Still storing your children's 'stuff?'

I have 'stuff' of my sons he is 41 lives abroad now and 3 times he's been up in the loft to sort it out but there it still remains as he says he wants to keep most of it, I can't see him ever taking it with him to his new home, he'd need a van anyway so I'm stuck with it. I did tell him if I ever move it's going in a skip I don't think he quite believed me .

Oh yes. We have a 'treasure chest' toy box that gets a sort through now and again, especially as DS2 now has a 3 year old. But what was lovely a few years ago, DS2 and DIL went into the loft to just look. They were up there for ages and when I poked my head throught the hatch, there they were sitting down surrounded by the memories. A couple of big Lego toys did go that day, but we still have bits and pieces.

Auntieflo that's a lovely picture you paint .

There are things I have kept especially to 'pass on' at the 'right time' like favourite books and old toys. Other bits and pieces are 'just stuff', but I know how much I have loved building up my own book collection so don't want to throw out the many, many books we accumulated for them over the years.

We are having a bit of a sorting out day as someone is coming to repair our stairs in the week ahead and they need to get into what I call our 'cupboard of doom' space underneath. I think 50% of the boxes there belong to my children. One box file belongs to my DH and the rest to me. He found 4 pairs of his shoes that he had forgotten about 'buried' ... I unearthed and reunited about thirty pairs of mine . Know where my kids get their bad habits ...
DH now quietly smug ...

I've been contemplating having a tidy your "treasure" day,inviting adult children to come together and go through some of their stuff. I'm happy to do tip trips as I have a big car. I reckon if I offer l throw in lunch we might get our garage and loft back,ready of course to fill up with our rubbish.

That's the beauty of downsizing once they leave home.........they were told to collect what was theirs or it went!.......we said it nicely though!

I had a "use it or lose it" day when my husband and I moved house. I chose to keep some toys though, and now our grandchildren play with them.

mine took all their "stuff" with them when they went...and a fair amount of my stuff too...their bedroom furniture ,beds..bedding and towels and a variety of dishes and even food .My son still comes and raids my freezer on a regular basis if he's worked late and cant be bothered to cook or will turn up and cook his breakfast here to save making a mess in his own kitchen...lol

I still chuckle about my friend who, when moving house, stored stuff in her DD's loft, her daughter keeps asking her to come and take back but she is dilly dallying and finds it really amusing that the tide has turned!

My DS2 has all his school sports trophies here, plus scout uniforms.
Also 21st birthday cards and momentoes from various events when he was growing up.
He is now almost forty with a family of his own but has no spare space to accomodate all this memorabilia.
Looks like I am stuck with it.

Same here grannysue; on top of that I also have me ex's stuff and my ex FIL's stuff.

Both of my two are well into their 30's. We have a large store room attached to the house, most of which is filled with their stuff. Toys, games, books, early electronic games and computers......the list goes on!
I keep meaning to have a sort out but feel daunted by the quantity. Think I might have to be brutal and threaten to dispose of it all unless they come and sort it!

Yes lots of normal Lego too small for my DGS's
a set of "My little ponies" plus accessories. Books and board games never now used,. I ought to send them to a charity shop. Neither of my children have much room in their houses. However OH has the worst hoarding problem.

DD1 was here this weekend, funnily. The idea is that she now has her own home, and I would like to redecorate "her" bedroom as a guest room. Yes, she will have the use of it when she is home, of course. But the purple and burgundy walls have to go!
We managed to go through her wardrobe (she has been living away for over a year and it was STUFFED with clothes she didnt remember she had) and her bureau bookcase, but that isnt the half of it. All i will say, is three industrial sized rubbish bags for the tip, plus the same again for the charity shop and we arent half done. Please note I said "we". She tells me she couldnt possibly do it all by herself.

I have a spare room with a lot of belongings of three children youngest aged 44 + and upwards, about 20 big boxes from school days, university days, plus various hobby and personal bits and pieces Sons tool boxes, sports equipment, car hubs/ tyres, box of records and keep fit stuff I also have a number of boxes of my Mum and Dads that I don't know what to do with I can't just throw them out I even have a record collection and sheet music of my Nan and Granddad
I have boxed it all tidily and each child has a section of the room so if I kick the bucket before I ve got it gone each can sort their own stuff out ( well not my Mum and Dad and grandparents of course?)

