Parents. We Don’t Want Your Stuff

We have entered an age of minimalism, something that everyone seems to be after these days. It’s a time where less is more.

This catchall term offers a way to achieve simplicity through decluttering. You can practice this for your home, wardrobe, lifestyle and mentality.

As we shift into this age of decluttering, adult generations are in agreeance on one thing: we don’t want to deal with our family members curated collections, when it’s time to pack up the family home.

Curated collection is a nicer term, but let’s be real – it’s more like hoarding.

As Forbes said recently, “Sorry, nobody wants your stuff.”

Why are we like this now? It’s not that we don’t care about family heirlooms. That’s not the issue. Their sentimental value is what makes them the hardest to get rid of. Times have simply changed, we just don’t need these things. Unlike the baby boomers, we aren’t staying in one place for our entire lives.. We’re moving, exploring, and continuously downsizing, the pack rat era is over.

If you’ve ever lived through the process of packing up a family home, it can be nothing less than a traumatizing experience. This is when you truly realize how much stuff you or your family have accumulated over the years, and how hard it is to get rid of. This may have been what initially triggered the minimalism movement, going through this process once is enough for a lifetime.

What’s one to do with all of these “family valuables”. These collections become an issue when you’re trying to live by the less is more motto. Space is an issue for most people, and who wants to pay a monthly fee to store stuff that you’re not even using?

Not trying to hurt feelings, but we all need to take responsibility for our possessions. What are in all those boxes? Do these collected items make you happy on a daily basis? It’s likely that these items are not essential to your day-to-day, but it’s sentimental clutter, and it’s the hardest to eliminate.

Inherit memories, not things. Thanks to inspirational and expert figures like Marie Kondo, we can understand how to declutter physical objects and let go of the emotions associated with them.

You can’t expect your kids to keep all or any of your stuff. Don’t push the clutter. Take responsibility for your accumulated belongings, it’s an emotional process but you should handle it yourself, it’s really not fair to burden a family member with it.

If you’re never going to use that fine china, then be real about it. Decide what needs to be donated or brought to an antique dealer. Make someone happy with the items that don’t bring you joy. Don’t feel obligated to store things “just incase”.

Parents, we don’t want your stuff. We want our minimalist home to resemble our own travels, memories, and personal style. We don’t want Aunt May’s gravy boat that we’re afraid to touch and your three-bin collection of National Geographic magazines.

Sorry.