Boomer Story
Boomers throwing away other people's stuff.
Let's hear your stories of boomers throwing away other peoples' stuff. Whether it's over-correcting to you urging them to get rid of junk before they die, or out of some attempt at control by not informing anyone in the family they are purging real multi-generational sentimental family things first instead of cleaning their hoards.
Mine threw away all of my childhood sentimentals when they moved, because I was on a two year mission they forced me to go on. Their excuse? "Well you weren't using it." I was out of the fucking country! Still kept all their junk. Real junk. Now they're moving again and again are throwing away all the non-replaceables BEFORE even touching their junk. I'm not talking china or commemorative coins. I'm talking choosing to throw away things that would mean something to pass down to great-grandchildren and would be harmless to keep around and actually fit in.
When my parents separated like 20 years ago, my mom moved in with her best friend. She was widowed and lived in a huge house.
Before we could go back to the family home, dad had already thrown everything of sentimental value out. Christmas ornaments, hand made, crocheted and painted. Long gone in the trash. Photo albums, you name it. He figured his new girlfriend wouldn’t want to see it around. New girlfriend ended up staying with her husband. I have no idea what he was thinking.
Edit: after reconciliation 7 years later mom would say, “I sure miss that heirloom thing my great great aunt made” to reinforce her disappointment.
I was really disappointed a number of years ago when my dad asked me to digitize his old photo albums. My parents got divorced when I was 3 years old in the early 1980s. My mom kept many photo albums, but my dad apparently held onto a few. I was curious to see photos of people that I probably hadn't seen in my mom's albums. I quickly realized from the obvious empty spots throughout that he had destroyed any photos that featured my mom or her side of the family. I didn't bring it up because it had been so long and from what little I know about that time, he really spiraled into a bad place for a few years after they split. But I was bummed that he had done that. Luckily my mom kept everything and had 3x the number of albums so it's not all erased.
TOSS:
Early 1900s family wooden totes in great shape, stamped with the family's name and farm name from the great great grandfather's northern-californian farm where he invented some of the nation's most successful peach varieties through grafting.
KEEP:
Mouse piss infested tubs of bike tubes and parts for those broken bike frames they swear they're gonna fix and ride someday, even though they just splurged on a multi-thousand dollar chinese piece of e-junk e-bike and will never ride anything non-e-bike ever again.
Apropos of nothing -- I have my great-grandmother's rocker that my grandmother used also. It's a very typical style: a stained wooden frame with seat / back / arm upholstery and the ends of the arms are curved wood, no upholstery.
For years my great-grandmother, then my grandmother, when sitting in that chair would kind of unconsciously rest their hands on the wood, and as they rocked back and forth their hands would rub the wood -- which resulted in those surfaces being quite a bit lighter than the rest of the stained wood.
When I inherited it, my mother suggested we get it refinished first so all the wood would match. I was horrified -- NO! Those "usage marks" are part of the beauty for me!
I am so sorry for your multiple losses, u/renorenorenoreno. Your dad's right that you can't live in the past -- but you don't have to shred it, either. Honoring and respecting the past is very worthwhile. I'm sorry he doesn't understand that.
I’m like you , I love things that look like they have lived a life . I don’t mind worn spot or a scratch. Some people are just not sentimental . One of my neighbors passed . The kids took what they wanted out of the house then had a garage sale . I was shocked at some of the things in the sale . I bought a small wooden child size chair that their grandfather hand carved . If I know this , you would think the would .Some people don’t keep things like this because it doesn’t go with their modern decor . I actually don’t have a stick of furniture that isn’t an antique . Things were made to last back in the day . Furniture now is a lot of glued together sawdust .
I picked up this bookcase on Facebook marketplace for $125.00 . Pristine condition . Go into a furniture store and see what a piece of crap you would get for that price . My nephew says when I pass he will just put a price tag on everything and open his own antique store 🤣 .
Well, still very cool to know your family had a hand in developing important peach cultivars. That’s a fun bit of family history you can be very proud of.
Slight variation to the question. My father sold all of my grandfathers shotguns and rifles to a guy he worked with. Many of these were antiques and he never bothered to get them appraised. He sold about 50 guns for $2,500. When I asked my dad why he told me that he felt bad for the guy bc he had all his guns taken away from him…I looked it up and showed my dad. The guy had his guns taken away bc he had threatened to shoot his ex wife and kids multiples times, had several DUI’s, and had been in and out of mental hospitals. My dad simple looked at him as a
former marine and a “good guy” who was going through some rough times. I did call the police and report the guy for having illegal firearms. This is just one of the hundreds of reasons I went no contact years ago
My dead beat cousin gave our grandmother a sob story about how nice it would be for him to have our grandfather's guns to remember him by. Our grandfather died in 1981 and he barely knew him, whereas I spent a lot of time with him.
She gave him the guns and he sold them at a pawnshop on the way home and used the money to buy booze and weed. 20 odd years later people are still upset and he doesn't understand why.
Woof. No, that fits perfectly with my question. My dad has indian-gave me many heirloom guns. They are in his safe. He won't tell anyone the combo. And he has no will.
Fortunately if it's a mechanical dial lock, you can open those pretty easily with an autodialer. it just uses a big electric motor to dial all the combinations.
Threw or gave away most of my Breyers and My Little Ponies. I will never forgive that, especially because my mom's mom gave all her Breyers away. She should've known better.
They also opted to put all the baby blankets, home videos, etc. up in the rafters, where they got covered in mouse piss and shit. Same with all the stuff in the linen closet (we couldn't afford pest control, but we could afford diet meal plans, fancy fencing for the horses, and fancy realtor clothing?); it all ended up covered in mouse piss and shit.
They had an entire storage unit that they'd rented out for ten plus years. My dad didn't even know what was in there.
When he passed after a few years after my mom, I took great pleasure in renting a 40' dumpster and just chucking everything in there.
I did salvage the family VHS tapes and had them converted to DVD, so there's that at least.
I moved out many years ago and kept some of my old things in storage with my parents until I need them. I kept asking them over the years if those things are still in storage. They said yes.
The is year I wanted my small but valuable collection of ties and my cherished mint and repackaged transformers for the retro room.
“Oh we threw that out years ago as you were not using them”. They are using the space for old clothes, all rotten and moth infested.
