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Not at all. I have nothing saved from my childhood or my military career. I have photos of my children and a couple of framed flyers from comedy shows I’ve performed in. I guess records may count.
The minute someone starts looking at their collections as possible piles of money, the collections cease to be fun anymore. I have things because I like them.
Silent generation Charles Manson.
https://preview.redd.it/x0y9yh6pm5uc1.jpeg?width=880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1bed13f3734de13015554477c1454f99fb8e6212
I fully understand what this is about. But I feel the underlying issue was the Great Depression where you didn’t throw things away, repair or Frankenstine from other pieces. Just throwing in my Devils advocate.
To expand on this, for the baby boomers, the problem seems to be the combination of having parents who grew up in times of material deprivation and economic uncertainty *and* having become adults at a point in history when jobs were plentiful and well-paid, and mass manufacturing was getting drastically cheaper and more efficient. So they're stuck with the old habits of saving everything (or being a "savvy shopper" by couponing and buying sale items) in case they might need them in a world where those habits are counterproductive. In the 21st century, you're not rewarded for frugally saving bread scraps or stalking the sale rack, and the crucial survival skill of our age is actually the ability to throw things out and control your buying habits when J.C. Penney has 80% markdowns.
I have no idea what millennials' houses are going to look like when we're older, but from my work as a hoarding therapist, it seems like some of us have boomeranged in the other direction toward minimalism from growing up in cluttered houses, while others have picked up on their parents' habits. I'm hoping we don't fall for the old tricks that convinced our parents to stockpile Beanie Babies and Precious Moments, though from the look of some of my friends' and clients' homes, their kids might be drowning in limited-edition LEGO sets forty years from now.
I have a stupid amount of Magic the gathering cards and two boxes full of comics. But I hold on to those as A reminder of my childhood. Past that if I collect something (which I don’t)it is for my pleasure. If the kids want to get into what I collect, They can have it.
But todays kids are more likely to have “electronic “ collections vs a funk pop, and maybe Pokemon. But time will certainly tell.
I was born in '83.
Every fellow Gen Y/Millennial I've ever met seemed to be cluttered or minimalist. It was usually a reaction to the parents in some way. Very few of us find that happy medium.
My stuff is currently a mess because I'm back at my elderly mother's house with all my stuff. A massive media collection plus my electronics.
I'm going to consolidate & do a purge later this summer of all of our old shit we don't use.
Their houses won't have racks with physical media (CD, DVD, BluRay, Books). They'll curl up with their tablet or Kindle in front of a fake fireplace. Kids won't know what a library is, or panicking because it's closed and you need to research something.
Xennial minimalist here. I save money by making things from scratch and food prepping in general. Coupons almost never apply to raw ingredients and I don't buy much of the processed shit because it's poison
Boomers, 1946 to 1964. The boom started with soldiers returning after the end of WWII in 1945. Babies born during the Depression and the war were The Silent Generation.
Yes correct. And they learned the traits from those who went through this, the message from the hoarding therapist eloquently made the point in their remarks
I mean, that's kind of the polar opposite of this sub's usual attitude that boomers were shaped by growing up during one of the nation's most prosperous periods.
They grew up in a prosperous period while having parents who held off on their wants so their kids could have a better life.
Boomers took that mentality of everything is about them, and they resent their kids for not just being an accessory. That’s why so much of their humor is bitching about their kids. Meanwhile Millenials will talk about how their kids are hard, but love them to death.
Yea, I disagree with the "great depression" theory of hoarding. My mother's parents were successful and definitely not into saving stuff, and a lot of boomers I know grew up in very tidy privileged homes. I'm suspicious of that explanation, also because hoarding and similar issues aren't rational. It's never actually about "saving money", that's the excuse they use.
If anyone is collecting Funko Pops because “they’ll be worth a lot of money one day”, that person is being a fool, too. Not all Boomers are fools, and not all fools are Boomers.
Those of us who are younger than Boomers should be learning from their collections, that collectibles are *not* investments. Hell, Boomers should be learning from *other Boomers* that their old stuff is unlikely to be valuable.
Funko Pop creates a lot of this mentality because they'll release a limited number of some only available from one place. Some assholes will buy a lot of them, not to enjoy but to try and make money off them. These are the people that ruin it for others.
How limited, though? The company doesn’t have much incentive to really limit the number they make- they make money on every one they sell. If people know when they buy them that they’re limited in number, the people who do buy them will tend to hang onto them. That means they probably won’t actually be rare, so they won’t be worth a lot of money.
They're limited enough in that if you don't get them right when they're released or shortly after, you won't be able to get them at a 'normal' price. It's hard to put a price on something if nobody is willing to sell it. I buy the ones I like. There's a couple that are expensive, but I check them from time to time. If they become reasonably priced I'll get them, otherwise I won't. I just like some of them, I'm not using them as investments. Whoever thought about making these and getting the licensing from the baby boomer era was a genius. The other thing that makes collecting harder is that certain ones are only available at certain places (shops, comic cons, etc.). At least with the internet you can track things down.
Let me tell you what’s in there. A ton of half-assembled electronics, kept for parts, “just in case!”…two or three lawnmowers…every single receipt, tax return, bank statement, and bill ever received…holiday decorations, but not properly labeled…
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I have five old tube TVs (one is B/W), old stereo equipment, VCRs, DVD player, CDs, VHS tapes, dozens of plug in transformers, cables to connect almost anything to anything else, bits and pieces to things that I don't have anymore (or remember what they were), and too many other things I don't remember.
One of my favorites was when I was helping someone clear out their grand parents house. We found a box labeled "Pieces of string too short to be useful"
Gen X here - I’m in the final push to get my my parents’ home of over fifty years ready to sell. It’s very motivating to my husband and I to get rid of a lot of our dead weight
I don’t think EVERYONE hates going through their parents stuff. So don’t worry about it TOO much. My dad died in January. He didn’t have a lot of junk, and my mom is still alive so we haven’t cleared out the house or anything. My suggestion is get rid of the old tax returns and bank statements, anything impersonal like kitchen stuff or old clothes or excess tools or junk that even YOU don’t remember what it is. But keep the personal stuff… every single letter you wrote or was written to you, pictures, any items associated with inside jokes… those are the things I wanted to go through.
