A few months ago, i was putting a new bed in my room, so i had to rearrange some things. I took apart my stereo system and put in a box in the basement until i had time to hook it up again. I decided i wanted it hook it back up today, so i went into the basement to find it. It is now missing. I know where it is though. It is in a room, that takes up about half of my basement, that is so crammed with old stuff that it is inaccessible. From floor to ceiling, just old crap piled on top of old crap, in a completely unorganized fashion. I went in to try and find my speakers. And digging through the wall of junk, i realized my parents will save anything. There are pieces of old beds down there. There are boxes filled with paid bill from the late 1970's. There is a full drum set down there, despite the fact that no one in my house plays the drums. Where the f*ck they come from?! There is broken furniture, dishes and glasses we haven't used since the 1980's, old picture frames, magazines from 20 years ago, dozens of boxes filled with books no one in my family is ever going to read, plain old trash like empty pop cans, ripped paper, old bags, cloths from when i was a kid, toys from when my siblings and i were infants, 15 or 20 year old shoes, massive boxes filled with old computer parts from at least 15 years ago, cords and plugs to god knows what, broken TVs, boxes filled with empty boxes, many broken VCRs, many VHS's, several record players, hundreds of records, pieces of board games, toxic chemicals, several christmas tress, a couple of mattresses, old tools, a washer and dryer, and my favorite, a sealed up box filled with empty paint cans. That is what i found after about 25 minutes looking around.

And guess what happens when i ask my parents if i can throw away or give away any random piece of junk down there. "No, i want to save that." Apparently check books from bank accounts that were closed 25 years ago are critical to hold on to.

Is my house the only one like that or does everyone have a massive room filled with broken sh*t they haven't used several decades?

My parents were both depression era.
They had lived for 30+ years in th ehouse I grew up in. The basement was always wall to wall with "stuff". Most of it was good stuff and when we wanted a couple pair of old ski's to fart around with in the snow, we had them.

But there was also a good amount of crap. How much crap? When they sold the house and bought a place on the coast, dad put a 40 yard dumpster in the side yard, and filled it up!


This is a 40 yard roll off dumpster.
I have no idea who the doof is.

Things like, 30+ years of national geographic all nicely saved in boxes, in a damp basement. When they met the dumpster every box was a solid climp of paper pulp.

What is odd is that despite my parents being quite liberal politically, when it comes to their person lives, they are so conservative, even to an unnecessary degree. They never want to try anything new, they never want to take a chance with anything, and apparently, they don't ever want to throw anything away. Although i guess you never know when an empty paint can will come in handy.

I could probably predict everything each one of my parents is going to do for the next month and would probably be nearly right. What they are going to eat everyday, when they are going to bed, when they are going to go out to a restaurant and where, when they are going to buy. On friday, we are going to have fish for dinner. Not because we are Catholic but because that fish night. Not officially of course but it will happen, it always does. It has actually been an area of frustration for my siblings and I, since the three of us are pretty impulsive and hate routine. Maybe it is an age thing but i don't remember my parents every doing anything differently ever.

Forgive them Jack, and keep in mind that as you grow older the odds are you will also become many ways more conservative.