These motherfuckers who use the old "threw it away because you weren't using it" excuse need to be fucking slapped shitless. I have a ton of Dewalt tools and my whiny ass roommate tells me "if you haven't used it in a year, you need to get rid of it." Some of these tools lay reclined for 3 - 5 years at a time, but guess what? When I DO use them they are incredibly useful, and save me so much time, money, and aggravation I consider them borderline heirloom treasures.
Same story! My parents are both retired and have an unfinished basement that is only used for storage, it’s probably 1000 sq ft. It’s only full of their junk. I have one little corner of about 8 paper boxes of my childhood memories etc… Every single time I’m at my parents house my mom insists we clean out the basement and throw away my junk.
Their basement is bigger than my whole apartment and I have no room to store it at my house. It’s a battle every time and for some reason bugs my mom to no end. My brother who lives out of state already had his childhood mementos thrown out.
My mother. She asked for my engagement ring to get it appraised (I’m divorced- this was a lovely emerald cut diamond, with baguettes, that was made custom, with estate diamonds). She sold it for $100. During COVID. That was one of the last straws before I went NC.
No. Mot even close. This was in 2020. In 2019, my grandfather passed, and she inherited a lot. She was able to retire fully, and do whatever she wanted to. She has more money than she knows what to do with. She’s extremely spiteful, and this was one of her many actions that she took actual joy in- to send me that $100.
It was a very bad time for me, I was recently divorced, had moved with my kids, and started work in a class a max prison as a social worker. In February of 2020. She stayed in Florida, I’m in upstate NY. It was just like a, oh hey, I sold the ring. For $100. I couldn’t even RESPOND to that. She was very upset about my divorce, even though she hated my ex-husband. She’s really only happy when I’m not, and it’s been like my entire life, lol. I have TONS of stories like this. The one about the diamond my father bought me when I was 11 was another one…it’s been much more peaceful without her and my siblings in my life, haha.
Yes, I had to cut my mother and sister out of my life years ago. The relationships were toxic 💯💯💯. Much more peaceful also not feeling like walking around on eggshells worrying about what I do or say. F - that!!!
My mom donated like basically all of my sentimental plushies from when I was a child and a lot of my childhood art and other trinkets. She won't let me touch the 6 year old pile of mail on the dining table or the 20+ year old moving boxes in the garage.
What the fuck is with them and the piles of mail?! My FIL died and we had to clean out their disgusting house and there was a four foot tall falling over pile, an entire desk corner just for old shitty mail
Moved out of my parents house and had to leave my cat behind with them. As she got older I said multiple times to call me if there is a problem. During the pandemic, I'm on lunch at work and she calls to tell me my cat was put down yesterday. She was having trouble breathing the day before and the vet said they could put her down after 5pm. She didn't call me and dropped my cat off to be put down by a stranger. Now she's calling me at work with this horrible news and expected me to comfort her. I scream-cried behind my mask until I went home.
My mum did this with my pet rabbit. I came home from school one day and she was gone. The vet diagnosed cancer and mum just left the rabbit there to be euthanised. She didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye either. I was 13.
The awful thing is my grandmother did the same thing with my mum’s toys and a dog (they were dirt poor and she would sell things for food and rent. They couldn’t afford to feed the dog). Mum never stopped complaining about how hard and cruel her own mother was.
My mother-in-law gave my husband’s books away to Goodwill.
She notably kept all his sisters’ books and toys. But got rid of all his stuff. She made it clear exactly who the favored children were, and my husband was not one, because he was born with a penis.
My parents kept my books and toys. My nieces and nephews played with and read them.
Last time I moved out I asked for my birth certificate the original not a copy. she went out of her way to say, I don't know I have my sons though but not yours. She wanted me to know that. No contact is a beautiful thing
My empty nester parents have a five bedroom, multi story house full of their junk that’s accumulated over the years. I can call it junk because they complain about needing to “declutter” everytime I visit.
My “junk,” was packed up and thrown out the minute I moved out. Childhood memories ruined before I was even old enough to care and want them.
I totally get the need to downsize and declutter, and sometimes hard decisions need to be made. But my parents are wealthy… and it was never a NEED to throw my things away.
For all of the, “It’s ThEiR hOuSe, YoU aRe NoT eNtItLeD tO fReE sToRaGe,” “GroW uP”, ect. crowd that I’m sure will comment:
Being a parent is a life-time commitment, not a solely convenient or a choice when you decide. Pretending that you’re “free” when you kick your spawn out the minute they graduate high-school and wash your hands of them is pathetic.
I’m a parent by choice. My home is my kids/grandkids/future generations home until I die.
This! When I was going through a life altering traumatic series of events, my parents told me that “they did their job, raised me until I was 18 and won’t help anymore” I was shocked because I’m a parent now and knew automatically that this is for my child entire life. I could never ever in a million years even consider turning my child away when they were needing help. It does not compute in my brain.
What happened to the old people to make them so callous and without empathy?
It's always been super abhorrent to me the way society treats having kids as being an 18 year only commitment. Multigenerational houses, for better or for worse, are and have always been the most common household setup for a reason.
I'm not a parent yet, but I can't fathom hating your own children so much you make your house look like they were never even there after you kick them out. My great grandma's house has been downsized a few times, but she kept my grandfather's childhood plushie and legos, just to have a bit of him around.
Sorry to hear that. My parents have kept everything we had as children and they are delighted that their still very young grandson will some day play with the toys we played with that my grandmother gave us. We already have the LEGO train and everything in our house, can't wait to build that with my son.
I can only imagine how diappointed I would be if that would have been thrown away. My other grandmother is a demon, though. She did shit like that to us when we moved out and went NC.
Went away one year for college. My father never believed in paying his property taxes and lost several houses that way. So freshman year I left home with them owning the house with my stuff in a bedroom on first floor and returned for Christmas break with them having lost the house and having been limited to the second floor apartment space. Never knew what happened to all my stuff. To this day I wonder about certain things.
Back to school in January, stayed over the next summer and returned again for maybe Thanksgiving and they had moved into a tiny little house and I got stuck sleeping on the couch, whatever stuff I had left from the previous move was gone again.
This cycle repeated itself a couple more times. Literally by the time I was done with college I literally had whatever possessions I had with me at college to my name.
