The treasures in all my mother's cr*p

Hi all,

Reading all of these posts makes me feel sad and envious. My mom and grandma were and are true "hoarders" my mom has so much stuff it makes me just want to bawl when we go over. It's so hard to get through all the junk from yard sales and junk stores to what is really a piece of their life that both my sis and I just get overwhelmed and so frustrated. Mom and Dad have moved to a retirement duplex thing and still have the house to sell. They were suppose to have an estate sale but they took every last piece of everything (one box had a half jug of water and old coupons, not antique coupons just old expired ones and mom would not let us throw away) so anyway the estate sale guy can't help now because they took everything and there is nothing for him to sell. Lots was my grandmothers and again can't tell what is real memorabilia and what is just crap. Mom wont let us do anything with it but wants our "help." We are sooooo very frustrated. What a mess!!!
We are talking Oprah hoarding shows. Not the dirty part but the tons of stuff and the mind set that everything has to be "saved." Even old zip lock used baggies.
I would love to have boxes of photos and real things from their lives to go through...Oh, well....
I'm done,,,,sorry....
Cheryl

Cheryl,

Your parents remind me of my MIL.  You literally cannot walk through her garage or basement because they are so crammed with crap.  And mixed in there are some valuable antiques.

My husband has already told his sister (who lives with MIL) that all the sorting is up to her.

Jean

Hi everybody,

My mom died 20 years ago, and my dad 2 years before that. We (my 2 sisters & me) tried to get them to move several years before that. It didn't happen which left us with stuff that had been in that house for 30 years. There were the pictures and scrap books that we had to keep. Things that had been in our families for years.

Then we found a box in the basement, she'd written on it, "things that might be worth something someday" It had glasses, these glass salad server things, and I don't remember what all. But I have seen all of it at the antique shops.

I got there one  day to to help them clean out, and my sisters were in my old bedroom with the door shut. I asked all the nieces and nephews what they were doing. They told me they didn't know but they had told the kids to stay out. I go in and find my sisters with all 3 of our barbie doll houses set up. With the dolls inside. We still had barbie clothes and everything! They didn't want the kids to mess with them. We did show them, but then carefully put them away.

Then in cleaning out the linen closet of sheets, towels, old boxes from when you got drugs directly from the doctor. Up on the top shelf behind everything, we found old, yellowed paper toilet seat covers. We all laughed so hard, it was SO mom.LOL....It really helped with the awful stuff. It just amazed me the stuff she had saved. But we didn't keep those.

Nancy

Jean
The things that meant the most to me were pictures that my mom had.  Of course, I am a picture freak.   I love the digital cameras now.
My mom specifically said she wanted me to have all the pictures she and dad had. I kept most of them.  I gave a few to my brothers, ones that were related to their families.
My mom never had any jewelery that was worth anything.   But there was one ring that I could never figure out.  It was a man's wedding ring.  It had initials engraved inside.  They were not initials that I could figure out whatsoever.  Luckily, before my aunt passed away I just happened to mention that ring and found out the story behind it.   When one of my brothers were younger, they found that ring at the bottom of a town pool. Probably in the 60's, the date on the ring was 1938.  My mom had kept that ring all that time.  Of course before I found all that out, my mind was thinking up all kinds of scenarios.   Once I found out it was not a family heirloom, I used the gold to fix up another ring.
Something funny also, was when we had to clean out my parents house.  My dad had a make shift shower downstairs and on this one table was a stack and I mean a huge stack of little pieces of soap.  Why he did not throw those away, I have no idea.  There was probably a 20 year collection of them. HA!
Of course, we also found things that were very disturbing. My one brother had married this Witch the last few years of his life.  And we found checks that had bounced and little IOU notes to my dad.  I guess the Witch had bilked my dad out of about $9,000.  It appeared she had done this without my brother knowing it.  Most of the checks she had written to pay him back could not be cashed because she had no money.  She was an embezzler. She got caught embezzeling money at a station she worked at.  The sad thing is my brother took up for her.  My brother has sinced passed away and to this day I swear she helped his death along in some way. Whether it was accidental or on purpose. And I will believe that till the day I die.
Anyhow, it is interesting to hear everybody's responses.

Take care,
Mickey

My mother died when I was 19, in nurse's training. The last day she was in our home before going to the hospital for her last 2 wks on earth, she gave me her diamond wedding rings.
She told me to keep them always. She died 2 wks later, my father cleared out all her things from their bedroom, us children were not able to take anything. My father then came to me after her death and demanded the rings. I had no choice but to give them up. Years later one of my sisters came upon some photographs and shared them with me. Those photos are so precious to me but more so were the last days at home that I took care of my mom. I have many wonderful memories and no one can take them from me. On one of the photos is her handwriting. She wrote in pencil but it is still very clear.
I may not have much from her but what I have is priceless.
Time spent with her was the most precious.
Alice

Neither of my parents were/are packrats. My father kept a few things from his Army days but had no fond memories from then, so he hid them in the attic from us (we'd stumble on them from time to time, but he'd never want to talk about WWII, or how he got his medals). Now my mother has kept some stuff after dad died that I swear I'd have thrown out ... like a bobble boob doll my dad got as a joke (he liked to make her blush) from a friend when he left his job of 30 or 40 something years downtown at the printing plant; mom still has it in the "boys" bedroom and I don't know why because it's obnoxious, but maybe it reminds her of how he was ... so quiet at times but so funny in his way (he would do things like that just to get a rise out of her). Or she has some 60-year-old perfume in her drawer that she never uses ... but she throws away just about everything else. She too keeps food-stained clothing for years and years ... wish she would buy new stuff and get rid of it.

It will be interesting to find when we have to do this with her. She's 84 and still in good health. My oldest brother has charge of all this (she trusts him to handle everything; he has the brains, she believes). I have heard horror stories of others but don't think we'll find many treasures with my mom (although she found some bank books in her name from my dad that she didn't know existed until he was dead ... nice legacy, huh?) At least she didn't find affairs like my friend Margie is discovering four years after the fact.