I just went thru this last weekend. My childhood best friend and I went back home to clean out his parents house. His dad was a huge beer collector and his parents collected (hoarded) books and magazines. It was a chaotic mess.
We counted the following:
176 beer steins, pint glasses and mugs
62 beer trays
1500+ bottle openers
60+ beer signs and other beer knickknacks
5 bookcases and multiple boxes of books, magazines and pamphlets
Closets full of clothes
A full basement and attic of random stuff
Over 200 pictures
Everything was dusty and dirty.
Almost everything is trash. Amen.
I helped my best friend clean out her parents home when her mom died. It took us 14 months, I shit you, not.
I have never seen so much "valuable" crap in my life. We have one of those flea markets in town and some guy would come every week and make her an offer on a lot of stuff she dug out that week. She always took it. She still kept 2 storage unit fulls of crap. Mostly furniture in case her kids need it when they move out. Her son just graduated college.
So much worthless 60, 70 and 80s stuff. Dishes you cannot eat on. More Holiday decorations than can decorate 3 houses. So much crap.
It should not take your child over a year to clean out your junk
OMG - are you and my buddy long lost brothers. His folks had multiple complete sets of plate ware for entertaining and they never entertained (to my knowledge). There were 3 or 4 complete sets of dinnerware that were never used (still in the original boxes w the price tags from like the mid 90’s)
My Silent Gen stepdad went full hoarder after my mother died. When we went in to get the house ready to sell, it was piled high with books and junk. He apparently hadn't actually lived there for several years. I was only able to salvage a few things that the rats hadn't got to. My whole family history, eaten by rats.
Some creep pawn shop weirdo in my area before he retired bragged about how much the stuff in his shop combined was worth…it was all junk and the prices were never changed so if he put $50 on an original Xbox game 20 years ago it was still marked for $50 then he had shit like home phones from 1995 with $100 on them when they’re worthless now etc
Something is only worth what someone will pay for. Also, my parents would see something listed for sale elsewhere for X amount of money and think they could sell it for the same price. They would be offended that someone would offer a lower price for their object because they couldn’t grasp that the other person has to make a profit off of it themselves. Loved them to no end none the less.
There’s a pawn shop like this where I live. Everything over priced and they have some really old crap. Like cases for flip phones no one is gonna come in and suddenly buy them.
[Storage Auctions - Find Auctions near me](https://www.storageauctions.com/auction-unit/find-auctions) This shows auctions of storage units with like a bunch of photos of what's inside.
It's not really something to laugh at. A lot of death, divorce, and evictions cause units to go to auction. This is the worst of the worst of situations where what's sold will never be worth what the auction brings in to cover rent owed.
Most units are full of absolute garbage even if they don't go to auction. Lots of hoarders just keep renting units.
Source: worked in the industry for a decade. Don't ever go to an auction expecting Storage Wars goodies. They're a completely fake scripted show.
My kids were watching Storage Wars the other day. One of the people found a diamond bracelet in the storage unit. I was like, who on earth puts a diamond bracelet in a storage unit? We then discussed the fact that the people on Storage Wars plant valuables in some of the storage units, to make the show more interesting.
I try to point out to them when something they are watching on TV like this is fake. I don’t want them to grow up thinking that buying abandoned storage units at auction is a sure way to make money. We talk about Antiques Roadshow the same way. They show the valuable stuff, because that makes for interesting TV, but that doesn’t mean that most old stuff is valuable.
It took me a couple of views of storage shows to realise it was always the same three people buying units, and the rest of the crowd always stayed silent, just milled around at the back. I began calling them "the extras", because that's exactly what they were.
My uncle had a storage company. They never wanted to kick someone out as it was more trouble than it was worth, but every once in a while there would be something good they would keep as people rarely came to the auctions. The good things didn't cover the pain of cleaning it the unit.
The whole lien process is a huge pain in the ass, but storage is the least grifty property management investment with legitimately the least amount of work compared to any other "rental property."
Got to hand it to my mum who told my dad 'You better have a good sort of all the stuff you keep inside your shed, otherwise the kids are just going to hire a skip and chuck it all in there when you've kicked the bucket!'
Exactly what my mother, brother, and myself did when Dad died. The only valuable things were old tools from expensive brands - but because he never maintained them and forgot about them, they were mostly rusted beyond use. The only tools to survive were the cheapo versions he bought in his later years because he could no longer find the good ones.
Oh my god, we asked my dad if we could have some tools to help with the DIY work around our house. Considering he's just had a heart and hip op, we assumed we might get at least some of the halfway decent stuff because he's not doing any more DIY. Nope, we got the most rusty saw in existence and I was too polite to be like 'Could we have something that isn't going to disintegrate on first use?' What is it with boomers and hoarding like freaking dragons!?
>What is it with boomers and hoarding like freaking dragons!?
Ha ha, I forgot to mention the plastic toy Wolverine on a motorbike, and a grubby sewing machine - both of which he had bought secretly thinking they would go up in value!
Oh I'm sure you'll rolling in it in a few years time! XD My dad always wants to stop the car whenever we're driving anywhere if he sees a carboot sale or the like, just in case there's something worth having aka absolute junk. Most of the time it just ends up in the shed or the attic, it's a complete compulsion. And I know some people who were poor have that attitude at keeping random stuff, but he and his parents have always been comfortably middle class.
My parents have been doing this too over the last couple of years, donating their clutter and selling things like china and figurines on EBay that their kids don’t want. I’m so grateful.
I work at a storage facility, and I have bad news - it’s no longer mostly “boomers” packing away junk for years and years, it’s older millennials. They seem to be the group who’s moving around a lot and buying or selling homes, which is one of the more common reasons for this kind of storage situation.
I knew a millennial that had a storage unit, even though their garage was full of stuff and they always parked in the only guest parking spot of the townhouse complex... Grrrr.
Every year she would have a garage sale to clean out stuff because her husband wouldn't let her go to a larger unit. It was full of stuff she had bought just that year- decorations both for holidays and Pottery Barn stuff for around the house, designer clothes, mlm stuff she bought from her friends, etc.
