Do kids nowadays not care about "stuff"?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Neither do I, but given how horrible those years were I’m fine with that. I have plenty of photo mementos, mostly digital, of the things that do matter to me, from my much happier adult life. Also, of course, lots of books, and some random little things, like beach stones and driftwood, a few family tschotschkes, and so forth.

ETA: I’ve got a lot of my photos framed and on the walls, and while it gives me pleasure to see them, I’m sadly aware that, no matter how good they are, they’ll probably wind up in the dumpster that my executor will have to hire for cleaning out my condo when I’m gone.

42

I was just wondering last night—excluding school and wedding pictures and such, how many pictures exist of me up through age 30 (1975-2005)?

I’d bet there are fewer than 100. 2/3 of them are in a couple of albums my mom has. The rest are scattered among assorted family and friends and a few work things. I don’t know if there is a single photo of me during my residency, age 26-29. (Probably for the best.) And I’ve always been an active and extroverted guy with a big family and a lot of friends.

A teen or young adult now would have single evenings that generated that many, and they’re all a few swipes away.

43

It’s “fast fashion” but applied to everything. There is just way more stuff in the world and it’s all very easy to get. Think of something, and you can get it very soon. Kind of takes the special out of it.

I’m not a kid, but I don’t like stuff. I might be tad sentimental about some stuff, but not to the point of keeping it. Certainly not when there is no room or it will just collect dust. It’s just stuff.

44

I tend to live very “lean” so unless something has utilitarian, financial, or perhaps sentimental value, I view it as “trash” to be disposed of accordingly.

This is very much at odds with my wife, kids, in-laws, and really any older relatives I have. I don’t have any need for figurines, greeting cards, old school projects of questionable artistic merit, clothes that no longer fit or are out of style (such as clothes in the past 30 years actually goes out of style), baby toys or any of the other assorted junk every in my live seems unable to part with.

45

This entire thread reminds me of the old expression:
“The most important things in life…aren’t things.”

46

I got 45 years of stuff. some of it might be useful to someone but I figure after my wife and I are gone it’s probably going to a landfill (although my son might make a few bucks on it). My wife has sentimental attachments, I don’t - but we are working bit by bit on it. Our little country town had a city wide yard sale recently ,some of the stuff went. Anyone for a bunch if cassette tapes?

47

I’m not a collector, not particularly nostalgic, and like to get rid of things. And I still have quite a bit of stuff. I know that my daughter won’t want any of it beyond a few tokens. Opposite to me, she cares little for objects, and drinking out of a plastic jar is just as good as a wine glass. She is careless, forgetful, and extremely untidy. I wouldn’t even WANT her to have my stuff.

48

It was a great day when I realized I could take pictures of my kids’ school projects of questionable artistic merit and then throw them away! I look back at the pictures about as much as I was looking at the actual projects. Probably more because every so often Google Pics reminds me that they exist.

49

I think that there’s a changing situation in terms of both expectations and tastes relative to generations past.

I mean, I got the impression that my parents were if not happy, at least pleased to be able to get things that my grandparents and various great aunts, uncles, etc… were getting rid of, but that were still serviceable. Stuff like furniture, dishes, etc… were all things we got at various times from various older relations.

I think this was largely driven by the fact that at least as far as I know, things like dishes and furniture weren’t something you generally went and bought at Kmart; you had to go to a honest-to-God furniture store, or a department store, and they were considerably more expensive, relatively speaking to today’s discount store landscape, where you can get a 4 place setting of flatware for $10 at Target.com. I’d almost guarantee you couldn’t get a 4 place setting of flatware for less than $2 in 1975, which is the inflation-adjusted amount that $10 today would have been.

So there was more perceived value in getting secondhand flatware and furniture. And everything else; I was one of many kids who wore hand-me-downs from my cousins, and nowadays, many parents, or at least the white, middle class/upper-middle class just don’t do that, because they’re doing coordinated outfits, etc… and your brother’s kid’s old stuff doesn’t fit into that aesthetic.

Plus, I don’t know that there was really as much emphasis on design/fashion in those sorts of things back then for much the same reason- you had to pay for it.

Now you can be picky about the fashion and get it for relatively less, so people aren’t as likely to value someone else’s old stuff nearly as much.

I mean, my parents tried for decades to give crap away to me; no amount of explaining that I’ve already got all the silverware, tools, furniture, etc… that I need would ever dissuade them from continuing to try and push it at me; they couldn’t comprehend that I didn’t have a use for a whole lot more of whatever it was, I think their minds couldn’t wrap their heads around different things being relatively scarce vs. when they were younger.

As far as nostalgic stuff goes, I agree with the idea that you don’t feel nostalgic about stuff until years after it’s gone.

50

The nostalgia comes in when you run across an item and think: “Damn, I haven’t thought about that in fifty years.” And then you think of the people who were around, back when you first got, or were using, the item.

Grown kids help with nostalgia. Because the things that were important enough for you to remember aren’t the same things that were important enough for them to remember.