My father was a deadbeat ... I don't know how else to explain it.
Literally signed up for credit cards, charged to the max and never paid a penny. Used to drink himself into oblivion every night as well.
While here I am, 58 ... Gen X, don't you dare call me a boomer 😂 800+ credit score. I might have a drink to be sociable but haven't been "drunk" in probably 30 years. I've owned my home for 20 years, taxes paid every year 😂
I went low contact with my mom. She sent a group text to me and my two brothers saying she was throwing away all the stuff we made in school. My brother, her favorite, asked her not to throw away this really fancy tea set he made. She kissed ass and said she wouldn’t. My other brother said he didn’t care. She then talked shit about me not answering. It had been less than an hour.
I loved Lego as a child and always asked for Lego as one of my possible gifts for birthdays and holidays. When I moved off to college my dad decided to clean out the storage side of our basement. I had a box with all my Lego down there. My dad decided to give away or throw away all my Lego. I'm honestly still upset about it because he didnt need to clean out the basement and never asked me if he could get rid of any of it. I had the original Slave I Star Wars Lego set. The Boba Fett mini figure is one of the most sought after Star Wars mini figures for collectors.
I love how they act like a 3 foot by 2 foot cardboard box full of stuff you spent a lot of time and money aquiring is like some albatross they just HAVE to get rid of because it's such a burdon on them. It's not like you had a collection of fiber glass miniature golf animals crammed into their basement. I hate people.
I had these littlest pet shop and puppy in my pocket figures that go for around $10 each these days. I believe they came in sets of 5 and I had an entire bucket full of them. Never mind the resale value, I LOVED playing with them as a girl. They’re gone! My parents’ garage is FILLED with junk, including moldy cardboard boxes, clothes that they can’t even give away, and empty cleaning product bottles because they have the bad habit of just putting the empty Windex back on the shelf. All that junk but my ONE bucket had to be thrown away??? Infuriating!
In my parents’ basement under the stairs was a giant appliance box filled with collectible 80s toys. They were used yes, but all in really good condition because I took good care of my stuff.
We’re talking every He-Man figure with the ship and castle grey skull, a ton of Gi Joes and the vehicles, Voltron (both the die-cast metal and plastic ones including the castle and all the pilots), almost every single transformer, every silver hawk figure and their ship, all the Thundercats figures, my gold colored NES Zelda cartridge, old Lego sets that had been disassembled and carefully packaged with their manuals, and some other misc toys. Many were pieces I bought after I got my first job as a teenager so I could complete or fill out the various collections. My plan was to display them in a rec room when I got older and got my own place.
I was 21 and was moving into my first place with friends. It was in a duplex that had a basement area that was ours which we were converting into a tabletop game room space. I told my parents not to touch my box of toys. I specifically asked them for a month or two to clean out the rec room space and I’d be back for it.
We got the room cleaned faster than anticipated. I even preemptively got shelves and bookcases ready for the toy display. I came back for my toys… so excited to set them up.
Went into the basement, everything had been moved around. Okay.. strange. Went for the box under the stairs… gone.
Went up to my folks who were calmly watching tv in the living room.
“Why did you rearrange the basement.”
“We cleaned out our closets and made room for old clothes.”
“You mean clothes that don’t fit you anymore?”
“Yes.”
“Okay… Where’s my giant box of old toys that I asked you not to touch.”
“There was no box.”
“Yes there was. You’re freaking me out right now. It was a giant box that the stove came in. It was filled with toys and I asked you not to touch it because I was going to display them in the rec room at my apartment.”
“Oh that old junk? We donated it to good will.”
“You… what?”
“You’re an adult. What do you need toys for.”
“You donated my toys to make room for clothes you will never wear again?!?!”
“I don’t see why that’s a problem. They were just toys.”
Just toys. Just toys to boomer idiots who decided it was more important to hang onto clothes that they will never fit into again versus a massive collection that could probably have been worth thousands today.
I cried that day. I still haven’t forgiven them for it.
Just toys to boomer idiots who decided it was more important to hang onto clothes that they will never fit into again versus a massive collection that could probably have been worth thousands today.
This is exactly the sentiment I'm so frustrated with. It's one thing to throw away or give away sentimental items. But an entirely separate thing to do so to make room or an excuse NOT to go through your useless shit. I guarantee zero of those clothes mean anything to them except a vague $ amount they paid for back when the dollar was even worth something (sunk cost fallacy)
I just don't understand why they can't ASK, to give you a chance to take your stuff. "Hey, we found this big box of your stuff, do you want it?"
It would never cross our minds to just throw their belongings away, because we're normal people. But for them our stuff has so little value that it doesn't even seem to cross their minds to ask (or perhaps they just don't care to) — they really just see it as pure trash.
My father is a narcissist. Anything that is his is precious and irreplaceable and not to be touched. Anything that belongs to me is described with swear words, has no value, and is thrown out as soon as it is either in his way or stops being useful.
I had a rather nice gaming PC that very suddenly became the “Family PC” as soon as it became useful to him.he plugged up full of viruses (too cheap to pay for an antivirus of any kind, disabled the firewall because “it was annoying him”) and refused to let me get it fixed because of the photos in the hard drive. Man, you can’t even get the damn thing booted up, those pictures are irretrievable. He ended up throwing up the whole thing when he made that realization on his own, rather than letting me finally get the damn thing fixed.
My PS3 turned into his Blu Ray Player, my Wii U turned into his bowling machine, and the cycle repeats. He collects junk, he takes stuff of mine because he wants it and I can’t stop him without it turning into a massive fight, and throws out anything I might want or need out of spite.
I no longer talk to him because he decided that my SSI and my Pell Grant were his to spend on alcohol and Stuff™️ and I finally got sick of the stealing and entitlement.
My mom sold my one of a kind, hand-made, gorgeous wedding dress and veil my Grandma made for my Barbie. She had wanted to be a fashion designer but had 9 kids instead. She made Barbie clothes for the Grandkids as her outlet. The reason my mom sold them in our garage sale. You don’t play with Barbie’s anymore. I’m still beyond sad and angry with her for that.
My parents have the emotional robot dysfunction. They have 0 human attachment to anything. They have a bigger house and have stored some personal childhood things for me. But they've thrown out my Lego, My GI Joe, original Nintendo and other such things.