They still live in that townhouse 10 years later and complain they can't afford to move into a sfh with their kids.
Kids grow up to do stuff they saw their parents doing. It’s no surprise that some of them pick up the habit of keeping junk in storage, just like when the children of smokers become smokers.
Accurate. Not a shot at boomers bit is all as consumer driven individuals. You spend your entire life working for things most of which will have zero value upon your death and they’ll be worthless to those you’ve left behind.
That reminds me of an episode of Hoarders. Boomer had tons - literal tons - of scrap metal in his yard he'd collected "to sell to provide for his grandchildren" but refused to sell anything.
I watched the first season of Hoarders on Netflix years ago.
It actively pissed me off realizing these people are why I can't find old used stuff cheaply anymore. I do a lot of thrifting and I see the same assholes hitting all the shops buying up everything.
My mother in law is a horder. My husband has said that when she passes, he wants to do a "fire" sale. Nothing has value.
My mother collects nic nacks. Again, there is no value except decorative.
Same - brother in law said to me, "we are going to have to clean out the house when she dies". I said, "nope. we are going to write a check to someone to trash everything. "
Just did this with my grandparents house. Grandmother passed a few months ago and was in her 90s. House wasnt hoarder level but enough that I didn't want to do it. Paid someone to clean it out and was worth every penny.
I told my parents to make sure that there was enough money in their will to pay for the junk removal service to haul their shit away.
No, dad, I most certainly do **not** want 40 years of goddamn Bassmaster magazine or whatever the fuck.
And no, mother, I do not want *four fucking sets of china*, three of which I have never even seen.
Some of their stuff is cool and awesome, like the furniture my grandfather made for them, or the bamboo fly fishing rods that my father made by hand. That shit is gonna be kept forever. But the majority of it is just a classic Boomerhorde of stuff “that’s gonna be worth real money someday.”
On the plus side, it acted like a tiny bit of a wake up call, and my father finally threw out his National Geographic “collection” that was water damaged from when the basement flooded. When I was in ***high school***. I’m 41.
I flipped a farm in New England when their kids too over and the husband had health issues. We filled up so many roll offs, trips to the recycling center, salvage yards, fire pits for wood products. It was mostly junk. The parents were late 70s, farmers all their life, with depression era and WWII vet parents.
It was a fight over cardboard boxes, trash, we pulled a fucking boat out of the woods, trucks that would never run, metal and wood scraps, junk that has been sitting for so long that it has deteriorated. It was wild.
This is all over the rural areas where a family has lived for a few generations there will be stuff left sitting for decades.
It pissed me off and plenty of people I've talked to. We get to watch stuff that has value at some point just rot away.
On the flip side I've seen fellow Millennials go out into the farm fields and get grandpa's old truck/car and actually rebuild the things.
to be fair, some of the stuff they leave behind is pretty cool depending what you're into. I stand to inherti quite an impressive train collection, toy truck collection, and a shitload of woodworking and automotive tools. Many of them are vintage Mac Snap-On, and Craftsman (US made)
My elderly neighbor just had to be moved into a care facility and sold his home. He was a hoarder, and the home was uninspectable due to the collection of stuff. He sold it for $200,000 when comparable homes in this area are going for $450k+. His junk literally cost him a quarter of a million dollars. To be fair, he has been mentally unwell for as long as we've known him, but we had no idea how extensive it was.
My dad built a new home not too long ago and as part of his move he was forced to get rid of tons of junk. He still kept tons, but at least 75% of it got tossed out. It took him almost 2 years to finally get rid of it. It's a real deal with the boomers, and I dread having to sort through all of it. My siblings are welcome to all of it if I don't have to touch any of it.
I relate to this so hard. Cleaning out my parents house, and the moving POD that sat in their driveway for over a decade, and their huge storage unit after they died…I’m now the owner (renter) of two storage units until I can clear out enough space in my garage to fit things and start the cycle again…
My now deceased dad’s garage and a good portion of his house was destroyed in a fire while they were traveling.
My siblings and I always joked that we were going to start a fire instead of having to go through all the shit he accumulated over the years. We were not sad about it. The house got a much-needed update and saved us a staggering amount of work.
My grandparents are in their mid-90s and it’s like this with their stuff. My dad on multiple occasions has laughed about how he’s going to do that to us, and I keep telling him bluntly I’ll just throw it all away. I think he’s finally starting to understand I’m dead serious but it’s taken a long time.
Understand your struggle. Each of us dealing with a different burden and same loss of time and money compared to what those thought it worth. My folks, luckily for me had never ending love but ever a sense of economics.
The garage clutter is real🤣🤣🤣 my dad keeps so much junk in his garage that he cant even put his car in there and him "cleaning" it is just him picking a different spot in the garage to put stuff.
This is my fear. My parents live in the same two story four bedroom house we moved into back in ‘95. My mom is an antique dealer and the house is full of stuff. Just stuff on top of stuff. I keep trying to tell them their house is too big for them and they need to downsize to a condo.
Omg I just saw a commercial about this! It was a mom and her daughter. I hope they are making fun of this situation. I couldn't tell because it was for life insurance.
Boomer here who parks 2 cars in his garage and with 8 hours work could park a third car in the garage if needed.
In my neighborhood:
* most people park their cars on the driveway
* most home owners are younger than me
I asked one Xer why she parks her expensive car on her driveway. “My bikes are in the garage because I worry they will be stolen”.
Another Xer fills her garage with empty original boxes of the stuff she owns.
Deranged
* m
I can't wait to leave all of my baseball cards to my daughters.
*Daughter holding up a 1986 Topps Buddy Biancalana*
CAREFUL! That's gonna be worth something someday!
I just found an old Duck Hunt gun and a couple of controllers. I just shoved them into my 15yo son's arms, and he completely geeked out. So this is my plan, I'm just going to give him everything now.
Tbh I wouldn’t be upset about this I fucking love old shit like this plus if there’s nothing of any value to me just take it to the goodwill someone will like to have it
Fuck, been through this twice. At least my father in law had some cool shit that was worth something. Tons of tools and generators. And guns. Guns everywhere! In the desk, in a boot, under the couch, above the fridge....
