Saturday, August 14, 2021

What to do with STUFF?

Memorable Automobiles from The Past:

 1956 T-Bird The Ford followers dream car of the 50s.

There was a song with the line: She had Fun Fun Fun 'til her daddy took the T-Bird away.....

For today: STUFF!

Below is the back of our basement. The room divider you see is solid oak, built in 1948 and used by several of our families.

Yep a tread mill and exercise bike, seldom used.

 

Some of you maybe too young to know, but there was a time when mama and daddy passed that the children went thru the shoebox and two old photo albums with those soft black pages full of old pictures and divided them up. I still have a few shots from my Grannies’ that mm & dad took.

The furniture was taken by siblings and kin to replace some of their own. If the family had owned the home it was sold and the money divided among the heirs.

Seldom was there an estate sale, because there was nothing left……….  That was in the past.  Now it is seldom that anyone has room for anything else unless they throw something away. They can’t logically take it.

WE have our garages, basements and storage buildings FULL or approaching full.

 Below are taken in my old office downstairs


(The shelves on the left are photo albums, about 50)


Above is our China Cabinet. filled with souvenirs and mementos from over the world. On the right is daddy's old wardrobe.



Most have family framed ‘portraits’.  Some of those are large with heavy frames, WHAT TO DO WITH THEM?

 

Above is Sherry's Mama (She was a sweet beauty) in a frame made by Vernon (Sherry's Bro)

Below is a picture of Sherry's mama's mama. (thee are not paintings)

Here is a dilemma that WE face. There are hundreds of pictures of old friends and even some family that NO ONE in our immediate family would recognize.  They mean NOTHING to them.

Random shots from my old office.

Yep we had car tags on GITMO.  I wonder if Los Alamos has special tags?
Hand carved vases from Haiti and the old pouting doll.
My favorite shelf, Antique tools. Some might recognize a 'Monkey Wrench!'
A Jimmy Carter cup from Plains
That above is an antique. It is the weaver's shuttle from earlier weave machines. 

I still have room for more in the basement, but I would like to ‘delete’ most of what we have. I still have not filled the two garages, but my old office houses our beautiful Dining room suite, and old bed frame and head board. A piece or two of furniture I built in 1952.

I have one sewing machine left in my office that I really want to remember how to use, I cannot remember how to replace the bobbin.

 Stuff, I know you do not have ANY!  LOL

NiteShipslog

 

PS:  

6 comments:

yaya said...

When Jack's folks passed we had to have an auction. We divided up what any family member wanted but like you his folks had tons. It was hard to see many of the things they used daily go up to the highest bidder and many times it was just sold for pennies. Anyway, I know my kids don't want anything we have because I already asked them! I guess they will just have to sell what's left behind. We can't take it with us to heaven or even hell! Ha! The photos are a dilemma because we are the only ones who know some of the folks in the old photo albums. It's time to get rid of "stuff" and photos since we're now at the top of the family food chain I guess! All our stuff is one reason we're hesitant to sell the house. We'd have to really downsize and get rid of things. However, I don't want the kids to hate us if they would end up with that job! Enjoy your weekend!

Mevely317 said...

Oh my word, Jack! Only a few minutes ago I was drafting a post (in my head) about getting rid of 'stuff'! (Coming soon to a blog near you -- great minds!) So far, the last few weeks I've netted $90-something from eBay -- things like my old Girl Scout sash that mean absolutely nothing to son or his girls.

Ha(!) on that nod to Los Alamos. I don't know when the state quit doing it, but growing up all our license plates had '32' on them. Los Alamos was the 32nd county, so it made identification simple. Unfortunately, in the 60's there was quite a bit of ill will. Kids from the valley and Santa Fe used to refer to it as 'Snob Hill.' Thus, people going shopping to Santa Fe, for example, were known to smear mud over the '32' on their plates to keep their cars from being vandalized.

betty said...

I know with the photos that hubby's parents left behind if we didn't recognize anyone in it, the photos got shredded. Since then, I took all of our old photos and wrote who was on the back of them and the approximate year they were taken, just in case when it is time to sort through them son will have a clue who some of these people were. I think a good purging yearly with an intent to get rid of 10% of stuff seems like a reasonable thing I would like to start doing; but I can't see my hubby going along for the ride lol. Getting rid of stuff once someone passes or goes into assisted living does keep a lot of people in business though with estate sales companies. Since I like to go to some, I'm on a lot of mailing lists announcing upcoming sales. When I see one advertised for the Sun City area (lots of golf courses and retirees) I don't bother going to too many of them since I know its going to be a lot of things I'm not interested in purchasing or even looking at homes, which is the main reason I like to go to estate sales, to check out what the homes look like inside.

Have you tried going on YouTube and seeing if you can find a video on how to thread the bobbin of your sewing machine? You might be surprised to find one! We got a new car seat for the wee one and hubby had trouble putting one of the pieces together. We went on YouTube and sure enough there was a video. Within minutes of watching it, he was able to finish the assembly.

betty

Unknown said...

Oh boy, do we have stuff. Everyone has stuff. Too much stuff. When my grandmother died a few years ago I was given a large bag of pictures. Do you know I don't know who some of these people are? I can't get rid of them though. It just seems wrong. So I keep them. Maybe it's time for Jack and Mark to take some of this stuff off your hands. The good stuff. The other stuff that doesn't have any sentimental value, you could maybe have a yard sale. BTW I love that photo on the wall of you, Sherry and your boys. Circa 1970 something. That's a good photo.

Victor S E Moubarak said...

We collect so many things over the years. Great memories of times gone by. It is so difficult to let go things which mean so much to us.

God bless.

Dar said...

We also have sooo much stuff. There are too many collections. I know a couple of the kids do want some of them so they will stay but it is time again, for a good purge. Heck, there are still children's books around that I keep trying to send home with Andy's youngest...he loves them. At least not everything will be left unwanted. We're fortunate to have a couple of the 5 kids that love antiques as much as we do. The thing now, is to not bring anymore home in the first place. Aww, such a dilemma!
loven'hugs from our beautiful day in the north. Off to the farm we go for the afternoon with Mama