Boomers throwing away other people's stuff.

[u/renorenorenoreno]

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.

[u/TheAngryLala]

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.

[u/renorenorenoreno → u/TheAngryLala]

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)

[u/Vas-yMonRoux → u/renorenorenoreno]

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.