[bc-chris]

1-800-GOT-JUNK

ha! ha!

as i mentioned in the wrmmh thread, this all started with my mom's desire to move. i think that is the best angle to take when trying to get parents to part with their "stuff". get them to down size and then they are pretty much forced to (i know my mom is too cheap to pay for off site storage... and if my dad was still alive i know for sure he would also be too cheap to store stuff off site).

again - like i said in the other thread, my grand parents lived thru the great depression. for those that have immigrated to canada their grand parents also lived thru 2 world wars. they know what it is like to literally have nothing... so they save everything and pass that trait onto their kids (our parents). i know my mom has lots of stories about her parents saving everything becuz you never know if you won't be able to get it again.

it's tough to part with stuff when it's been ingrained to save everything.

a friend of mine had both his parents pass away within about 6 weeks of each other. he moved into their house and started going thru stuff. he eventually just called a waste removal company and had a huge bin delivered and filled it up.

as for a plan to get parents to do go thru stuff - that's tough. one small thing to encourage is taking old pics/video and get it transferred to digital... but then i can see my mom saying something like "but i better keep the original hard copies just in case something happens to the digital files!"


**something we have been encouraging my mom to do is if there are certain sentimental things she wants people to have, why not give them that stuff now - she gets to see them enjoy it and it gets it out of her house!