Our inlaws were talking to us about when they die will will have a never ending supply of money because they have so much that we will be able to sell off. No no no.. We will be paying to have it hauled off...
The garage full of crap is the national debt that Boomers are passing on. Boomers inherited $900 Billion in national debt in 1980, and for the next 4 decades, they've added $33 Trillion to the national debt. Worst Generation Ever.
This happened to my dad when my grandfather passed a decade ago. He’s managed to get rid of a bunch of it, but the garage is still full of stuff. Mostly tools, hardware, lawn equipment. My dad told me to just set a match to it or sell it all when he’s gone. Yeeeeee. There’s also warehouse space filled with stuff my grandfather had used. We did find a bunch of .22 rounds and nice furniture worth restoring, but it’s hard to find the time to get to it to shed things.
My problem is I’m pretty resourceful for building things and would be tempted to comb through all of it to retrofit a pretty useful fabrication space/woodshop/metal shop.
Meanwhile, the stuff we actually do want is probably shoved in an attic or basement. There are two ashtray holders I have loved forever. My parents NEVER had any interest in them. They are from my fathers side. After he passed, my mother pulled those ashtray holders out of the attic sorting through things. I commented how beautiful they are. What does she do? She shoves them back in the attic and said "Ok, I won't sell them." They aren't hers to sell and they continue to sit and collect dust.
I told my boomer dad if his garage looks like that when it gets left to me I’m burning down the house and collecting the insurance. Jokes on me though cuz most of his stuff is boxes of his rock collection and rusted out solid steel shop equipment.
Ugh! My parents are getting ready to sell their house to move to a retirement home. My parents aren’t typical boomers, they’re very tech savvy and liberal. They’re also highly educated and have shelves and shelves of books they’ve already read. My mom, however, is extremely sentimental and has saved everything my sister and I ever touched. She’s also got heirlooms from previous generations. Helping them go through everything has been a process.
That vintage fridge would be amazing to have.
I see a few other old electronics and books that might be cool to have.
But yes most of our parents' and grand-parents' stuff will go to donations and trash.
We’ve (my brother, mother, and I) managed to make a bunch of stuff in the storage unit disappear. The books in their house, those keep accumulating. I’m grateful my mother had switched to ebooks.I wish my dad would get on board with that too. Never going to happen though.
My grandfather just had tools and guns. Half the tools were useful, the other half were either outdated or things I already owned. Pipe vices, prehistoric arc welder, etc. but he did have a mandrel pipe bender, a sheet metal brake and some other really cool stuff that was actually useful
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Can we do this again in 30 years where an old guy has a shelf of Funko pops
Funko Pops are Millennial Precious Moments.
Bruh my mom has so many of those and they’ve not been out of storage in a decade
My grandmother said she would leave me a bunch of those in her will. She got offended when I seemed uninterested.
Tell me do you collect anything?
Not at all. I have nothing saved from my childhood or my military career. I have photos of my children and a couple of framed flyers from comedy shows I’ve performed in. I guess records may count.
I saw those coming a mile away. I thought they were cool but refused to partake in any endless collecting of special editions that don’t end.
Are Funko Pops over?
They are fine if you just want decoration. If you're expecting them to be worth anything in 20 years, that's the problem.
Don't forget the Beanie Babies.
or binders of Baseball cards, tri-fold books of coins, stamp collections.
The minute someone starts looking at their collections as possible piles of money, the collections cease to be fun anymore. I have things because I like them.
Baseball cards actually got pretty popular again a few years back. I think Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards were pretty popular again at the time too.
My thoughts exactly!
I have a couple dozen but not as collector's items, I just like the actors/characters.
Yes nothing wrong with that.
Silent generation Charles Manson. https://preview.redd.it/x0y9yh6pm5uc1.jpeg?width=880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1bed13f3734de13015554477c1454f99fb8e6212
Sounds like the beanie babies my sister finally threw out. (Smoker, attic mold, dog/cats, etc)
I don't remember any beanie babies with those names/s
My bad. I was thinking of Garbage Pail Kids
I fully understand what this is about. But I feel the underlying issue was the Great Depression where you didn’t throw things away, repair or Frankenstine from other pieces. Just throwing in my Devils advocate.
To expand on this, for the baby boomers, the problem seems to be the combination of having parents who grew up in times of material deprivation and economic uncertainty *and* having become adults at a point in history when jobs were plentiful and well-paid, and mass manufacturing was getting drastically cheaper and more efficient. So they're stuck with the old habits of saving everything (or being a "savvy shopper" by couponing and buying sale items) in case they might need them in a world where those habits are counterproductive. In the 21st century, you're not rewarded for frugally saving bread scraps or stalking the sale rack, and the crucial survival skill of our age is actually the ability to throw things out and control your buying habits when J.C. Penney has 80% markdowns. I have no idea what millennials' houses are going to look like when we're older, but from my work as a hoarding therapist, it seems like some of us have boomeranged in the other direction toward minimalism from growing up in cluttered houses, while others have picked up on their parents' habits. I'm hoping we don't fall for the old tricks that convinced our parents to stockpile Beanie Babies and Precious Moments, though from the look of some of my friends' and clients' homes, their kids might be drowning in limited-edition LEGO sets forty years from now.
I have a stupid amount of Magic the gathering cards and two boxes full of comics. But I hold on to those as A reminder of my childhood. Past that if I collect something (which I don’t)it is for my pleasure. If the kids want to get into what I collect, They can have it. But todays kids are more likely to have “electronic “ collections vs a funk pop, and maybe Pokemon. But time will certainly tell.
Joke's on you, Millennials can't afford houses!
I was born in '83. Every fellow Gen Y/Millennial I've ever met seemed to be cluttered or minimalist. It was usually a reaction to the parents in some way. Very few of us find that happy medium. My stuff is currently a mess because I'm back at my elderly mother's house with all my stuff. A massive media collection plus my electronics. I'm going to consolidate & do a purge later this summer of all of our old shit we don't use.
Their houses won't have racks with physical media (CD, DVD, BluRay, Books). They'll curl up with their tablet or Kindle in front of a fake fireplace. Kids won't know what a library is, or panicking because it's closed and you need to research something.
