I don't care if my belongings are a burden to my heirs. There will be enough money that they can hire someone to deal with it. On the positive side, I don't have a basement or attic full of my lifetime's or multi-generation's collection of stuff.

I will have to clear out my parent's house at some point, but other than the ton of paper needing to be shredded, I think most of their belongings can be sold in an estate sale.

I will not be leaving 100,000 books but only a couple thousand. I don't keep mass market contemporary fiction.

We both have multigenerational belongings and I have several large collections. But not much of the random excess and ephemera a lot of people accumulate .

When she passed, Hubby's mom had a walk in closet filled to the brim with several layers of books she'd amassed - mostly paperbacks - not much valuable stuff. We lost most of our things accumulated over the years to the 2 hurricanes here last year, many books included. Even so, I still have several storage bins filled with my vintage book collections. I don't want to get rid of most of what I have left, but they're so heavy and we have little room for bookshelves in this apartment we're in now. They'll be going into storage for the time being I guess.

I'm a big fan of Antiques Roadshow on PBS - so many treasures survive because people in the past saved things and didn't get rid of them.

My in-laws got a dumpster at one point. They had a big old 150yr old home and a creamery that was my FIL's veterinary office. It had a ton of rooms filled with STUFF from four boys' childhoods. We all chipped in sorting and cleaning out. Some went home with each son, some went to local museums, some went to the dumpster. Burden? It was a time of memories and working together as family. I wish this for my kids when the time comes.

This is mostly about the number of books in a residence. If you read 3 books a day, it would take 91 years.

A lot of them appear to be books you would refer to rather than read, but I am still wondering why so many.

I have always been an avid reader, and so were both my parents.

We lived 2 blocks from the library. They did and I do have some books the house, but I always think when someone looks around my house and sees so few books, they probably would incorrectly assume we don't read much. Now that I have a major preference for ebooks, this is even more pronounced.

I can understand wanting to possess some books, but I never understood people who had to possess every book they read and might read. I don't say that as criticism, more as it is just so foreign to me..... as I know my way is foreign to them.

Perhaps the house was at one time home to a used-book seller, or an estate sale manager who can’t bear to see books go into the dumpster.

My grandfather was a reader, especially about faith, self-improvement, philosophy of all kinds, memoirs, and history.Some in his native language but most in English. When the house was sold, all his books came to my parents’s house. When that house was being sold, I had to do something with them. Most were not ones I wanted, or have room for. I took boxes of them to the library for the big book sale. Later I learned how many had been tossed, because the book sale runners know what sells and what doesn’t, and they need the space for books they can sell. Sad, but understandable.

Pal, were the books in the house in bookcases and shelves? Stacked on the floors and surfaces? Miscellaneous boxes?

Pal, as soon as i saw the title of this thread I knew which house it was. I follow the fellow who runs these estate sales. Im somewhat surprised he took this one on. He generally ”cherry picks” the sales he runs. I imagine there will be a lot of curious people coming through. From pictures I saw early on, the estate sale fellow has tidied things up quite a bit. I saw books stacked on the floor and falling off shelves.It really is mindblowing.

My mom had hundreds of books, mostly her cookbook collection. After the estate sale, the leftover books were taken by a man who resells on Amazon.

I live within walking distance of a library so I figure any books I want can live there.

Its a gorgeous house,full of potential. I love the crystal doorknobs, the banister and woodwork.

I am old enough to remember when Society Hill was run down, neglected and a little scary.

Many rooms were full of shelves of books, and some were boxed up, and some where stacked on the floor.

I see that the estate sale company is selling over 3,000 books online. There was an interesting article in The Inquirer.

Link here, hope it works ⬅️

If I die before DH does, that will be my house.