to be cleaned out and disposed of? My daughter has been in a form of denial that I'm closer to my end and she's Trying to ignore it all. I have no other family and just have to believe it will all unfold when I'm gone... And yes I know many of you have spouses and they will step in when they have to, but they will go too.
Joy, kind of hard to give stuff to a family member that doesn't want the stuff. That's what we have many times run into. We have to get rid of more things before we make our next, and final, move (we dearly hope). As far as, what will happen to the stuff when one of us, or both of us at the same time, dies? One of us will have to take care of the stuff, going to either wife's family, Goodwill, Salvation Army or ? If both of us go at the same time, it will be totally up to my wife's family what they will do with our stuff. Then again, wife and I don't talk about "death" nearly as much as my wife's older sister (80) does. She keeps tabs on family Anniversaries, birthdays and who dies as well as any of her friends.
My youngest son told me, "Yu know that after you go I am just gonna get a dumpster and throw all your stuff into it." I so have a younger wife who will probably not allow that to happen, as well as 5 other children and a lot of grandchildren who may have a say as well. I don't really want the in-laws to have any input, but I won't be able to control that process.
Actually, we have a friend who's wife died and that's exactly what he did..........in dumpster or donated. His two sons, and their families, didn't want any of their mother's stuff. His wife pretty much had "free will" buying clothes, when her husband was working as an Engineer at Ford Motor Company and making a heck of a salary.
I've been getting rid of Stuff but lots of stuff still here, bed and other furniture that is here till I'm gone...I never started talking about the End seriously until about 6 months ago or so. Now the stupid afib stuff that entered my mind. My daughter says I'm in gloom and doom and I don't find t his time of my life, airy and fluffy and fun....
Ouch, this one hits close to home but I think my daughter has it all pretty much in hand and had a good clean out when I lost the wife 5 years ago and what is left in the house is mostly 'keeper stuff' that she will try n find room for. That may be a slight problem as like myself she is a bit of a 'collector' and may have difficulty finding room. Its just that my collecting is a whole different type of stuff and it will be my son landed up with barns full of 'parts' for tractors, mowers, engines and all kinds of stuff that might be repairable or have parts that might fit something saved 'just in case'. I did get rid of a big trailer load of items to the local fire dept garage sale and a second load to the local scrap yard but can hardly see where it came from. Gota leave the kids with something to do eh........!
My sister was a major shopper and buyer and when the folks were both gone, I can remember her taking a bunch of their furniture and chairs and hauling it back to NJ in her husband's jeep...That STUFF did nothing but sit in her cellar...she's gone now so all the STUFF is probably sitting in her husband's place or he got rid of the wooden kitchen chairs.... Our stuff chokes us, owns us...George Carlin said it all.
I don't even feel guilty. I put in my time raising 5 kids (all teenagers at once, thanks) so when I kick off it's payback time. I like my stuff.
The only parts of stuff that i am concerned with are the things that came from my mom and dad, or my grandparents. I have already given most of that away to whichever of my children wanted it, and what i have now is mostly just things I enjoy having but will not mean much to anyone else, so I am not really concerned what happens to it after i am gone. The one thing that is special to me, and does not have a place to go to , is my set of Franciscan Desert Rose china. Some of it was my mom’s and I believe that she got it way back when she and my dad were young and living in Southern California, where it was first made. I loved it growing up, although it was never enough for us to use, and it was just in my mom’s china cabinet. Over the years, as I found other pieces at thrift shops and yard sales, I bought more, and now have it in the china cabinet that my Sweetie Pie made for me to display it in. Robin has the set of Franciscan Apple china, and DIL Laura has things from her family, and I don’t think that Michael’s wife is interested in it; so I don’t know what I will do with that yet, but I am thinking about it. Since I was an only child, I really do not have any other family except for my children to leave anything to.
I have to shake my attachment feelings and I'm working on that. Our landfills are full of all the American capitalism.....I so enjoyed my years of acrylic painting and have sold some, given quite a few away and still have some hanging around here....Just HOPE they don't end up in a fill or the alley, but maybe some one will come along and get the ones in the alley. The doc that comes here now commented on the mural above my sofa, so there is time to offter her a canvas or 2 ....
The only thing I have that needs to not get lost is my uncle's RAF watch from WW2. It's not period...it's a later commemorative piece. But it still deserves to survive.
I’m sure that whatever Yvonne doesn’t have hauled off to the thrift shop will either be given to her kids or she’ll have a yard sale. My dad’s ashes are still in the box I built for him and out in the wood shop so when I go, my younger brother can do what he wants with my dad’s ashes and mine. T’aint nuthin’ but a thang….ya’ll.