Millennials are about to be crushed by all the junk their parents accumulated.
Every time Dale Sperling’s mother pops by for her weekly visit, she brings with her a possession she wants to pass on. To Sperling, the drop-offs make it feel as if her mom is “dumping her house into my house.” The most recent offload attempt was a collection of silver platters, which Sperling declined.
“Who has time to use silver? You have to actually polish it,” she told me. “I’m like, ‘Mom, I would really love to take it, but what am I going to do with it?’ So she’s dejected. She puts it back in her car.”
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Sperling’s conundrum is familiar to many people with parents facing down their golden years: After they’ve acquired things for decades, eventually, those things have to go. As the saying goes, you can’t take it with you. Many millennials, Gen Xers, and Gen Zers are now facing the question of what to do with their parents’ and grandparents’ possessions as their loved ones downsize or die. Some boomers are even still managing the process with their parents. The process can be arduous, overwhelming, and painful. It’s tough to look your mom in the eye and tell her that you don’t want her prized wedding china or that giant brown hutch she keeps it in. For that matter, nobody else wants it, either.
Much has been made of the impending “great wealth transfer” as baby boomers and the Silent Generation pass on a combined $84.4 trillion in wealth to younger generations. Getting less attention is the “great stuff transfer,” where everybody has to decipher what to do with the older generations’ things.
Much of the consumerism that taught them to accumulate junk turned into a burden for us all. Everything they bought is “vintage” and many pretend it holds onto some type of value. That or they didn’t want to clean up their garage for 30 years. The boomers’ posthumous contribution to landfills is truly staggering.
And yet I am watching a re-resurgence of collecting crap began anew. Take vinyl for example: heavy, bulky, environmentally awful and on par with if not worse sounding than alternatives. But people want something tangible. Which I am also beginning to see with old collectables. Also art: there is a movement to get physical art since digital is not tangible and possibly not even made by a human.
China, silver, and plastic ware: I have seen an uptick in those as well which is bizarre. Is it just a matter of time till the cycle comes around again?
I’ve spent the last two decades training my parents to understand that I generally don’t want their hand-me-downs, and probably don’t want a lot of their belongings when they depart this world. Maybe a few items that have sentimental value, but the rest will likely be sold, assuming we can find people to buy it. And they do have a lot of stuff. Some of it valuable art and trinkets they’ve collected over the years. Very little of it resonates with me, though. They’re in their 80s now, so we’ve had discussions about plans between them and my older brother and myself. There are trusts. We have access to their accounts. I count myself lucky that they’re so practical.
Nothing new. My both deceased grandmother’s left behind houses, pole barns full of things. In the 80s, and the family resorted to renting a dumpster to get rid of much of it. It’s kind of sad, but everyone already had lots of junk of their own. I’m guilty of this as well, I’m starting to fill up a storage unit of my own. I however think twice now when I make a purchase.
My sister moved into my grandmas house and my grandma moved to my moms. She also rented a dumpster. So much junk that they saw as an investment and though was worth passing on that was simply worthless clutter.
No one wants fancy ass Christmas decorations and a crap ton of glassware.
Anecdotal but so far the only “great wealth transfer” I’ve seen has been to elder care organizations, not descendants.
For the low price of 6 grand a month, surprisingly well calculated to drain off their IRA’s, force them to sell their property, and close out their other retirement accounts just in time for them to meet overall life expectancy.