Dd1 was here in the summer. As she was packing I offered her a cup of tea in the garden. I slipped back into her room and secreted a few of her treasures in the case. Whenever I visit half my suitcase is her treasures. When she first left home she had a lovely flat well furnished. It then moved to my garage when she went to study in the us . Then she married and moved to another country. I gave all her evening dresses and shoes away. She has yet to notice. A charity for people made homeless got some very nice furniture. I've still got stuff. And I'm a hoarder .

I have a lovely memory of DD1, aged nine, making her first ever 'independent' trip to a church jumble sale at the bottom of our road. She proudly - and defiantly - bore home ALL THE STUFF that used to be hers that I had given away - two large carrier bags full. Should never have given her that 50p !!! I will never forget the smile on her lips and the look of triumph in her eye!

Yes, quite a bit of stuff for both - and they've both got their own houses! But we do have more storage space. I don't mind. I can't see us ever leaving this house except in a box, or God Forbid to a care home, and in either case dds will have to get rid of everything anyway.
In the past few years we have got rid of a lot of our own old cra*p though. Dh re boarded and re insulated the loft, which meant getting all the mountains of stuff out. Loads of it went to either tip or to charity shops. One of the shops told us our stuff had raised over £200 - it must have been better than we thought!

Toys are useful for Granchildren, but we offered to take our DD's stuff to their new homes when they married and they both said they didn't want the clutter. We kept it for a while in case they changed their minds and then restocked the local charity shop and booked a shredding bag for all the paper stuff like od school books.

When I moved to my narrow boat recently it was quite a downsize. My three children's 'stuff' went into boxes. This even included school work and reports and 'artwork'. They were all happy to have it and looked forward to going through it.

If your children don't want it then bin it. You have to give them the choice though.

When I moved house 10 years ago, I had a glorious few hours with my youngest son- going through the box of 'soft' animals that I'd not had the heart to throw away! We remembered the names of all the animals from 30 years ago or so...needless to say I've still got that box! Couldn't bring myself to part with it..........grandchildren love looking through it and seeing what daddy/mummy/uncle/aunt used to have! And I still have half a room full of things my younger son hasn't managed to remove...so glad I am not the only one!! But books and soft toys hold so many memoried for everyone.

Yes. Try as I may, it lingers. However......every time I visit now I drip feed a couple of boxes of miscellaneous items and the stock here is now eroding rather nicely. I plan to end up with just a couple of spare outfits for both of them for those unexpected visits and that will be that. Roll on!

my eldest son proudly declared the other day they no longer needed such a large shed in their garden as they didn't have much to store in there. I did point out the reason for that is its still all in my garage. His attitude was well what would you use your garage for if our stuff wasn't in there.....uummm I do have a car parked outside!
My youngest son has loads of stuff here since he went back to uni and my middle son has declared he no longer has boxes here even though I have found books and other things of his!!

We rented a storage unit for our company which slowly got filled with our grand-daughters' belongings. When the storage unit closed, we boxed everything up there and asked the girls to come and sort out what they wanted to keep and what could go to the charity shop/tip. As the decluttering bug bit, I also emptied a lot of the things that I had at home and sorted out my daughters' things as well. Old school reports, exam results, significant paperwork and childhood drawings etc. were put into an archive box for each person. The only one not to have collected is my daughter who lives abroad. Weight allowance when flying home was a valid excuse. Other things stored over the years in stables were visited by mice - the perfect excuse to get rid of boxes that hadn't been opened in years. Last two grandchilden have yet to move out - there is still some serious decluttering to do there.

When sorting things some years ago I purchased what I called "Memory Boxes" for my 3 adult children. As I sorted through things it provided a place to put all those school reports, photos, cards, childhood drawings etc. When they have room the boxes are handed over and until then they love to look through the boxes when they visit. I guess the real issue is whether you have room to store kid's stuff without impacting on your own living arrangements. If you are inconvenienced by your kid's stuff then a request to sort and clear their stuff by a specified date is in order. It's about reminding your adult offspring that they are grown ups and responsible for their own stuff.