apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I WISH! My parents have moved at least 4 times since I graduated from college. About move 2, they insisted I come pick all my stuff up, or wave goodbye. It turned out to be a good thing. It forced me to decide what's important and what isn't. But part of me would still LOVE to keep some things at their place, however inconvenient for us both, given that they live a 10 hours away.

I still have stuff at my mom's place and I forgot I had stuff there until just now. . . .

It would be hard to go through it since she lives in MD and I'm in san francisco CA.

However maybe next time I visit

I was keeping a lot of stuff at my Dad's until I noticed that the pile of boxes was getting mysteriously smaller each time I visited! He was slowly getting rid of my precious useless crap - and totally denying it! ha ha ha!

I finally went through it all and took home what I wanted to keep. I'm pretty sure that my storage privileges are now officially cut off. Oh Well.

Yes, darn it. I shared a room with two brothers for most of my life. Then, *after* I flew the coop, they bought a bigger house! So I feel no compunction at dumping off my junk on them.

Mostly I don't, though. I keep some childhood mementos in my old room, but I've made an effort to take what I want and get rid of what I don't.

And I don't wax sentimental, because my room at home was never really my room. And the part that is mine is mildly freaky, actually. That's the part of Summer that never outgrew high school, the way I imagine my parents still see me, wedged into this room with the ironing board and all my nephew's toys. Ya, I have issues. I love my parents, I just love them a lot better now that I'm not living with them.

Going through old belongings is always emotional! I remember my mother used to always bother me about removing my stuff from the office upstairs at my childhood home. I finally collected all of my valuable things, and had a great time like you sifting through my childhood notes and memorabilia. Thanks for sharing!

Kathleen Lilleeng
President
San Diego Interior Design –

God... if I only could!!!

The last time I was home I tossed just about everything I had been keeping at my parents' house, which wasn't a whole lot, but my room had become one of those places where people just shove what they don't know what to do with. When I stayed there it was so cramped, I just had to clear out what I could. I'm glad I did it -- I found $40!

My parents have moved--and moved on so I pretty much have all my worldly possessions with me now.

Not only do I use their house for storage, they graciously transported my junk to their new house when they moved!

I have, over time, thrown most of it away or taken it with me to my apartment, but they are landlord to one last box with my name one it that I have yet to go through, my childhood books, and my baby grand piano.

My mother was just complaining last weekend about the card catalogue currently living in my old bedroom. I'm still in school and there's just no way I can take everything that's mine yet. I did finally clear all my books out last year, though.

When I lived with roommates, I stashed a few valuables, heirlooms, etc. with them (and I'm glad I did - one of my roommates had some dodgy friends and sometimes forgot to lock the front door). But, once I got my own place, I picked up my stuff.

It's a shine to me - how could I disturb that? Just kidding. The closet in 'my room' does have a lot of my stuff, but I was forced to go through the 90's clothes in there and get rid of them recently. Much as I dreaded the task, it was cathartic.

My four siblings and I are about to go home and clean out the house we grew up in that my parents lived in for 45 years. I'm sure we'll find lots of our personal stuff to take with us or throw out. I've tried to bring something back each time I visited recently knowing the inevitable emptying of the house is coming. Sometimes I've hauled back valuable sterling silver or cool crystal champagne glasses, other times my childhood Snoopy, my retro Sony transistor radio, or photos from high school.

We should have some fun clearing it out when we find our old report cards because we went to school in the 70s when the teachers pulled no punches on their blunt evaluations. I'm claiming the 1960's Barbie dolls which my Mom never had the heart to throw out...

Yeah, I still have some stuff in my old room at my mom's house. Not a lot really, but now that I'm in the process of buying a decent-sized place, I think I want to bring some of it back with me. It's a little hard because I'm in CA and she's in AZ and I don't normally drive when I go down there to visit, and you can only haul so much back with you on a plane.

My mom just has too much stuff in her house in general. I'd really love to take a week off work and go down there and help her clean it. Well, I wouldn't LOVE to do that, but it needs to be done.

We moved a lot growing up, so we had a filing cabinet that housed paperwork we deemed important at the time (such as report cards, pictures, drawers, etc). Personal letters, had always moved with us in separate boxes we each were responsible for. For Christmas a couple years ago, my parents gave us all our contents of the filing cabinets. This signaled the end of their willingness to store our stuff indefinitely. We all had a month to get everything else out. Now, if we leave anything there longer than a month, my dad starts the constant threat to get it out of there or else.