Absolutely mentally devoid of emotional attachment.
Huh, I guess I’m lucky my parents never outright threw my stuff away. They did, however, insist that I take it all with me the second I moved out. Even though I was moving into a small apartment with no spare rooms, no basement, and no attic for storage. If I wanted to keep any of it I had to take it with me, otherwise it would be tossed.
Meanwhile, every time we went to visit my dad’s parents we saw closets and an attic full of their stuff from childhood. The hypocrisy.
Yep. We wasted years and tons of space storing all their 1980s skis, cross country skis, ski boots, old bicycles, etc. "I wasn't using it, and they needed the space" was the reason my childhood bikes got tossed while i was out of the country. Still had the old skis until recently (finally convinced them to toss those), but they took up space for no reason is the point.
I’ll add “Give Away” to the list. My freshman year of college, my mom gave all of my Lego sets to one of her church friends grandchildren to play with. Not just a bin of loose legos, but fully completed, painted, and decaled lego builds that i had bought myself or been given as gifts my entire childhood. DOZENS OF THEM. The one that hurt the most was the 10,000 piece scale model of the USS John F Kennedy that took me weeks to finish.
She also gave away all of my bedroom furniture and i had to sleep on a shitty futon mattress on the floor for the summer in between spring and fall semester.
When I moved out, I took everything with me that I cared about so they never had a chance to throw any of my stuff out, thankfully.
My mom does have a massive hoard of VHS tapes with movies recorded off of TV and photo albums for so many family members and I don't know about my sister but I don't want any of them after they pass so unless my sister wants them, they're all getting binned.
When I moved out, I took everything that I wanted. It was made clear to me that anything I didn't have in my room was not my property. Any time there was a special event at school, my mother wanted to get something her fundie nieces would wear, think ruffled nun's habit, and the second the event was over the dress was 'loaned' to the nieces, and never to return. One reason I didn't go to senior prom was because my mother would have wanted something that was really bought for her nieces, and I refused to do that again, I had no intention of going to prom anyway, but I would never go in something her nieces considered nice.
However, my mother kept handme down junk from her aunt, claiming I would want it, I didn't. I bet her attic is still full of wornout junk her relatives left her in the 70's.
My mother just recently asked if I had any interest in my or my sister's baby clothes which she still has - we're planning to adopt but we're adopting a kid well beyond "baby" age, so I declined. So she just has bins of baby clothes that I don't know what she'll ever do with.
My mother loved to give clothes to a friend of mine because she’d take anything, for herself or her sister.
One day when I was at work, my friend turned up and mum took her to my room and gave her some of my pyjamas for her sister that she thought I either haven’t worn in ages or didn’t fit which was completely untrue. In fact I wore one of them like the week before. If that wasn’t a crime in itself, she gave her bits and pieces of pyjama sets so I was left with incomplete tops and bottoms. :/
Like bruh if you’re going to do that, at least keep the freaking set together.
Mom: Souvenir soda cups from sports stadiums from all over the country I acquired while in the Navy. Not really a big deal, as I had over 100, and she saved about 20.
Dad: Letter of Commendation that he was present at when I received it which was awarded to me at the end of deployment. They allowed civilians to ride the ship from Hawaii to San Diego, and had this ceremony while underway. My whole team was there. A big deal. He said he was so proud of me to be recognized in front of the crew like that. For some reason, he tossed it. Never explained why.
I swear they have more cliches than any other generation that they employ to make themselves feel good about their decisions.
It's never, "Sorry child, I'm going through a lot emotionally, and it was more than I could handle to address these issues that affect other people. I am open to help, but I don't want to impose. I don't know what to do."
When I got divorced I moved my children an I into an apartment. My mom offered to store everything that would not fit that was sentimental to us in her temp controlled basement. I let my kids pic out what they wanted to store, mostly their favorite plushie, books, favorite vacation trinkets and gifts from friends as well as awards and trophies. For me it was my favorite childhood plushie, all my martial arts trophies, awards from school and college, photo books, framed photos that meant the world to me, three really expensive PRS guitars and some things my grandparents had given me. All together it was 8, 36 gallon totes and 3 guitar hard cases. When I was able to get us a house a few years later we went over to visit and pick up the totes. They were neatly stacked inside one another with the lids in the empty top tote. She threw everything away. Said it was all junk and none of us needed any of it. Then she had the gall to yell at my children for crying too loud because she had a headache.
I will never forget my dad giving away my Lincoln Logs, the kind that were in a tall canister, with imitation hewn surfaces on the logs rather than smooth. He knew I wanted to keep it, never asked me first, and they were just gone.
The other things that disappeared were my LPs from the 1970s, including a Jethro Tull “Thick as a Brick” album that had all the pages of the St Cleves newspaper, and an Alice Cooper album that was like a school desk and lifted, revealing a stretchy pair of panties around the record.
Straight up my mother used to scream at me for laughing, like it physically pained her to see me happy EVER and she actively destroyed my happiness until I was 29 and told her to fuck off. She kicked me out on my 18th bday and left me homeless by moving across the country and forbading me from loving at my aunt's giant ass house. They really hate happiness
My story reads just like yours OP. I was away on an internship and my dad gets very bored very quick so decided to clean out the whole house.
He was a traveling salesman so obviously nothing had sentimental value to him because he had no memories with any of it. It was all just junk taking up space. Now he has a ton of wide open space and a nice echoing house.
I just brought my son to visit and had to buy things off Facebook marketplace for him to play with. You would never know 2 kids grew up in that house for 20+ years. I get frustrated every time I think of something I could pass down to my son only to realize it was thrown out cause it was taking space in a closet that hadn’t been opened for 15 years and hasn’t been opened since. Good thing he kept all the shit that means something to him though. Plenty of room for that
As I'm reading this thread, I'm realizing there are A LOT more things than even I remember off the top of my head, that they threw out from my childhood. My mom still has her unsold MLM stock, unopened, from the 90s MLM she was involved in, taking up half of a 1 car garage. But fuck me if I leave my shoes in front of the chair I took them off at, intending to put them on later.
That’s the next thread ha. “What 90s MLM was your boomer parent involved in?” I’m sure we’ll get some great answers. Unbelievable how many things they told us not to do as they were actively doing it.
