Top 10 Things Your Kids Don’t Want

From: Your Top 10 Objects Your Kids Don’t Want (Forbes)

This is a MUST READ for anyone who is “downsizing,” and especially to parents who are thinking about estate planning and a move to a smaller home or independent living facility.

Some of the hardest conversations I have with my clients (both the parents who are engaged in estate planning and the children who are administrating the estate of a deceased parent) is what to do with the “stuff.”

This article is completely in line with the sentiments of the surviving children – they don’t want your (pardon the directness) OLD STUFF. They do not have the sentimental attachment to your china or your mother’s costume jewelry, or your collection of Precious Moments figurines, and certainly not to the furniture.

If you have a lifetime of accumulated STUFF and are ready to downsize, use this Forbes Article to help you decide how to dispose of it.

Even if you are NOT ready to downsize, it’s a Very Good Idea to KonMari your “stuff” every so often to give you some breathing room and take a substantial burden off your children who will be left to deal with your stuff after you are gone. If it is taking up room, and it if doesn’t “spark joy,” please dispose of it.

If you think that this is a little harsh, please note that I speak from experience, having provided “storage space” over the years to both sets of grandparents and my own parents’ lifetime accumulation of “this-and-that,” so I have a personal taste for the burden of sifting through decades of furniture, collectibles, and the like. I have also watched my aunt agonize over whether to keep or dispose of her mother’s lovely collectible items, knowing that her children and her nieces had little interest in the items, as lovely as they are.

Now, to step back from the rant – seriously consider whether your keepsakes will be considered as keepsakes by your children. I am completely charmed by my grandmother’s diary, which dates back to the 1930s, but am completely indifferent to every single Christmas, birthday, and greeting card that she also saved. I pulled out the letters I wrote to her when in college and put them in a binder and I kept the letters my grandparents wrote to each other when courting because those things have sentimental meaning for me. However, I don’t expect my kids to get the same “joy” out of these “keepsakes” as I do.