51

My parents, like a lot of Boomer parents, grew up in the Depression. They made do with what they had, and if they managed to acquire something good, like furniture, that any life left in it when they were through with it, they passed it on to their kids, or grandkids, or neighbors. After al, if something were good enough to last that long, it must be valuable. (That’s how my oldest sister ended up with TWO complete dining room sets.)

And we, having grown up with that drilled into us, naturally believe that our kids will want those old sofas that even the charity thrift shops won’t accept anymore and the 60-year old graden tools my parents used. And our children will have a big yard sale after we’re gone and end up paying to have all that stuff hauled away as junk.

52

My mom lived next to a BnB/campsite that held a flea market every Saturday. And she was friends with the owners. When she died, that was such a blessing. We could fill her driveway with stuff and it looked like an extension of the flea market. Even so, it took months.

53

Our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore dropoff has a sign: they accept used furniture in good condition, but nothing floral. Even if the young generation needed some used furniture, they’re picky about the style.

54

I’m pretty sure you could get the Target /Kmart equivalent flatware for about $2 or 3 back in 1975. Even back in 1975 there was crappy furniture and cheap dishes and flatware. People generally weren’t interested in inheriting the plates and flatware that came from Woolworth’s or the metal-framed bed with bolsters that made it a couch. In certain situations , sure - if I was somehow moving out under conditions that didn’t involve a bridal shower and wedding gifts *, I might have taken my parent’s old melamine set when they bought new dishes or their couch when they bought a new one - but that would have meant they they bought new while there was still life left in the old stuff which is something they never would have done. My mother probably would have tried to foist some of my grandparents" stuff onto me - but that was so old the foam in the couch had turned to dust. Because my grandfather bought if by 1960 at the latest and still had it when he passed away in 2000.

I don’t want my mother’s stuff because I don’t need a third set of good china ( mine, my mother’s and my grandmother’s). If I had been given my grandmother’s when I got married, I would have been fine with it. But at 60 years old (or maybe 70 by the time I inherit) , I don’t need three sets.

* Which 100% would not have happened in 1975. Not in my area/ culture.

55

a different angle on the topic:

Having teenage kids (with lots of teenage friends), it breaks my heart to see how these kids put on / take off their sneakers/trainers … WITHOUT undoing the laces … working their feet into the shoes and taking them off the same way

Kids, that is just plain wrong!!!

(sorry, need to run now … some clouds need to be yelled at)

56

Here’s David Mitchell on the subject of dealing with old stuff:

This should be cued to the correct spot, but if it isn’t, start at around 6:10.

57

My wife returned from her deceased aunt’s house with a pair of really, really ugly pink table lamps her mother insisted she bring home with her because they are heirlooms. Now we’re stuck with them until my mother-in-law dies.

I’ve read a lot of articles in the last few years about what people are doing with all the stuff their elderly relatives are leaving behind after they’re gone. As others have pointed out, this stuff is going to be a burden on children and/or grandchildren because they probably don’t want the bulk of it. Even items that were thought of as heirlooms, mink coats, china, etc., etc, isn’t necessarily something young people want.

It’s not that they’re less materialistic, they just want different things. I’ve actually got the dining room set my parents bought when I was a teenager, but when my mom passes away any remaining furniture is going to Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity. In fact, the bulk of her physical possessions will either be tossed or donated. I expect the bulk of what I own will be donated or thrown out after I die. Nobody is going to want all these Warhammer figures or to spend time trying to sell them.

58

My father died last October at age 90, and about a month later, I was talking to my mother and she said that a thrift store had stopped by and picked up his clothes. I was, like, “Wait, isn’t that a bit hasty?” and she replied, “He doesn’t need them any more, but there are men here in town who could use them.” Good point, although I’m sure she kept a few sentimental items.

Probably 20 years ago, she started going through old pictures she’d received over the years in Christmas cards and the like, and looking people up if she wasn’t still in touch with them, and sending them back. She got nothing but positive feedback from this, especially from several people who had experienced a flood or a fire.

As for trophies, the thrift store I usually use for library donations we can’t use has a list of things they can’t take and one of them is (sic) “Tropheys.”

59

I knew a woman in my old town who was determined to save everything her kids had - all their clothes, all their toys, all their art projects, etc. She had a son and daughter, and by the time they were in school, her husband said that the “collection” was creating a fire hazard in the basement (he was a police officer) and it had to go. She reluctantly agreed, and she organized everything and had a huge garage sale. Had she known what the ROI ended up being on that, time-wise, she said that in retrospect, she would have simply put the boxes in the car and taken them to the Salvation Army store.

She did keep some extra-important (to her) things, like the outfits they wore home from the hospital at birth. That, he was okay with.

60

So many people are doing this that in many areas that Goodwill and the like are getting quite picky about what they will take. And you have to drive everything over and have them take a look, only to be frequently turned down (“nah, we don’t want that”). I was told under no circumstances would anybody ever take any sort of TV stand, ever. My mother had this beautiful, very large wooden cabinet that housed her smallish TV and stereo system discreetly out of sight. To the junkyard it went, because TV stands have negative value everywhere. Goodwill et al always want clothes, only very rarely want furniture in my area.