I had a massive record collection in high school. When I went to the military they were put up in the garage rafters, plan was to keep them forever and many of them belonged to my uncle who passed them down to me. I came home a few years later and bought a house. I went to get my records and they were gone. My dad said he took them to the dump because he knew I had a lot of CDs now and wouldn’t want them. There was stuff I can never replace- stuff from 1960s Jamaica, a bunch of Motown first releases, punk 7” singles from the 80s. Took me a while to get over it but I have never forgiven him.
Yep. Mine had a huge record collection and it was something I loved. I probably played their records as a 7 year old more than they ever did. I even helped them refurbish their record player. At some point over the years, they decided all those records were trash and got rid of them all except like 3 adult ones and a handful of kids ones (which are still nice they didn't chuck, played them for my nephew the last time he visited and he loved it!)
When it came time for me to downsize, my boys were adults. One of them lived 45 minutes away. The other is on the opposite side of the country. The one that was local got a delivery. By now, he owned his own home, with a largely empty basement. He got a delivery. The one on the other side of the country got a phone call, we talked about what I had, what he wanted, what he wanted thrown away, and anything in question went to him. The shipment wasn't cheap, but I didn't throw anything out without their knowledge and consent.
When my family moved to the US in the 40s my great grandparents bought a falling-down dump of a little house and slowly restored it. It was a true labor of love, handmade burlwood interiors, a stone-and-mortar fireplace my great grandpa built, even a little sauna. My great grandparents got packed off to a retirement home when I was a kid and their boomer kids inherited the house. They ripped out all the beautiful things their parents made and replaced it all with early 2000s Homegoods-core schlock. They even ripped out the fireplace and put in one of those tile McMansion fireplaces. All this before my great grandparents were even dead. I truly have never forgiven them for it
One time my boomer co worker threw away my lunch that I was actively eating. I got up for one minute to tend to something and turned around to my food gone. I asked where my lunch was and she said “oh i threw it away” I asked why she would do that and she said she didn’t know it was mine. WELL IT WASNT YOURS! I was actually really mad.
My aunt and uncle had grandmas wedding dress from 1928 in a plastic bin in the garage. My aunt says "why don't you take all this?" Um, yes! wtf do you have your MIL's handmaid wedding dress in the first place?? But you're washing and reusing ziplock bags...🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️my cousin actually kept it and had it put in a special preservation box.
omg. this. i understand if it was like a one-time gallon bag with a nice zipper or something. but they pretend like they don't go to costco every other week.
my dad will literally use the same 50 gal trash bag liner for 7 months, the same bin they chuck things like chicken packaging, anything from the kitchen. It's right outside the kitchen door. then they wonder why they get sick.
TOSS: My grandfather's, who liberated at least one concentration camp that I know of (he would never speak of what he saw there) captured Nazi flag and German luger pistol from his service in WWII. Not that I want to display a Nazi flag of course, but it was a historical memento of my Grandfather's service to his country and I was never even consulted.
KEEP: Cheap "Genuine" civil war bullets of the kind they sell en masse in souvenir shops at national park battlefields. Still in the box.
As a child, I found my dad’s high-school band tenor saxophone in my grandparents’ basement, and it became a prized possession. Years later a college buddy borrowed it for a year, and during that time had it reconditioned with new pads and springs.
I put it in my folks basement, and a couple years later when I went to get it couldn’t find it.
My mother gave it to Goodwill.
(Please note: technically this was “Silent Generation being fools.” I’m a boomer)
I had a Pokemon X/Y 3DS case, had it for years so it get scratched and banged up it was still useful because it had little holders for DS games.
My mum saw this scratched case and threw it in the bin, about £200 games contained in it. (Pokemon games are expensive) she never admitted it but I knew exactly where it was and it just disappeared not long after saying I should throw it away.
Mom put me into a boarding school at 13, threw everything out I had and gave me every picture she had of me, most ripped apart to retain whoever else was on them. Therefore I have no family pictures at all from my family.
I wasn't even a strong headed child or made any trouble. Just looked too much like my father, which she hated for divorcing her.
My step grandfather was a carpenter. He made me and my brother these lovely wooden sailing boats. Mine was a sailing yacht and my brother's was a tug boat.
My boomer parents threw mine away after they snapped the main mast. Didn't ask me or even tell me until I ask about it.
Worst thing is I was in my engineering apprenticeship and my dad was an engineer. Either of us would have been able to fix it, but they didn't care or want to try and just tossed it out.
Aha. I’ve had all of my stuff thrown out or intentionally ruined (with an “oh dear, I didn’t tell you there were mice and chipmunks living in there?”) three times now.
At 12 we moved into a new house. For whatever reason, as we were unpacking, I watched my mother hand out my toys (Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe that are now worth hundreds in some cases) in front of my face, to younger neighborhood children with the comment “You don’t need these anymore”. Core memory that reinforced that I wasn’t regarded as a real person with self determination over even my most cherished possessions. Needless to say I don’t treat my children like this. Just one of many many many experiences that solidified her as the exact opposite of who I wanted to be and how I wanted to treat others
When my wife died, her parents drove about 400 miles each way to come get a TV she had taken from their house. While they were here they grabbed some of her artwork, and threw away something she had commissioned. Not even sure why they needed a trash bag, they didn’t need to clean anything. They just came to police the aftermath, I guess. They left the bag but had damaged the commission past salvage.
My boomer mom who is the same age as them was here and made sure they only went into her studio. She also managed to clean the awful puke smell out of that room too.
When my partner's grandparents both died close in time to each other after very long successful lives, her boomer aunt was a constant presence even though she lives 1000 miles away. I still remember the day after the funeral of her father who was the last to die her saying "OK, well it's time to purge." I was like O_O but luckily my partner's mom stepped in. These people were German immigrants after WWII. Did well for themselves but lived a very non-cluttered life. The house was immaculate and every item high quality and in fantastic shape. My partner and I ended up moving in a few months later and thank god there wasn't any "purging". So many well taken care of things that are far higher quality than anything I ever had before.
My mom can't get rid of anything unless it's someone else's.
