BeingProductive.me

Following up on my article about the pending great transfer of stuff from the Boomer and Silent Generations to Gen X and Millennials, there is clearly a deep feeling around the issue with more than 10,000 views and 1,000 comments on the post.

Rather than expand on the topic further myself, I thought it would be best to share some quotes from the comments the post generated.

I’ve broken down the responses into GenX and Millennial because there is an interesting overlap between the two as well as differences in the perspectives.

GenX Comments

Across the comments there is a sense of frustration, resignation, and in some cases, anger.

My mom has so much garbage none of us want. She thinks it’s funny, we don’t. Only one sibling is local so she’ll probably get stuck with a lot of it.

Already there. So, so much glassware.

Many of the comments focused on action after aggravation, concentrating on ways to deal with the impending tsunami of things.

The people at goodwill loved us. We were dropping off never worn clothes, unused appliances, still in packaging toys etc.

Right now is the time to start a boomer inheritance disposal company.

I own an antique store and wood furniture is such a hard sell right now despite being so solid and well built. Everything’s cyclical so we’ll just wait for things to turn around and it becomes desirable again.

As far as the stuff inside the house, that is a different story. We invited some family over to get whatever they wanted, but we were recommended a service that will host an estate sale and whatever is left after that, they will clean out of the house. We just have to get out the photos, food, personal items. They will try and sell everything else, like even clothes and unopened toiletries.

My mom died last year, she had a lot of antiques she spent a lot of money on. But people don’t buy antiques anymore they go to IKEA or they order off of Wayfair. Brought in an estate liquidation company, they gave me a total of $2,000 for all of her stuff that they wanted, and carted the rest off to either Goodwill or the dump, leaving her house lightly cleaned. I would have paid them $2,000 just to clear it out so I feel like I came out ahead.

As is common with GenX and Millennials, there is a healthy dose of sarcastic humor mixed in as a coping tool for the mental struggles.

No, really, those tea cups are worth something! They were made in 1994, check the bottom! I don’t have a 401k, but you can easily sell those on Ebay or at a flea market for $20,000, it’s what I can leave for you.

Fifteen-thousabd Hummel figurines! Yay!

Gee, I’d love more collector plates and nicotine stained knick knacks.

I have so many Franklin Mint deer plates heading mh way.

“Brown” antiques….I feel that in my soul.

There was a surprising amount of insight around why this may be happening, with many GenX commenters calling out the after-effects of parents having parents who lived through the Great Depression.

The Great Depression did a number on that entire generation.

Boomers are absolutely impacted by the Great Depression. They were raised by parents who spend their late childhood to adolescence facing real severe material and food scarcity. As adults raising boomer children the habits of hoarding were on full display & were modeled as normal reasonable laudable behavior.

This becomes a problem when combined with the past 80 years of consumer abundance which combines with the hoarding behavior to create vast stores of junk for genX-Millineal heirs.

In cases where there was a concession to receiving the “inheritance” from the prior generation, the challenge of keeping things in the new state of the world came up repeatly.

I have the extra burden of those antiques actually being handed down in the family. the dining room Table that can sit up to 12….yeah that is a family heirloom from the 1870’s. I live in a 700 sq foot place without a dedicated dining room.

Frequently in the comments, the observation of being estranged from the parents or that assets both physical and monetary would have to be liquidated to manage elderly costs were raised as a solution to the situation.

Like a sane person, I estranged 5 years ago.

Nobody is getting squat. Elder/end of life/hospice care is designed to take every last penny.

The greatest common thread of the comments for GenX was the stark realization that this is not a coming issue, but an issue in the here and now and few are fully prepared to deal with it.

Millennial Comments

Not unlike GenX, Millennials share the concern and frustration with the costs of elderly care and the drain it creates. The financial assets are depleted, leaving only the material things without value become a cost of effort to deal with rather than value gained.

Seriously. We‘re going to get only junk because the money will have been taken by nursing homes, and the house (where most of boomers’ wealth is stored) will have been taken by Medicaid buybacks. We’re not getting anything but future trips to drop things off at the thrift store.

Many of the comments shared their frustration with the prior generations continuing this behavior of acquisition and consumption with little concern for the future.

My god, I keep begging my parents to stop buying STUFF. I don’t even care about the money; I just don’t want to have to deal with all of their junk!

Boomer parents giving all their junk to their millennial children is basically the Mitch Hedberg joke about someone handing you a pamphlet on the street: “here, you throw this away.”

Millennials were quick to call out the false valuation of so many hoarded items that are planned to be passed down as part of the transfer of wealth. This demonstrates a much deeper connection to the realistic worth of items over the perception used as justification by the buying generations.

My dad hoards. He’s bought at least $20k of antique mall junk he plans to resell then doesn’t. Can’t wait to sell it through an estate vendor to get 40% of its original value.

My mom’s garage is literally full of “collectibles” from her antique roadshow phase. She’s tried selling things online, but hasn’t made many sales. She just doubles down that it’s worth sooo much though; and if it’s not, it will be in an undefined future! I’ve asked her to at least make an inventory list of what is supposedly valuable and how much she thinks it’s worth so it’s “help” me later, but she won’t even do that.

My mom has so much stuff she thinks is worth something. I’ve unfortunately moved enough that I don’t really have too much. Plus I live in a small condo, there’s only so much you can fit in here lol.

have you guys seen Facebook market place for the past 2 years? Its FLOODED with random junk that – none of us cous even imagine. From Old cars, to boat – to random nick knacks.

Some of the coping mechanisms shared by GenX are also reflected by the Millennial comments, including sarcasm and understanding the origins of the problem.

Oh look, it’s my mother’s Precious Moments collection

I am excited to get one of their Kincaid prints and have Godzilla painted into the background

At least we’re not following up the generations that lived through the great depression. Those folks knew how to hoard sh*t.

One of the common remarks made by the Millenials (and I’ll admit I share this one myself) is the aggravation with the dropping off of random things because “you might need it” or “I wanted something like this when I was where you are.”

I had to tell my mom to stop bringing random stuff to our house from theirs.

I dont see my mother often, but when I do, she always brings me “stuff” from home. It always ends up in the trash. Maybe part of it is just who I am now. But I’m just so tired of having accumulated stuff – I want to own things that are intentional and purposeful. Sure they can be fun things too, but I dont need random junk from home that I haven’t seen in 20+ years.

Across both generations, the greatest appreciation came for those who have begun the process of pairing down and purging before it becomes the next generation’s issue.

Thankfully, my parents have downsized their house and gotten rid of a lot of their junk stuff so me and my siblings wont be sorting through much when that time comes.

I think a lot of parents have seen this in someway or another. My parents have downsize massively. They definitely had a lot of junk before and things that were semi or quasi-antique. You know you don’t really need antique dishes furniture and like tea sets  and stuff. They got rid of most of that. 

My parents retired and dramatically downsized to essentially a studio apartment. I already have everything I was going to get (most of which was helpful to have since) other than a few odds and ends. It’s really nice to enjoy the time with them and know that my siblings and I already divided up the stuff.

This is not an issue going away any time in the future. It will continue to grow and increase in complexity and scope with time. What are you going to do when it is your time to deal with the Great Stuff Transfer? Have you already addressed the issue? Ignoring it for another day? What’s your plan?