Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t Want It

As the baby boomer population continues to age, this generation’s need for large, spacious homes dissipates. There are no longer children laughing and running through hallways or angst-riddled teenagers spending hours in the bathroom. As older adults transition from these large homes to smaller dwellings, they face the predicament of deciding what to do with many their possessions. With a downsize comes less space and the difficult task of shedding decades of accumulated personalty.

Previous generations would simply let their children and grandchildren come and pick through items and take what they wanted. This avenue is not as viable an option as it was in the past, with younger generations having very different decorating taste and a seeming aversion to additional clutter. These generational schisms have led to a boom in the senior move management industry. Hourly rates to help older adults shed clutter can range from $50 to $125 and many end with an estate sale with fees over $5,000. Instead of selling furniture or personal items, some senior movers simply give unwanted items to charity.

Tena Bluhm, 76, chose the charitable route as her children did not have the additional space for many extra heirlooms. Bluhm explained, “By donating them to charity, I knew they weren’t going to go into a dumpster and that someone who really wanted them would purchase them.”

See Tom Verde, Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t Want It, The New York Times, August 18, 2017.

Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.