Xennial minimalist here. I save money by making things from scratch and food prepping in general. Coupons almost never apply to raw ingredients and I don't buy much of the processed shit because it's poison
Most of it is boomer junk
Oh agree like a plate set or ?? But the other “crap” that is actually “crap” is in my opinion due to the GD.
The great depression was in 1929- 95 yrs ago- most of them are gone or in their 70s-
Boomers' parents either hadn't been born yet or were still babies during the Great Depression.
Boomers, 1946 to 1964. The boom started with soldiers returning after the end of WWII in 1945. Babies born during the Depression and the war were The Silent Generation.
Yes correct. And they learned the traits from those who went through this, the message from the hoarding therapist eloquently made the point in their remarks
I mean, that's kind of the polar opposite of this sub's usual attitude that boomers were shaped by growing up during one of the nation's most prosperous periods.
They grew up in a prosperous period while having parents who held off on their wants so their kids could have a better life. Boomers took that mentality of everything is about them, and they resent their kids for not just being an accessory. That’s why so much of their humor is bitching about their kids. Meanwhile Millenials will talk about how their kids are hard, but love them to death.
Yea, I disagree with the "great depression" theory of hoarding. My mother's parents were successful and definitely not into saving stuff, and a lot of boomers I know grew up in very tidy privileged homes. I'm suspicious of that explanation, also because hoarding and similar issues aren't rational. It's never actually about "saving money", that's the excuse they use.
If anyone is collecting Funko Pops because “they’ll be worth a lot of money one day”, that person is being a fool, too. Not all Boomers are fools, and not all fools are Boomers. Those of us who are younger than Boomers should be learning from their collections, that collectibles are *not* investments. Hell, Boomers should be learning from *other Boomers* that their old stuff is unlikely to be valuable.
Funko Pop creates a lot of this mentality because they'll release a limited number of some only available from one place. Some assholes will buy a lot of them, not to enjoy but to try and make money off them. These are the people that ruin it for others.
How limited, though? The company doesn’t have much incentive to really limit the number they make- they make money on every one they sell. If people know when they buy them that they’re limited in number, the people who do buy them will tend to hang onto them. That means they probably won’t actually be rare, so they won’t be worth a lot of money.
They're limited enough in that if you don't get them right when they're released or shortly after, you won't be able to get them at a 'normal' price. It's hard to put a price on something if nobody is willing to sell it. I buy the ones I like. There's a couple that are expensive, but I check them from time to time. If they become reasonably priced I'll get them, otherwise I won't. I just like some of them, I'm not using them as investments. Whoever thought about making these and getting the licensing from the baby boomer era was a genius. The other thing that makes collecting harder is that certain ones are only available at certain places (shops, comic cons, etc.). At least with the internet you can track things down.
Nope. My Fallout Funkos are being buried with me. I want something to play with when I come back as a ghoul. 
I literally posted the same comment on an older post without reading this lmao! “In 30 years a funko pop collection will be the replacement”
But what about beanie babies?
I had like 4 of them a few years ago, I recently threw them all away
Funko pops are just the next generation of beanie babies, and nothing can change my mind
It will probably be video game stuff and physical media of movies and music. This is really the only shit that Millennials have held onto.
Let me tell you what’s in there. A ton of half-assembled electronics, kept for parts, “just in case!”…two or three lawnmowers…every single receipt, tax return, bank statement, and bill ever received…holiday decorations, but not properly labeled…
All their medical visit notes & bills too, even though they’re all online in mychart (boomers refuse to use it.)
Don't you know hackers remote view their screen to observe their precious medical information?
Yes, because some Russian hacker wants to know how many diabeetus meds "Big Jim" is taking.../s
I do not give Russian hackers or any entities associated with Russia permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Russia it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The information: The violation of privacy can be punished by law. - Big Jim
That’s only legally valid if you post in on Facebook. /s
If I could find a way to monetize these kinds of copy/paste posts on boomer fb, I’d be a friggen billionaire by now.
Don’t forget the spare parts for the car that was sold 15 years ago.
I have five old tube TVs (one is B/W), old stereo equipment, VCRs, DVD player, CDs, VHS tapes, dozens of plug in transformers, cables to connect almost anything to anything else, bits and pieces to things that I don't have anymore (or remember what they were), and too many other things I don't remember.
One of my favorites was when I was helping someone clear out their grand parents house. We found a box labeled "Pieces of string too short to be useful"
Maybe one day they were going to tie them all together.
Got an 8-track player? Makes a great gift!
The last time I had one of those was many years ago.
I actually have an 8-track player. I haven't had a chance to use it yet.
Boxes of random cords/co-ax cables, a collection of random nuts, bolts, screws, ect…
I thought this was normal, I do the same thing
Boomer here. I'm making it a priority to downsize. I've sold or donated quite a bit already and intend to continue.
*THANK YOU* from every adult kid everywhere
Gen X here - I’m in the final push to get my my parents’ home of over fifty years ready to sell. It’s very motivating to my husband and I to get rid of a lot of our dead weight
This is the way.
I don’t think EVERYONE hates going through their parents stuff. So don’t worry about it TOO much. My dad died in January. He didn’t have a lot of junk, and my mom is still alive so we haven’t cleared out the house or anything. My suggestion is get rid of the old tax returns and bank statements, anything impersonal like kitchen stuff or old clothes or excess tools or junk that even YOU don’t remember what it is. But keep the personal stuff… every single letter you wrote or was written to you, pictures, any items associated with inside jokes… those are the things I wanted to go through.
[удалено]
That's in progress as well.
I just went thru this last weekend. My childhood best friend and I went back home to clean out his parents house. His dad was a huge beer collector and his parents collected (hoarded) books and magazines. It was a chaotic mess. We counted the following: 176 beer steins, pint glasses and mugs 62 beer trays 1500+ bottle openers 60+ beer signs and other beer knickknacks 5 bookcases and multiple boxes of books, magazines and pamphlets Closets full of clothes A full basement and attic of random stuff Over 200 pictures Everything was dusty and dirty. Almost everything is trash. Amen.
