My kids school work. I have virtually every piece of art or piece of paper they have brought home with their handwriting on it. I'm on my second tote. Luckily school papers are becoming fewer each year as virtual assignments become the majority of their school work.
I have a REALLY hard time tossing their school and art work. the wife has NO problem tossing everything.
Funny reading that a lot of you are saying your parents are hoarders. Are they really borders or are the just from a generation that held onto things because things were so hard to come by when they grew up?
I’ve seen hoarders. :shudder:
my wife's mom... she's from S/W VA and grew up literally dirt poor- no electricity, in a shack where they kept things cold/refrigerated in the "crick". she married a neuro-surgeon and led a very comfortable upper middle class life and never wanted for anything again.
but when my FIL died, the MIL- who had never exhibited bad hoarding tendencies, or at least they were kept in check by the FIL- she started using the money to buy... crap. All of it from dollar stores or places like Kohls. most of it with the (sweet) intent of giving to the very large family and grandkids (7 kids, 13 grandkids)... but generally started piling up in and filling up the 7 kids' now empty bedrooms without every being dispersed. The bedrooms and halls have stuff throughout, either piled up on the floor or covering the beds and other horizontal surfaces. my FIL died more than 15 years ago... so the house has taken on that many years of clutter.
worse- this is true for her kitchen and pantry. the counters and table are covered with stuff- a lot of it expired and useless food. the fridges and freezers are jammed with stuff too- again, mostly expired and waaaaaay past due dates, including things molding over. there's surface to sit and eat at that isn't covered with stuff.
she gets VERY upset when we visit if we try to clear out the fridge or even move stuff around on the counter to prepare stuff for our kids. We have to clear off the beds to make room for sleeping.. and then return the stuff to their original locations.
my wife thinks because of her poor background and a sense of nostalgia/mourning, it makes her feel good to both BUY the stuff, and SEE the stuff. the latter is the issue in terms of visiting and generally living... but it's her house and life. and again, a lot of the stuff is bought out of a generous and sweet intent to give to the family- so I feel for her. that said- even though it's all bought from discount or dollar stores, it's still a LOT of money spent on junk that never sees use or even the light of day.
She sends us a box of stuff every few months that my wife almost summarily throws out... it's all junk or chinese wonky versions of some toy the kids mentioned they liked a couple years ago. the wife's tossed these things before which have included straight cash for the kids... so now she at least does a once-over before tossing.
my grandma was a dirt poor single mom living in the worst neighborhood in NYC (Brownsville Brooklyn) raising my dad through the latter part of the depression and WW2 before getting herself out and with some comfort (invested every penny she saved- and followed Warren Buffet long before most of us here were alive)... never a hoarder.