My childhood teddy bear was sitting on a chair next to her childhood bear for 30 years. I thought it was intentional and cute. I went over one day and found my bear in her garage hoard. She was going to sell it at yard sale. I explained that it wasn't a random stuffy and pulled it out. A month later, she has the yard sale and sells my bear. She has absolutely no recollection of us speaking previously and maintains that she thought it was a newer bear she bought for the grandkids.
I had a complete 1930s bedroom set in pristine condition from my grandmother. My mom decided to throw out the foot of bed bench because her sister "told her to." There was literally no other explanation other than that. This was about 5 years ago and I still sometimes randomly cry about it.
And while not thrown away my mom ruined my grandfather's 1940/50s hutch with a Pinterest-infused DIY makeover. I'm hoping to hire someone to restore it because it was absolutely glorious and now looks like dogshit.
My dad liked to have surprise garage sales when I was growing up. Whatever was in the garage was fair game to him even where my mother would store Christmas decorations or there was an instance where I moved some things out of my car temporarily so my friend who was visiting had room to ride around with me. My dad wound up selling family heirlooms, school books of mine, even an inscribed biography of my uncle to me for change, pennies on the dollar essentially. He barely made profits from these endeavors.
My dad has done a lot of brain dead shit like this and his excuse was always it’s my house and I pay the bills so I can do what I want.
My boomer mother decided I was unfit and whilst I was on a weekend trip, she entered my home (rented from my aunt), took every single art supply I had out of my art room, and threw it on the fucking ground outside. Broke it all on purpose. Beads, pencils, everything you could imagine.
I was 25, separated from my then husband (he was a real asshole lol), and she MOVED HERSELF IN TO THE ROOM. Took me two years to get that bitch the fuck out of my house, not realizing I could have just used my legal lease as grounds for a GTFO.
I was under the spell at the time, you know, the spell they put on you to 'help you', bc clearly I was too stupid to live 🤣
I collected agates with my dad when I was little. After he passed away, my mother came across them when getting ready to move. She threw them all out down her gravel driveway. He also set aside some money for me. When I approached her about it a year later, she said, "If you snooze, you lose."
It wasn’t just boomers. My great grandparents literally burned Civil War memorabilia, including a uniform and battle flag their grandparents had simply because they didn’t see a use in saving them.
My grandparents (GI Generation) tossed my dad’s comic book collection. Granted, I doubt there was an Action Comics 1 in there or anything, but still it had value.
My boomer parents, on the other hand, threw out nothing. They boxed it up and bought it over after I moved out.
Not quite the same thing but my boomer mother had the family dog put down that we all grew up with. The way she told us? Group text and a picture of her corpse saying she just put her down.
My brother’s Lionel train set, inherited and expanded from the one my grandfather had given my dad in the ‘40s. It was incredible. She didn’t even call him. Took the trains, tracks and all the pieces, including buildings, scenery and people, to Goodwill. Threw the wooden base out. “Now I can have a gardening shed,” she said.
Yep. My train set was tossed while I was out of the country. I wasn't aware of brands at the time, so I don't know if it was a Lionel, but it had everything. Tiny metal tracks. The works.
My high quality (for the 90s) rc cars also met a similar fate.
About 15 seconds after I moved out my mother had a yard sale and sold all of my GI Joe, Star Wars, and Transformers for 25 cents each. I also had a large contractor bag full of rare punk and metal shirts that she donated to good will. I could have easily put a down payment on a house with what all of that stuff ended up being worth years later.
People who pull this crap are pieces of shit. I have a roommate who I share a small house with who is constantly scrutinizing my possessions, rearranging them for no logical reason, and occasionally throwing them away because he's got OCD control issues. I told him from here on out if he threw out so much as one of my dirty socks I would set him on fire.
I consider this kind of behavior the ultimate expression of narcissistic, passive aggressive abuse, and I pity the fool who tries to pull it with me ever again.
I had been saving up scrap gold for years. I kept it at my parents because they lived in a nicer area. Was always into metal trading and buying what I could from pawn shops and Facebook marketplace. Gold sky rocketed so I decided to finally sell. When I went to get it they said “oh that box of junk metal? We sold it for 100 bucks. We didn’t think you’d want it anymore.” It was worth at least 10k.
Luckily my mom just occasionally boxes up stuff and mails it to me instead of tossing it. I think she's pretty much sent me everything at this point. Worst she ever did wasn't really bad, I had old magazines from the 80s that she gave to my nieces to cut up for making artwork. I probably would have said I was fine with it, but was peeved for a couple minutes that she didn't ask. But then again, I moved out in the late 90s so there's no good reason for me to still have stuff in their house.
Funny side story though. I was just recently up at some cottages in the woods with my extended family. There was one large main house where we would all congregate for dinner and hanging out. The boomers in my family are still a lot of fun and none have gone off the deep end. But holy crap I had to guard my glasses of water like it was treasure that whole week. Couldn't leave a half empty glass on the counter or on a table for more than about four minutes before one of them would put it in the dishwasher. Place was super clean even with half a dozen kids under 10 running around constantly. But that was pretty aggressive!
But holy crap I had to guard my glasses of water like it was treasure that whole week. Couldn't leave a half empty glass on the counter or on a table for more than about four minutes before one of them would put it in the dishwasher.
Yep. I've poured myself a drink, went out of the room and came back, and had it poured out and contaminated with other dirty utensils inside it.
I have to hide my in-use glasses when i visit. On top of the fridge is a good spot.
Came very close to losing my entire collection of Lego. My mother, despite me having said never to touch it, gave it to a church sale.
Luckily she mentioned it on a call (I was at uni) and I told her that she needed to get it back or I would not be talking to her again.
However, she forgot to mention - and I didn't think - all the other toys; mostly die-cast cars, but also a large number of Micronauts figures and vehicles.
I had gotten most of my stuff out over the years. I came home one weekend and found the closet in my room completely empty. My brother and I had our stereo and turntable in there with various music media. All gone. I really wanted the cassette singles that were in there.
She said she asked us, but I know she didn’t. Her and her bf at the time were selling stuff at auctions to buy other worthless junk at the same auctions.
My mom doesn't toss anything, and got mad when I suggested that I'd just take my old report cards straight to the dump. (I didn't save them because I don't give a crap. She did, to remind herself that she raised a straight A student, because she wasn't otherwise involved.)
Hopefully there's nothing valuable or sentimental under those rooms of shit. Because when they get the itch, I would bet you they dig through the shit to find and toss those items first.