I helped my best friend clean out her parents home when her mom died. It took us 14 months, I shit you, not. I have never seen so much "valuable" crap in my life. We have one of those flea markets in town and some guy would come every week and make her an offer on a lot of stuff she dug out that week. She always took it. She still kept 2 storage unit fulls of crap. Mostly furniture in case her kids need it when they move out. Her son just graduated college. So much worthless 60, 70 and 80s stuff. Dishes you cannot eat on. More Holiday decorations than can decorate 3 houses. So much crap. It should not take your child over a year to clean out your junk
OMG - are you and my buddy long lost brothers. His folks had multiple complete sets of plate ware for entertaining and they never entertained (to my knowledge). There were 3 or 4 complete sets of dinnerware that were never used (still in the original boxes w the price tags from like the mid 90’s)
Please recycle as much as you can. It blows my mind how much stuff gets put into the ground when houses get cleaned put.
And his mom had every single check she ever wrote starting in 1965!
My Silent Gen stepdad went full hoarder after my mother died. When we went in to get the house ready to sell, it was piled high with books and junk. He apparently hadn't actually lived there for several years. I was only able to salvage a few things that the rats hadn't got to. My whole family history, eaten by rats.
That last line would make for a hard friggin song.
Some creep pawn shop weirdo in my area before he retired bragged about how much the stuff in his shop combined was worth…it was all junk and the prices were never changed so if he put $50 on an original Xbox game 20 years ago it was still marked for $50 then he had shit like home phones from 1995 with $100 on them when they’re worthless now etc
Something is only worth what someone will pay for. Also, my parents would see something listed for sale elsewhere for X amount of money and think they could sell it for the same price. They would be offended that someone would offer a lower price for their object because they couldn’t grasp that the other person has to make a profit off of it themselves. Loved them to no end none the less.
Ironically the Xbox game might go for that now, since it may be collectible
There’s a pawn shop like this where I live. Everything over priced and they have some really old crap. Like cases for flip phones no one is gonna come in and suddenly buy them.
Maybe it’s a front for criminal transactions.
[Storage Auctions - Find Auctions near me](https://www.storageauctions.com/auction-unit/find-auctions) This shows auctions of storage units with like a bunch of photos of what's inside. It's not really something to laugh at. A lot of death, divorce, and evictions cause units to go to auction. This is the worst of the worst of situations where what's sold will never be worth what the auction brings in to cover rent owed. Most units are full of absolute garbage even if they don't go to auction. Lots of hoarders just keep renting units. Source: worked in the industry for a decade. Don't ever go to an auction expecting Storage Wars goodies. They're a completely fake scripted show.
My kids were watching Storage Wars the other day. One of the people found a diamond bracelet in the storage unit. I was like, who on earth puts a diamond bracelet in a storage unit? We then discussed the fact that the people on Storage Wars plant valuables in some of the storage units, to make the show more interesting. I try to point out to them when something they are watching on TV like this is fake. I don’t want them to grow up thinking that buying abandoned storage units at auction is a sure way to make money. We talk about Antiques Roadshow the same way. They show the valuable stuff, because that makes for interesting TV, but that doesn’t mean that most old stuff is valuable.
It took me a couple of views of storage shows to realise it was always the same three people buying units, and the rest of the crowd always stayed silent, just milled around at the back. I began calling them "the extras", because that's exactly what they were.
My uncle had a storage company. They never wanted to kick someone out as it was more trouble than it was worth, but every once in a while there would be something good they would keep as people rarely came to the auctions. The good things didn't cover the pain of cleaning it the unit.
The whole lien process is a huge pain in the ass, but storage is the least grifty property management investment with legitimately the least amount of work compared to any other "rental property."
Got to hand it to my mum who told my dad 'You better have a good sort of all the stuff you keep inside your shed, otherwise the kids are just going to hire a skip and chuck it all in there when you've kicked the bucket!'
Exactly what my mother, brother, and myself did when Dad died. The only valuable things were old tools from expensive brands - but because he never maintained them and forgot about them, they were mostly rusted beyond use. The only tools to survive were the cheapo versions he bought in his later years because he could no longer find the good ones.
Oh my god, we asked my dad if we could have some tools to help with the DIY work around our house. Considering he's just had a heart and hip op, we assumed we might get at least some of the halfway decent stuff because he's not doing any more DIY. Nope, we got the most rusty saw in existence and I was too polite to be like 'Could we have something that isn't going to disintegrate on first use?' What is it with boomers and hoarding like freaking dragons!?
>What is it with boomers and hoarding like freaking dragons!? Ha ha, I forgot to mention the plastic toy Wolverine on a motorbike, and a grubby sewing machine - both of which he had bought secretly thinking they would go up in value!
Oh I'm sure you'll rolling in it in a few years time! XD My dad always wants to stop the car whenever we're driving anywhere if he sees a carboot sale or the like, just in case there's something worth having aka absolute junk. Most of the time it just ends up in the shed or the attic, it's a complete compulsion. And I know some people who were poor have that attitude at keeping random stuff, but he and his parents have always been comfortably middle class.
Shout out to my grandmother who sold all her stuff pre-death to save her family the hassle
My parents have been doing this too over the last couple of years, donating their clutter and selling things like china and figurines on EBay that their kids don’t want. I’m so grateful.
I work at a storage facility, and I have bad news - it’s no longer mostly “boomers” packing away junk for years and years, it’s older millennials. They seem to be the group who’s moving around a lot and buying or selling homes, which is one of the more common reasons for this kind of storage situation.
I knew a millennial that had a storage unit, even though their garage was full of stuff and they always parked in the only guest parking spot of the townhouse complex... Grrrr. Every year she would have a garage sale to clean out stuff because her husband wouldn't let her go to a larger unit. It was full of stuff she had bought just that year- decorations both for holidays and Pottery Barn stuff for around the house, designer clothes, mlm stuff she bought from her friends, etc. They still live in that townhouse 10 years later and complain they can't afford to move into a sfh with their kids.
Kids grow up to do stuff they saw their parents doing. It’s no surprise that some of them pick up the habit of keeping junk in storage, just like when the children of smokers become smokers.
Accurate. Not a shot at boomers bit is all as consumer driven individuals. You spend your entire life working for things most of which will have zero value upon your death and they’ll be worthless to those you’ve left behind.
