The Boomer Stuff Avalanche.....Millennials are about to be crushed by all the junk their parents accumulated.

[1srelluc]

https://archive.ph/vWcRC#selection-1399.0-1403.78

Every time Dale Sperling's mother pops by for her weekly visit, she brings with her a possession she wants to pass on. To Sperling, the drop-offs make it feel as if her mom is "dumping her house into my house." The most recent offload attempt was a collection of silver platters, which Sperling declined.

"Who has time to use silver? You have to actually polish it," she told me. "I'm like, 'Mom, I would really love to take it, but what am I going to do with it?' So she's dejected. She puts it back in her car."

It's not that Sperling, 46, wants to be rude to her baby-boomer mother; it's just that she has plenty of her own stuff. Plus, her father died in 2021, and they're still trying to figure out what to do with everything he had. He owned an arcade in New York City and amassed closets full of collectibles magazines, posters, memorabilia, coins, buttons. Her mother is too upset to look at it, so little by little, Sperling and her sister have been going through everything. Deciding what to do with a lifetime of things is a monumental task.
"It can't just rot in her basement, and then what?" Sperling said.

Sperling's parents thought everything they were accumulating was going to be worth money, so they saved it. And sure, maybe some of the posters would sell for $40 on Facebook Marketplace, but who really wants to deal with the hassle? Sperling's mom brought over her dad's penny collection for her kids to go through. It seemed like a fun activity at first, but it got old fast, and the "best" penny they found was worth about $6.

"It's just the volume of things that we'll have to go through," she said. "It's not the stuff. It's the time."

LOL.....Can't wait to bomb my grandkids with the precious moments figurine/ Beany Baby collection then leave millions to the cat rescue society.


It's true that boomers don’t understand the wealth and opulence the younger generation that they spawned enjoy.

While their boomer mom was happy to get hand me downs because they were so much better than anything she had growing up, she doesn’t realize that the younger generation has a kitchen stocked with all manner of gizmos, stand mixers, Zojirushi rice cookers, glasses optimized for what they are drinking...etc.

Whatever mom has is a step down from the fully stocked kitchens their children have.

When I cleaned out my mom's house the only things I kept from the kitchen was the cast iron skillets and the kitchen knives my grandfather hand made for my parents as a wedding gift.

The woman must have had six different renditions of George Foreman grills!

 

[odanny]

When you watch American Pickers, half the picks are kids left with their parents stuff, much of it valuable and desirable to the right person. Usually the kids have no clue what any of it is worth, and I often thought most of it ends up in a landfill.

 

[DGS49]

Most of such possessions are not saved because it is hoped that they will be worth something in the future. They are saved because the people who acquired them wanted to have them. The assumption that the next generation(s) will also want them is apparently unfounded. They don't want that stuff; they want their own stuff. Or as in my son's case, he doesn't want to accumulate a mountain of stuff in his lifetime; having been showered with worldly goods from before he was even born, he places no value on having a mountain of possessions.

Getting rid of that stuff is a giant pain in the ass, a pain that must be confronted when moving out of the family homestead. Only a tiny portion of it can be sold; not much can even be given away to friends and family; Goodwill and the Salvation Army will take a lot of it, along with Veterans' organizations, but a lot of it just goes into a dumpster. It's a damn shame.

But still, if you are on the receiving end, don't be a dick about it. Just say clearly that you don't want it, and you will help get rid of it, if it comes to that.

 

[justoffal]

When you watch American Pickers, half the picks are kids left with their parents stuff, much of it valuable and desirable to the right person. Usually the kids have no clue what any of it is worth, and I often thought most of it ends up in a landfill.

I have a dumpster.....it solves numerous problems.

 

[Sparker]

What boomers bought when they were young may be higher quality than anything I can buy new, made of mostly plastic.

Younger people living in small apartments without cars will keep their possessions very limited.

 

[Carl in Michigan]

We need to practice Swedish Death Cleaning (preparation for death by not burdening your kids with your unwanted junk)