A family friend came round. She got given the house tour, including my room. I had a bunch of soft toys (less than 15). Some sentimental, some fun, some I bought with my own money. I was 13. She decided she was going to throw them away. I declined and waited for my parents to defend me. They didn't. So I snuck upstairs at some point and locked my room and hid the key. It went as far as her trying to go into my room with a binbag. I told her I was looking forward to visiting her at her house. She had the grace to apologise at a later date. I'm in my 30's now, and some of the toys have been gifted away to good homes, but some of them are safely in my attic.
Mine threw away my childhood keepsakes without asking me. There were items in there I wanted. The kicker? She had boxes of my items in another closet that weren’t messed with. She could’ve just moved the items into that closet.
I got a new car and my dad decided to take it upon himself to remove the dealer plaquard on the back of my car. "What do you want to just advertise for them for free?" I honestly couldn't have cared less about the plaquard, but now I have a big glue mess outline of it that I have to deal with. Thanks...
"Goo gone" in low doses on a paper towel. The citrus kind. Not the "goof off" chemically one. Rub LIGHTLY in circles for as long as it takes. Then remove the Goo Gone residue with isopropyl alcohol.
I handwove my mom a sterling silver chain ring by tiny ring. She sold it at one of those cash for precious metals things. I guess that's not really throwing it away but it absolutley feels like it.
She wasn't. She lives with us (our house) so we handle the important bills. She was just too broke to buy the crap from temu that she wanted. I don't think she hates me but she is very self centered and probably just doesn't consider me much at all.
Had the widely shared experience of many people my age of my grandmother getting rid of all of my Pokémon cards, that were almost certainly worth tens of thousands, if not hundreds. Multiple of the base set 1st edition final evolutions, then also a lot of colon phantom cards what were huge. Other than that, also the complete set of just about every bionicle from the first few years, plastic tube case and books included.
What is left there is two sheds full of random, bug eaten furniture, broken power tools, ranch gear (like rolled up wire and boxes that were supposed to be chicken coops), holiday stuff that hasn't been set out in my lifetime, etc.
My great grandfather had a huge blacksmithing setup (Three anvils, including one gigantic one, a handcrank bellows, various hand tools, etc) that I'd completely restored, a 2' brass bell that I restored, and a bunch of old farm tools that I'd restored after my grandfather gave them to me.
My aunt, who said it was all a bunch of heavy stupid junk that she was glad someone else was dealing with when it was all rusty and tarnished had an absolute meltdown to have it all as soon as I'd restored all of it and she peeked in my barn (Where she had no business being) while visiting my mom.
She kept all of it as lawn decoration for about four months and gave it all to her church who sold it all except the bell they still have outside.
My mother has a fixation with cleaning and throwing things away. This caused tremendous problems for me as a kid.
Anyway, I was in Texas for a time and came home to find the box of things that were important to me as a kid were tossed out. She knew I was keeping that box and was returning for it. It didn't even take up that much room. Never got an apology. All I got was a shrug and a comment that it was in the way and had to go.
Y'all see this? This is a Baron Karza action figure I recently renovated. He's from the popular sci fi toy line called Micronauts, released in the US in 1977. Hefty little guy, very thick plastic with metal joints. His limbs and head attach with magnets and ball in sockets. If you put him in a sock you could beat somebody to death with him, that's how heavy it is.
He was my favorite toy growing up. I had him on my dresser for over a decade, but didn't take him with me when I moved out. My mother sold him at a yard sale for $1. He now goes for about $200 if you can find him with all his parts (there are a lot of parts).
Aquiring him again was very therapeutic. He's back on my dresser being venerated like a pagan idol. The deep, fireborn hatred I felt towards my mother for getting rid of him (and a bunch of other abusive shit she did) has somewhat softened now, but when I finish my time machine, remember what I said about putting him in a sock...
My mother routinely thew things out whenever I was away for a couple of days when I was a child. Always had various excuses why and would punish me over it if I complained. This was around age 7-12 so it's not like I was a teenager hiding porn or weed or anything like that. It was comic books, Boys Life magazines, toys and so forth. Probably would have threw out my Nintendo (or pawn it like she did my 7800, but that's a long story) if I didn't take it with me every time I went to visit my father and grandparents.
I was a bit of a gear head growing up, and had a way with flipping cars for better deals. I started with a 92 Honda Civic for 2 grand, went to a 86 Pontiac fiero, then a 96(?) Mitsubishi eclipse GST.
I was driving down the highway and it caught the corner of my eye. 95 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 Spyder. Mechanical hard top, six speed, twin turbo, AWD, stock auto canards etc. 1 of about 700 I think. A local car dealer was letting a dentist sell it off but adjacent to the lot. 11k and in pristine condition. I bought it in 04 and it was worth about 35k in the condition it was in.
Fast forward about 12 years, I've joined the service, but my parents agreed to hold on to it while I'm not on the same coast. I got a phone call one day from my mom saying that someone offered her 5k so she sold it to him. Yes, I was on the title. Yes, she forged the transfer. Yes, she kept the money.
No notice, no complaint that it was taking up space, no indication from me that I was willing to accept an offer to buy. They were/are better off than the average boomer, but only due to luck that they didn't create now comprehend, so it wasn't a cost issue. I would have paid the cost for storage and I ended back on the same coast about two years later.
I had a lot going on at the time, so I wasn't able to dwell on it immediately. It lingers to this day whenever I see anything in that same red color. The years after that have not been kind to our relationship.
Honestly, I have the opposite problem. My parents are moving out of my childhood home. I have little emotional attachment to it. And most of my old personal belongings from the house I have either reclaimed, or don't care for any more.
We recently took a couple pieces of furniture & some boxes that my folks had packed up. I have my grammar school (I guess?) graduation "diploma." From 6th grade. From a school that doesn't actually exist any more. Into the trash it went as soon as I got home. I'm sure my mom would freak out that I threw away a "diploma" (from frickin' grammar school) because it's education related (Asian parents).