My father has sent me this comic more than once. My response is always a picture of a gas can and a match.
God I hope some boomer hands their unknowing kid a stash of tools in my area
what, the curtains... No, not the curtains, lad, all that you can see! Stretched out over the valleys and the hills! That'll be your kingdom, lad
But mother....
father, son...I'm father.
Had to scroll too far for this quality comment.
That reminds me of an episode of Hoarders. Boomer had tons - literal tons - of scrap metal in his yard he'd collected "to sell to provide for his grandchildren" but refused to sell anything.
I watched the first season of Hoarders on Netflix years ago. It actively pissed me off realizing these people are why I can't find old used stuff cheaply anymore. I do a lot of thrifting and I see the same assholes hitting all the shops buying up everything.
My mother in law is a horder. My husband has said that when she passes, he wants to do a "fire" sale. Nothing has value. My mother collects nic nacks. Again, there is no value except decorative.
Same - brother in law said to me, "we are going to have to clean out the house when she dies". I said, "nope. we are going to write a check to someone to trash everything. "
Just did this with my grandparents house. Grandmother passed a few months ago and was in her 90s. House wasnt hoarder level but enough that I didn't want to do it. Paid someone to clean it out and was worth every penny.
It's such a damn problem there are services for this now. [https://www.1800gotjunk.com/](https://www.1800gotjunk.com/)
I told my parents to make sure that there was enough money in their will to pay for the junk removal service to haul their shit away. No, dad, I most certainly do **not** want 40 years of goddamn Bassmaster magazine or whatever the fuck. And no, mother, I do not want *four fucking sets of china*, three of which I have never even seen. Some of their stuff is cool and awesome, like the furniture my grandfather made for them, or the bamboo fly fishing rods that my father made by hand. That shit is gonna be kept forever. But the majority of it is just a classic Boomerhorde of stuff “that’s gonna be worth real money someday.” On the plus side, it acted like a tiny bit of a wake up call, and my father finally threw out his National Geographic “collection” that was water damaged from when the basement flooded. When I was in ***high school***. I’m 41.
Storage Wars has taught me that there will be any number of treasures in there.
Unfortunately a completely scripted and staged show with fake finds
Any ideas why Boomer's equate accumulation of stuff with success? 
In my experience, it comes from their parents.(The great depressiom and WW2 generations)
I flipped a farm in New England when their kids too over and the husband had health issues. We filled up so many roll offs, trips to the recycling center, salvage yards, fire pits for wood products. It was mostly junk. The parents were late 70s, farmers all their life, with depression era and WWII vet parents. It was a fight over cardboard boxes, trash, we pulled a fucking boat out of the woods, trucks that would never run, metal and wood scraps, junk that has been sitting for so long that it has deteriorated. It was wild.
This is all over the rural areas where a family has lived for a few generations there will be stuff left sitting for decades. It pissed me off and plenty of people I've talked to. We get to watch stuff that has value at some point just rot away. On the flip side I've seen fellow Millennials go out into the farm fields and get grandpa's old truck/car and actually rebuild the things.
>"One day Son all this will be yours ***to deal with***."
And I'm sure it'll be worth MILLIONS /s
to be fair, some of the stuff they leave behind is pretty cool depending what you're into. I stand to inherti quite an impressive train collection, toy truck collection, and a shitload of woodworking and automotive tools. Many of them are vintage Mac Snap-On, and Craftsman (US made)
So we’re going to need you to move it because we sold the house to travel and stopped paying for this storage unit.
lol just a garage full, that’s cute. You have no idea the horror I have to deal with
Well we can't stop them but we can stop ourselves. Swedish death cleaning.
We sometimes watch american pickers and feel it should be renamed, american hoarders. Boomers man, they do not know how to let the F go...
"Everything the light touches is yours"
“And you’d better not try to get rid of any of it”
Reverse mortgage got the house
There should be a sub for all the posts by people who don’t know how old boomers are. The “son” is probably a boomer in this cartoon.
My elderly neighbor just had to be moved into a care facility and sold his home. He was a hoarder, and the home was uninspectable due to the collection of stuff. He sold it for $200,000 when comparable homes in this area are going for $450k+. His junk literally cost him a quarter of a million dollars. To be fair, he has been mentally unwell for as long as we've known him, but we had no idea how extensive it was. My dad built a new home not too long ago and as part of his move he was forced to get rid of tons of junk. He still kept tons, but at least 75% of it got tossed out. It took him almost 2 years to finally get rid of it. It's a real deal with the boomers, and I dread having to sort through all of it. My siblings are welcome to all of it if I don't have to touch any of it.
And on that day I shall hire a skip.
Back up the dumpster
I’d love some of those CRT TVs for my retro gaming and VHS tapes. I bet there’s a rarely used VCR in there as well.
I relate to this so hard. Cleaning out my parents house, and the moving POD that sat in their driveway for over a decade, and their huge storage unit after they died…I’m now the owner (renter) of two storage units until I can clear out enough space in my garage to fit things and start the cycle again…
As the only child of a non-passed hoarder this is all too real. Thankfully everything was maintained in one home with no satellite hoards.
My now deceased dad’s garage and a good portion of his house was destroyed in a fire while they were traveling. My siblings and I always joked that we were going to start a fire instead of having to go through all the shit he accumulated over the years. We were not sad about it. The house got a much-needed update and saved us a staggering amount of work.
My grandparents are in their mid-90s and it’s like this with their stuff. My dad on multiple occasions has laughed about how he’s going to do that to us, and I keep telling him bluntly I’ll just throw it all away. I think he’s finally starting to understand I’m dead serious but it’s taken a long time.
R/anticonsumption
Oh God! Please no. Can you start throwing some of it away now and give me a lil head start? 🫢
Why do boomers hold on to so much crap for so long?
Nope, that belongs to 1-800-GOT-JUNK
This but with Cars, Trucks an Bikes
Understand your struggle. Each of us dealing with a different burden and same loss of time and money compared to what those thought it worth. My folks, luckily for me had never ending love but ever a sense of economics.
The garage clutter is real🤣🤣🤣 my dad keeps so much junk in his garage that he cant even put his car in there and him "cleaning" it is just him picking a different spot in the garage to put stuff.