Not for years...I have a full basement where I live now so I no longer need to use their space.

I finally got booted out of the rafters in the garage this year. Not as many boxes as I had anticipated and those that I did have, I was able to pare down to just a few.

I would love to take my stuff. We live on the other side of the country, and until we move back, its all there. We have antiques and, what saddens me the most, paintings from my husbands graduating show. Most are 5'x7'. My parents use the antiques, and some small works, they think the big ones are too 'out there' for them. They have an aluminum sculpture of ours in their yard too. My mom sends photos of it with different hats on.

For some things, yes - but most of it is stuff I currently don't need/want and they refuse to throw away yet (camping gear, my old bowling ball from where I won a bowling league though I have the trophy, lots of old report cards, etc). I would be scared to see how much they have left of mine. Most of my things are with me since after I moved, they downsized to a one bedroom apartment - what's left of my things are in their coat closet (that they use as a storage closet).

For the most part, since I have the bigger place, I'm surprised they haven't asked me to store things now.

Hahahaaa!!! I'm planning on going home this weekend to drop off some stuff...and giant paintings I have no room for... I love my parents... Admittedly, I do need to edit my stuff. Seriously.

Hah....as for paintings and tapestries, we've been known to trade occasionally. Same with decorative dishes - Mom and I have been known to swap out coats. So anything I have stored there they know is free for their use until I want it - it's kinda nice to walk into their place and see something of mine there out and in use. Kinda makes me feel like it's my home too.

I don't think so...every time I went home during college, I brought a small load of crap back to school with me. I still have some sisters living there, so whatever is left I am sure has been "inherited" by them. Except my wedding dress. My mother made it for me, and she is keeping it there until I live in a place that is a little bit more permanent.

Actually, I think there is probably a box of old trophies in their garage. What does one do with those old things, anyway? Can they be recycled? I'll have to look into it.

Uh, yeah, like every time I go back to my parents' home for a visit. It's kind of embarrassing how easily I'll get sucked back into the memorabilia from my youth..year books, old letters, pictures, diaries! OMG! I have boxes full of diaries. It's great to read them for their comedic content. Truly ridiculous how MAJOR and IMPORTANT and INTENSE every little thing was when you're growing up.

My favorite is reading the postcards/letters/printed-out emails my now-husband wrote to me when we were dating.

I'm a pack rat and so are my parents. When they moved when I was younger, instead of taking the opportunity to sift through our stuff, they just packed it up and moved it. When I go visit now, I find some treasures where once I saw junk. A large old bottle of perfume from my grandmother makes an excellent vase. Belts of my mother's become headbands. Those potholder crafts I made at camp are now coasters in my apartment.

I can't stay too long though because the amount of...stuff...is overwhelming. For now, it's fun, an item here or there. Sometime I'd like to help them with it all, but that's an animal I'm not ready to take on yet.

YES I have furniture and boxes still at my mother's house. I tried to throw away some of the stuff but she insisted I keep it for a yard sale that never materialized.

Yes, but my father is getting ready to move out to a smaller place, and I'll have to sift through and purge very soon everything collected since my young childhood. Yipes.

stashed at the 'rents place: christmas stuff, old art projects & supplies & photo frames, some basic clothes in case i get skinny enough to wear them again, coats during the warm season so i have extra closet space, yearbooks & text books, and a bookshelf full of empty cd cases. not bad i think. i somehow managed to purge a lot of my sentimental stuff when i first moved out. i do wish i had saved my childhood books, but at least i dontated those. i cant stand to have too much around so i purge things all the time.

oh, and my cat. my cat has been crashing there a while, but she keeps them from "empty nesting".

Yes, my bedroom looks pretty much the same, 11 years after I've moved out. I love sifting through my old stuff, but I don't know what to do with it! I don't know if I could just get rid of everything...

i have a problem getting rid of old memory-laden crap--but i've recently been able to convince myself to do so by taking photos of the stuff first! old notes, stickers, knickknacks--i get almost as much satisfaction looking at photos of them as looking at the things themselves.

No, I do not use anyone else's home for storage. I became an adult when I moved away for college.

chartreuse -- You might also remember most people usually get a dorm when they move to college or at maximum a small apartment, often shared. So they aren't looking at a ton of storage space. I lived with my parents until I was almost 22...for the most part, they wanted to keep some of my things. If they hadn't really needed to downsize apartments to save a little on rent, I'm more than sure my bedroom would have been left just as.