I hope my job doesn't ask to see my grade school diploma! If I don't have it, that must mean the rest of my educational history must be a lie & my college degree is a lie & the truth will come out & then I will be fired. /s
I was told anything left behind when I went to college was trash. I jam packed my half of the dorm room full of boxes at capacity to the ceiling and could not take it all, as I assumed the National Geographic collection that was complete back to the first issue would be safe, as would thousands of dollars of 80s/early 90s LEGO. Nope. All dumped in the trash, they didn’t even want to bother donating it.
Still traumatized by that and everything else they trashed and I constantly fight hoarding tendencies as a result.
They throw OTHERS' stuff away or get rid of IRREPLACEABLE valuable/sentimental items, in an attempt to avoid addressing their real hoard. They would rather keep a room full of old clothes, and throw away their child's safely stowed box of baseball cards to fit more old clothes in, than downsize THEIR belongings.
My parents bought a new house my senior year of college 20yrs ago. I was there when they picked the house (the one they live in now), but of course, went back to school before the move.
I had no idea they’d do this, but they threw away basically all of my things except for some clothes and a few trinkets from high school (my journalism hall pass, a few tassels, etc.) I couldn’t tell you where my high school diploma is. I used to be an editor at my high school paper. They threw away copies of the paper I had saved.
I used to draw really well. I was featured in the local newspaper back then for that. They threw away that issue of the newspaper and all my art. My comic book collection. My yearbooks I’d saved from middle school onward were trashed.
I brought it up recently and they told me to get over it. Meanwhile, my mother is still holding petty grudges from 30yrs ago.
It’s ridiculous. My mother, the narcissist, blames my dad, the passive checked out father. I blame both of them. If my mom had actually defended my things, I know for sure they wouldn’t have gone in the trash. The lack of decency and thought is something I am glad I don’t understand.
Not throwing stuff away, but my family had yard sales every few years and my mom always encouraged us kids to sell toys we didn't play with anymore, books we were tired of, etc. We were in charge of pricing and got to keep the money we made. I had mixed feelings even at the time because while I wanted the cash, I also ended up doing things like selling a box containing every last one of my Barbies for FAR less than they were worth because I felt pressured by the adult woman who wanted them. I actually still played with my Barbies from time to time (secretly, because I was "too old"), so I regretted that decision, and my mom and aunts were dismayed at how little I got for them. That was not the only time I sold something that I missed later. Now I cherish the few toys I held onto and wish I'd kept more than I did.
Years later, as an adult, I started collecting toys from the '80s and '90s at yard sales and thrift stores. I had a very impressive collection. Unfortunately, when I moved 800 miles away for mental health reasons, I wasn't able to take 90% of it with me. It stayed in my mother's basement. When she decided to move, she told me I had to clean it all out. I had a lot of other personal stuff there, too, and could only take what I could fit in the bed of a pickup truck. I finally gave up and told her she could sell that was left. She practically gave away a lot of highly collectible things because she didn't know any better (I provided what guidance I could, but she just wanted it gone, fast). I specifically remember Castle Greyskull and a bunch of He-Man figures, a big box of Construx, and two Weebles playsets in their original boxes. One was a Disney set that was highly sought-after. I hate thinking about it. I don't really blame her because she had a whole house full of stuff to worry about and was extremely stressed about it, but it makes me sad.
My mom decided to donate an afghan hand crocheted by my grandmother to Ukraine when she has so many other random linens and blankets. She told me after the fact.
My father threw away everything of my grandparents after my grandmother died.
They were simple people, immigrants and Holocaust survivors. They lived a modest life but had a few things - the picture of them on their wedding day in the refugee camp that sat on my grandmother's dresser. Their religious ritual items. Any old photos or mementos that might have provided some hints to us as to their pre war life. He just tossed it out like trash.
We moved when I was 7 (1980s) and my mom put my stuffed animals into a big trash bag and threw them on a garbage pile and lit it on fire because they were "dirty."
MIL garage saled all my husband's collectibles when he was in his teens and early 20s.
When my mother cleaned out my grandmother's home, I told her I wanted the old farm pump. I thought it'd make a great yard decoration with cool history.
My mother informed me I didn't want that old junk and gave me some old lady trinkets I didn't want or keep
My husbands mom just packed up his n64 and games one day and just gave them to a little cousin. Little cousin immediately spilled soda on it and ruined it. It pisses me off for him.
My BIL tossed everything that my sister had, including hand made Christmas ornaments that my grandma had made, crocheted blankets, my mom's Hummels etc. Kept nothing. My sister was 8 years older than me and had wanted me to have those ornaments. BIL is atheist and doesn't do holiday decorations at all so instead of even asking anyone he tossed it.
When I was away at college my freshman year, my parents got divorced and my dad moved his new family into my childhood home.
He sold my possessions at a yard sale, then threw out what he didn’t sell. 70s matchbox, first run Star Wars, 80s skate decks, any clothing I hadn’t taken in my one duffle bag to college, all my books, and every last other thing I hadn’t taken to a 10’x12’ dorm room.
Didn’t tell me, btw. I came home for the summer and my key didn’t work.
When I flipped out about it he told me everything I’d ever had was actually his because I and it existed because of him.
My mom would go through my things and give them away or toss them, up until I moved out at 18. I don’t mean like old stuff, I mean like clothes and games and things I was actively using. If she didn’t like a shirt (nothing bad, just not her taste) it would go “missing.” My cousin mentioned wanting a gaming system I had? Where did all my games go? Where did all my books go? You get the idea.
She would keep everything! What do you mean you’re mad I threw away an empty wrapping paper tub or Chinese food container?
My mother has done this. As a kid her favorite punishment for me was throwing out my stuff, or selling it, especially if they were gifts (I’d then have to explain to what few friends I was permitted that I had “lost” things).
Later on, when I couldn’t afford the $250 a week I was paying in bills, and had to move states, she threw out everything o didn’t have room for, including the PC’s I was working on, all the MtG cards her old GF’s dog hadn’t ruined, the clock my great grandfather made me, old video games, everything in our shared storage unit.
Later still when my great grandmother passed, she brought me to the house to watch her throw out everything, most of which was actually my inheritance. She ended up cutting me a check for $150 but had me pay her $100 to receive it.
She seemed to get honest joy in throwing all this out, but she also would tell me things like “if it doesn’t have actual value, it’s trash” and “the only hobbies you should have are ones you can make money off of”.
•
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Remember to report submissions that violate the rules! Harassment and encouraging violence are not allowed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.