How do you keep your old stuff when you move?


petetherock

Senior Member
Oct 9, 2006
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I have been packing away a few decades worth of books, and other stuff that belonged to me and some to my dad (RIP). And a single shelf of comics can fill up two boxes!

I initially wanted to give away everything, but a good friend then asked me: "Why? Is it really a must?" Intend he suggested I setup a library of sorts, and also use it as a listening room.
There is 40 years or more of sentimental value... leave it behind or keep it all??


I thought of using a bunch of Ikea Billy book cases and store them...
And sadly there aren't digital versions of everything :(
 

i share your sentiments. from my last 2 house move, my old books from secondary and poly are still kept in the toyogo containers.

i cant bear to throw them away though.

right now, it is stored in those commercial storage services.
 

If you need space, go rent one storage unit. At least those places are air con and your stuffs hardly can spoilt. But if you don't pay for the rental, they might go for auction. ;p
 

too keep them will cost resources, time, money and space. eventually somebody will have to throw it away.
just imagine if you left lots of things behind after you passed on. Do you want to see your children or grandchild headache and spending money to keep your things?

Just leave your legacy and money behind, the rest can throw.
 

too keep them will cost resources, time, money and space. eventually somebody will have to throw it away.
just imagine if you left lots of things behind after you passed on. Do you want to see your children or grandchild headache and spending money to keep your things?

Just leave your legacy and money behind, the rest can throw.

Agreed.

This planet is too small for every family to keep their old stuffs.

What are valuable to us are memories not possessions and belongings.

And memories don't take up space and last a lifetime.
 

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Here's some practical advice:

It can be hard for family historians to let go of anything that might carry a family story, no matter how old or broken that keepsake might be. One keepsake isn't much to save, but it doesn't take long for family treasures to become a mountain of memorabilia that threatens to come down on our present life like an avalanche.

Should I keep the silverplate coffee service that no one likes and will use?
Should I keep grandpa’s Army uniform?
Should I keep these old address books? Christmas cards? Bank books?

So, how do we choose, what to save, what to toss, and what to give away? I've sifted, sorted, and organized dozens of family collections, and discovered that it sometimes "less" is truly "more," even when it comes to family archives. Yes, we could probably find a family story in every single item set aside and saved, but is that the story we want to preserve? Or, knowing the story, can we let the item go?

Seven Questions
When deciding what to save and what to toss, ask yourself –

Do I have the resources to care for this?
Is this the only keepsake from my ancestor?
What is my relationship to the owner?
Was this item saved as a family heirloom?
How old is it?
Is it valuable?
Is it priceless to me or to our family?
Three "Yes" answers should be a clue that the item is worth preserving, or at least holding for further consideration.

Take a digital photo if you need a visual reminder of the artifact. Write a short note if it holds a special story. If in doubt whether or not you should let something go, ask yourself if you've ever saved a similar memento from your own life experience, and what you expect your children to do with it. Sometimes, it's ok to give yourself permission to hold on to the memory and let go of the clutter.

just imagine if you left lots of things behind after you passed on. Do you want to see your children or grandchild headache and spending money to keep your things?

Reminds me of this nyt op-doc I saw recently:

[video=youtube_share;dhZr4EWnop4]http://youtu.be/dhZr4EWnop4[/video]

After her mother passes away, the filmmaker Judith Helfand struggles to pack up her things — figuring out what to keep and how to let go.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/opinion/love-and-stuff.html

And also The Task — an 8-part series of opinion pieces by Olivia Judson, about clearing out her father's place after he passed on.

When we first arrived, we had so little furniture that a local friend took hers out of storage and allowed us to use it — giving us something to sit on and saving herself the fees. But as the years went by, the house gradually filled up. Books that had been in storage arrived from England. Bit by bit, my parents bought things — a butcher’s block for the kitchen, a rug for the hall, yet another bookcase, an exotic mask, a stereo. The borrowed furniture was taken away, no longer needed. Then my mother inherited furniture, paintings and books from her parents. The clutter mounted. Worse, we rarely threw things out. Objects that were being retired were just moved to the basement or the attic storeroom. Every so often, my father would say, “We must have a yard sale,” but the yard sale never happened.

And so it was that when my father’s funeral was over, my brother and I realized we were facing a massive task. The attic storeroom alone was jammed with trunks and boxes, suitcases, racks of clothes, blankets and pillows, curtains and blinds that had been taken down when we first moved in, paintings and posters that one or another of us had tired of, my mother’s bags of scrap materials and a quilt she never finished making, not to mention three old amplifiers, two decrepit turntables, an ancient daisy-wheel printer, an even more ancient word processor and a dusty box of eight-inch floppy discs. And for every item in the entire house, the question of its fate: keep, give to a friend, try to sell, donate to a charity shop, recycle, or take to the dump.
 

Very useful, thanks...
Many things formed part of our memories, and it's hard to put them away...
 

I have a relative has two sons who are now in their early twenties, and kept their baby clothes/toys in tens of plastic boxes and store in a commercial property, hoping to handover to their future grandchildren when they get married one day. Recently they cash out and sold off the commercial property, and reluctantly donate bulk of the clothes and toys to salvation army because no space to keep in their house. Personally I don't think their sons holds any sentimental reasons of their baby clothes or toys.

For me, each time I move house, I have to discard more old stuffs, especially books, but still holding on to a box of comics... for now. Haha
When my old man pass on, I kept his old Rolex watch (cannot throw lah :)) and Gillette shaver, made in England (the type that you just change the blade) for keepsake.

If you have not touch any of the old stuffs for the past one year, I think just retain the bare minimum and donate the rest.
 

I have a relative has two sons who are now in their early twenties, and kept their baby clothes/toys in tens of plastic boxes and store in a commercial property, hoping to handover to their future grandchildren when they get married one day. Recently they cash out and sold off the commercial property, and reluctantly donate bulk of the clothes and toys to salvation army because no space to keep in their house. Personally I don't think their sons holds any sentimental reasons of their baby clothes or toys.

For me, each time I move house, I have to discard more old stuffs, especially books, but still holding on to a box of comics... for now. Haha
When my old man pass on, I kept his old Rolex watch (cannot throw lah :)) and Gillette shaver, made in England (the type that you just change the blade) for keepsake.

If you have not touch any of the old stuffs for the past one year, I think just retain the bare minimum and donate the rest.

hmmmm... nice. same here, i stored those i would need or hold on, in commercial storage. thrown quite a bit of stuffs the last time i moved house.
 

Very useful, thanks...
Many things formed part of our memories, and it's hard to put them away...

i know how you feel. i regretted throwing away all my "Master of the Universe" toys away !!! for those in my generation will know what's that.
 

i know how you feel. i regretted throwing away all my "Master of the Universe" toys away !!! for those in my generation will know what's that.

Aw man!!! The waist action punch and swipes were groundbreaking then!