Die Quietly and Don’t Cause Much Bother

We are probably the last generation who were brought up to be frugal and careful, making furniture and ‘stuff’ last, because that’s what you did.

As someone else said, many things have got cheaper and therefore easier to replace.

Our first video recorder, a fairly basic one, was £300.

This was the mid 80’s, 40 years ago.

Now you would just buy one as part of the weekly shop, if such a thing as a VR existed.

Different times.

I also think we live in different times. In ‘78 my parents had downsized to a bungalow, so at that time, a lot of ‘stuff’ was disposed of, but other than going out in the car, they didn’t have expensive hobbies or the income to justify them. When my Mum died in ‘92, as a SAHM and only child, I was able to help my Dad with her remaining few possessions, as she’d been house then bedbound for some years and had taken charge of discarding things she no longer needed or wanted. After my Dad died, I was then able to sift through everything at my own pace. When my time comes, I suspect both DDs will still be working full time, so the less complex stuff they have to go through, the better. That said, this year, I’m hoping to get rid of some stuff here that neither they nor I want. Anyone fancy a metronome and a mandolin??

It certainly is true about one man's trash being another man's treasure.
One of my daughters loves her hand me down G plan dining table and chairs, but it does nothing for me.
I have spoken before about the bungalow purchased by my youngest DD and her DH. It was lived in by a hoarder, and has taken them a long time to rid themselves of endless boxes of stuff.
Over COVID, they put out box after mixed box ( china shepherdess, anyone?) and most of it was whisked away by passers by.
The last pieces went to the tip, but only a small percentage of the stuff mountain was left. I do wonder if, subsequently, sons and daughters visited some parents and sighed " Where did you get that pot dog, Mum?"...

When was it that our children got to decide on or have the final say on what we surround ourselves with.
They can butt out😃
A clean enough house is good enough if you are going to inherit it. Put the work in and stop moaning.

Our first microwave was £350 , bought at the ideal home exhibition in the 80 s. My current microwave was £40 in Asda.

Sorry I seem to have posted on the wrong thread. Will retire forthwith.

Georgesgran
Our metronome and mandolin have both gone already - and the hand-machined paper-strength tester!
We still have 100s of other "now unused" things though...

No, that's part of it silverlining48 I think.
Our first computer was £2,000 plus (and was enormous!).
It had less "brain" than a cheap phone does now.
...that's a bit like your microwave.

"Stuff" is cheaper now.

I recently came across a small company who will help you deal with the situation of things we have collected that we value and that our children may or may not value! They are more sensitive than a house clearance company and not wildly expensive. Just a thought.

www.martlet-home.co.uk/who-we-are

One thing you need to do is remove photographs of people from their frames before they go to charity shops. It's pathetic to see people buying frames with photos still in them.

Caleo

One thing you need to do is remove photographs of people from their frames before they go to charity shops. It's pathetic to see people buying frames with photos still in them.

This is the one thing I have commanded my children to do - whether they do is of course out of my control.

if they call in House clearers all personal photoa and papers must be removed and destroyed before they come. Everything that makes my home personal must be disposed of.

For some years we had a hobby atiue business and most of our stock came from fossicking among the boxes of stuff that every auctioneer has on the floor unde everything else. So often we found albums of family photos, packs of letters and other ephemera from unknown people's life and I was left determined that that should never happen to me.

Throwing out family photographs and documents is so disrespectful and cruel to the relatives. We had a husband who threw out all his wife's family photos, her ancestors right through to the Victorian era, the lot. Well the deceased wife actually came from a very large family and there were several of her cousins who would have given their eye teeth for those pictures and documents of their grandparents and great grandparents. The family now have nothing. He threw out their whole legacy just because it wasn't of interest to him.

Chestnut

Throwing out family photographs and documents is so disrespectful and cruel to the relatives. We had a husband who threw out all his wife's family photos, her ancestors right through to the Victorian era, the lot. Well the deceased wife actually came from a very large family and there were several of her cousins who would have given their eye teeth for those pictures and documents of their grandparents and great grandparents. The family now have nothing. He threw out their whole legacy just because it wasn't of interest to him.

I would expect my family to destroy anything that nobody else wanted. I'm sorry, without thinking, I just assumed that proviso rather than wrote it down. The mai thing I do not want anyone to find is my photo albums or personal papers for sale inan auction.

butterandjam

I'd sell the lot. I'd also empty all my bank accounts and then donate everything to some very deserving charity.

Yes! I’d do that too 😀

We are putting together everything of value and going to take a job lot to auction. Then we are going to spend the proceeds. It seems pointless leaving anything of value nowadays as the general opinion seems to be "What do I do with this rubbish". We have a couple of items with local historical value so we are sending these, with the providence, to the local museum. All anyone will have to do when we die is to hire a big skip for all our "rubbish".