kept she said it was because she couldn't bear to part with them!!!

Twiggy - if you have the space in your loft then I don't see the problem - it's all a question of horses for courses and I don't think it's to do with what's 'normal' for adult children. Children 'leave' home at different ages and arguably one who goes off to university has not 'left' because the university is only temporary. When they get their own property and have properly settled in and have space to receive their belongings then it's fine to bring up the subject. If there's stuff they don't want, then you may wish to keep it for sentimental reasons - it's up to you. Personally, I still keep some of my daughter's childhood possessions including toys which my grandchildren now play with.

I have nothing from my childhood or teenage years my parents got rid of it suppose, im not really sure what happened to it.

I do regret it now as it would be nice to have something.

I remember having Enid Blyton books which had belonged to my mum and a lovely baby doll which i dressed in real baby clothes she was so big, plus a black rosebud doll.

Goodness knows what happened to it all.

I think school reports and certificates are part of family history and I would store those until adult children have their own permanent home. I have kept most of my children's toys and, indeed, some of my own from the 1950s ( some like a Hornby clockwork train set are worth quite a bit now as a collector's item) and my grandchildren see my house as an Aladdin's cave when they come over and look forward to playing with them. I also use them as a 'toy library' and let them borrow some to take home as a reward for good behaviour.

My children have taken most of their things to their own places, I have some things left, but I have many of my OWN things left, like School reports from 1949 and School photos, what will happen when I am gone I dont want to think about, I hope they will be saved!

We still have space and I have stored lots of "stuff"? Items they disregarded in late teens are now mid twenties being asked for so I am glad I did this. My youngsters are still in rented accommodation so we all feel that DH and are the "home base". Perhaps when they buy houses we will feel differently but not for now. Hope this helps.

I think if you have children still at Uni they don't have their own home yet so would keep their things. The things you mention sound like sentimental for you anyway.
A lot of my DCs stuff went when we moved when they were late teens. Now they are late 30s and I'm planning to downsize, I want them to take the rest of their stuff.

I kept the best toys - wooden bricks, a play family camper, first jig saws, lego, a few soft toys and some others, but got rid of much else. My DGC now play with toys that their parents played with - and I love to see them. I think my DC like it too - I hope that the toys may go down another generation, long after I've gone.

Just a warning. I have been involved in clearing out houses because elderly relatives died. It is very very wearisome works and in some cases took months of out precious time.

Especially if you don't live nearby, and we ourselves are no longer spring chickens. I tried to give my children what were really beautiful things....to no avail, they didn't want any of it.
I packed up their school things etc, when they had houses and they had the choice to chuck them out or not.

Through my horrible experiences, I realised that I needed to get a rid of all my grown up children's stuff and also any surplus to requirements stuff, that I had.
It needed to be done before I myself was too frail and could then only hand on the dirty work to someone else.

The relatives whose houses we sorted out ' wanted to die ' in their own homes. It didn't matter to them that they had no planning for their old age but also relied on their children to drive miles to clean, and maintain their gardens and do their paperwork etc, for years.
I think it is Bloody selfish to do this to your children.
I also think that your children should take responsibility ASAP, for their own baggage.
I have watched my selfish friends pick retirement homes that are huge, with large gardens and and amass even more junk. They laugh and think it's funny to say' oh someone else can clear up when we have gone'!!! ....it's not funny when it's you clearing up.

Keep them for as long as you can. I have ET, Roland Rat and friends, Dr Who walk-in tardis, intercity 125 railaway set, Snoopy..Agatha Christy collection.... the list goes on....I've kept them all as they are part of me as well as my darling son. He wanted to get rid of them but I can't let them go.

Funny this question has come up now. Last Sunday I had the two kids, and SIL and two grandkids over for lunch. While my son was with us I asked him to put the two floor - standing fans into the attic as they are big and our house isn’t! The next I knew was raucous laughter coming from the attic...and out came half a dozen board games from their childhood......Downfall..Trapdoor..Othello... and Blockbustes ( can I have a ‘p’ please Bob) . We had a whale of an afternoon playing these games with the kids and grandkids... and a great time was had by all. I-pads, I-phones and tablets were put aside for two hours and we laughed a lot together.That two hours alone was worth the storing of their stuff all these years. And they took the games with them.!! Result.!!

My GGD aged 20mths is now playing with my DDs dollies & DS1s Snoopy Dog that had been left here years ago,they along with loads of other Fisher Price vintage toys have been kept stored from when they all first left home and the boxes have been stored in different places as we have moved a few times over the years.
I have all their school reports and workbooks in a chest in our shed ready to show their children when asked.