Carol Applebaum charges $125 an hour to help her former clients get rid of it.
She knows the emotional toll of boomers whose youngest children reject things they have valued for years.
The expert will give tips on how to ease pain for different generations and keep everyone happy.
Carol Applebaum, professional organizerlistening sympathetically as her client rambled on about her big downsizing plan: she hoped to share her “treasure” among her children so they would love her as much as she did.
The items – rich in sentiment but not so much in financial value – ranged from dolls to teddy bears, pillows and quilts to Boy Scout trophies.
The most amazing piece she hoped to give her daughter, then in high school, was a hand-painted canvas that once hung next to her crib.
“It will be perfect when she has a little girl of her own,” the woman told Applebaum.
The organizer took a deep breath. She told her customer to ask her children what they would like to get. But she warned her that the answer might not be quite what she expected.
Why don’t children always want to own everything
“Many parents want to pass down their treasured items to their children in hopes of preserving family history and memories,” Applebaum told Business Insider, but younger generations move from place to place, tastes and They have different lifestyles, and they often become smaller.
She has Parents they met who felt insulted and betrayed.
Applebaum, who charges $125 an hour for her services, says she is in the best position to understand all parties. Her mother died three years ago at the age of 89, assuming that her most precious possessions would forever be treasured by Applebaum, 58, and her 28-year-old daughter.
Appelbaum has her own experiences
Below was a dish rack with twelve place settings and four sizes of each plate and bowl. The matriarch spoke fondly of her grandson, who she brought along to entertain guests.
“The problem is that my daughter is very small like me – and she also lives in a small apartment in New York City,” Applebaum said.
She said that the couple had difficulty overcoming the guilt that they did not want the estates. The old china sits on a cabinet in Applebaum’s Houston home until they decide what to do with it.
“I tell my clients this story to give them an idea of how emotional this is for them Kind yes,” said the organizer.
She used her experience to convince the buyer of the large nursery canvas to bring the artwork to a women’s shelter: “Her teenager didn’t want it, but we knew that co- at least one new mother finds it beautiful.”
Applebaum said it was common for that empty houses the contents of the children’s rooms as Exhibitions in a museum keep: “They’re afraid they’ll be sad when they leave after they graduate from college,” she told BI.
These fears are often unfounded: “Most adult children want their parents to be alone Life keep going,” she said. “I tell my clients, ‘You’re better off showing them that you’re looking forward to spending time with them in the future and not trying to keep them. in the past.'”
Applebaum advised people to take photos of items that can’t be easily passed on: “One photo can be enough as a valuable keepsake,” she said.
A couple felt an obligation to keep things
She cites the case of a customer who inherited several antiques from her husband’s parents: “Unfortunately, the style didn’t match her new home decor,” she says.
The grieving couple placed the antiques in a large room in their home. They left the door open but rarely went in: “Every time they walked by, it felt more oppressive,” Applebaum said.
She asked why they were keeping the furniture. They admitted that they never talked about it. The woman assumed that her husband could not part with the trash for emotional reasons, but he believed that she was the one who did not want to let go.
“It was just a reasonable conversation,” said Applebaum, who helped the couple sell the items for thousands of dollars.
<div class="sourcepoint__social-placeholder" data-embed="No external content is available
Do you have a passpass subscription but still don’t want to miss out on displaying external content from third-party providers? Then click “agree” and we will integrate external content and services from selected third-party providers into our offer to improve your user experience. You can view a current list of these third parties at any time in Privacy (Link to Privacy). In this context, user profiles (including based on cookie IDs) can be created and strengthened, even outside the EEA. In this case, your consent also includes the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA in accordance with Article 49 Article 1 Letter a) GDPR. More information about data processing can be found in our data protection and privacy policy, which is available at any time at the bottom of our offer. You can exercise your consent for the integration of external content at any time in the footer of our offer via the “Tracking revocation” link.