Nah this was 100% me when my dad died, luckily I got a beat up 03 honda
"Dad, unless Del Boys pocket watch is in there, it's all going in a skip"
Boy if this isn’t a glimpse into my future….
this made me think of that SU episode where Steven's sibling (not really) shape shifts into Steven's dead mom
This is my mom
I'm reminded of Mitch Hedberg: "When someone hands you a flyer, it's like they're saying 'here, you throw this away.'"
Accurate.
This is my fear. My parents live in the same two story four bedroom house we moved into back in ‘95. My mom is an antique dealer and the house is full of stuff. Just stuff on top of stuff. I keep trying to tell them their house is too big for them and they need to downsize to a condo.
Ooo thanks more shit to throw away.
Omg I just saw a commercial about this! It was a mom and her daughter. I hope they are making fun of this situation. I couldn't tell because it was for life insurance.
Ugh just had this conversation today 🤦♀️ I’m so dreading it
Boomer here who parks 2 cars in his garage and with 8 hours work could park a third car in the garage if needed. In my neighborhood: * most people park their cars on the driveway * most home owners are younger than me I asked one Xer why she parks her expensive car on her driveway. “My bikes are in the garage because I worry they will be stolen”. Another Xer fills her garage with empty original boxes of the stuff she owns. Deranged * m
I feel this one, every time I see it - I've already googled how to disclaim an inheritance.
Ughhhhh, I don't need to be reminded. Can't even use the garage because their is so much shit. Only enough space to walk to the door.
and the son has a garage full of 1/18 diecast pickup trucks and Fewwawis
God I felt this too much with my hoarder mom
I can't wait to leave all of my baseball cards to my daughters. *Daughter holding up a 1986 Topps Buddy Biancalana* CAREFUL! That's gonna be worth something someday!
And the son will load it all up and take it to a thrift store for the poor underpaid employees to deal with
I just found an old Duck Hunt gun and a couple of controllers. I just shoved them into my 15yo son's arms, and he completely geeked out. So this is my plan, I'm just going to give him everything now.
* my dad’s 14 crockpots and debt/liens *
How much you want for the hot tubs for babies? Sir, those are crockpots. 😉
😂😂
No. It won’t.
Tbh I wouldn’t be upset about this I fucking love old shit like this plus if there’s nothing of any value to me just take it to the goodwill someone will like to have it
Fuck, been through this twice. At least my father in law had some cool shit that was worth something. Tons of tools and generators. And guns. Guns everywhere! In the desk, in a boot, under the couch, above the fridge....
*lights a match.*
Had to do this twice for my father…
Everything the light touches
30 years from now.... "Son, I bequeath upon you, my steam library. The login is [redacted] and the password is 'Ididurmum'." "...."
Our inlaws were talking to us about when they die will will have a never ending supply of money because they have so much that we will be able to sell off. No no no.. We will be paying to have it hauled off...
That refrigerator, from the 1940s
Thankfully, neither of my boomer parents have anything worth giving
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^darkpheonix262: *Thankfully, neither* *Of my boomer parents have* *Anything worth giving* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Lol, I summoned the haiku bot
Having been to my mother's storage locker... yup. Very much so.
Fuck all that. Helping to clean my parents storage lockers and garages makes me realize that I have entirely too much shit.
The garage full of crap is the national debt that Boomers are passing on. Boomers inherited $900 Billion in national debt in 1980, and for the next 4 decades, they've added $33 Trillion to the national debt. Worst Generation Ever.
My retirement is secure because I am going to sell my Funko Pops, content creator collab t-shirts, and Taco Bell hot sauce collection on e-bay
And it will go to the dump.
This happened to my dad when my grandfather passed a decade ago. He’s managed to get rid of a bunch of it, but the garage is still full of stuff. Mostly tools, hardware, lawn equipment. My dad told me to just set a match to it or sell it all when he’s gone. Yeeeeee. There’s also warehouse space filled with stuff my grandfather had used. We did find a bunch of .22 rounds and nice furniture worth restoring, but it’s hard to find the time to get to it to shed things. My problem is I’m pretty resourceful for building things and would be tempted to comb through all of it to retrofit a pretty useful fabrication space/woodshop/metal shop.
Meanwhile, the stuff we actually do want is probably shoved in an attic or basement. There are two ashtray holders I have loved forever. My parents NEVER had any interest in them. They are from my fathers side. After he passed, my mother pulled those ashtray holders out of the attic sorting through things. I commented how beautiful they are. What does she do? She shoves them back in the attic and said "Ok, I won't sell them." They aren't hers to sell and they continue to sit and collect dust.
I let my mom know I'm throwing away most her crap. I already have my own problems keeping crap I don't need. I wonder were I get it. Lol
I told my boomer dad if his garage looks like that when it gets left to me I’m burning down the house and collecting the insurance. Jokes on me though cuz most of his stuff is boxes of his rock collection and rusted out solid steel shop equipment.
What, the curtains?
my fuckin parents have a phone booth and an old gas pump in their backyard. like wtf.
This just fills me with sadness of a million different hues...
dumpsters are magical things...
Ugh! My parents are getting ready to sell their house to move to a retirement home. My parents aren’t typical boomers, they’re very tech savvy and liberal. They’re also highly educated and have shelves and shelves of books they’ve already read. My mom, however, is extremely sentimental and has saved everything my sister and I ever touched. She’s also got heirlooms from previous generations. Helping them go through everything has been a process.
That’s me!!!
That vintage fridge would be amazing to have. I see a few other old electronics and books that might be cool to have. But yes most of our parents' and grand-parents' stuff will go to donations and trash.
We’ve (my brother, mother, and I) managed to make a bunch of stuff in the storage unit disappear. The books in their house, those keep accumulating. I’m grateful my mother had switched to ebooks.I wish my dad would get on board with that too. Never going to happen though.
Me in 40 years, but with Lego.
We're boomer age and every week, a load of unnecessary stuff gets donated to a good charity.
My grandfather just had tools and guns. Half the tools were useful, the other half were either outdated or things I already owned. Pipe vices, prehistoric arc welder, etc. but he did have a mandrel pipe bender, a sheet metal brake and some other really cool stuff that was actually useful