The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for August 22, 2023

I’d like the gramophone in panel #1.

Like they say——-one man’s clutter is another man’s heirloom.

That’s the neatest clutter I’ve ever seen.

I’d call it junk.

When I die I’ll disperse it far and wide, and you can store it for your kids

O boy, we get to rent a dumpster to get rid of your junk

During our last move, we cleared out a lot of clutter. Lived here now for about 5,5 years. Going to isolate the attic in the coming months, so that means a new moment to clear a lot of clutter we’ve accumulated here.

That’s the way my stuff is: too good to toss. But, I do have some real antiques and a massive VHS and DVD collection that’ll have even the young folks drooling.

Since I’ve organized my ‘junk drawers’ and other things into trays and boxes to make them neat, is organized clutter still clutter? My OCD has won the battle.

I’m not one to make New Year resolutions but this year I decided to face my mortality and show my family that I love them by cleaning out the junk before they’re left to deal with it.

There’s always a charity that needs useable yet unwanted things, or auctions.

Just yesterday we gifted a cedar chest and a secretary desk. It’s a start.

My daughter insisted I keep her highchair and rocking horse for her til she had children of her own. So I did. BUT…now she does not want to have children…BUT..i cannot get rid of the highchair and rocking horse. She won’t let me. Catch-22

does that mean that the dust is too thick to move the stuff or are you hoping your kids will do it when they inherit the stuff.

I have been involved with 4 relatives houses clean up to sell, what a nightmare .Since I know what a job it is I have tried to get rid of things and not buy anymore things that my kids will need to get rid off when I’m gone.

Possibly. However, if no one knows what “treasures” you possess, it becomes junk to be thrown out when you die.Might want to go through it and start parselling out those items right now…..

I have quite a few “family heirlooms”.

I got stuff back to 1860’s from great grandparents. Means so much to me but no one else. Wife passed away in March and now I know I’ll never get rid of all 4 barns and house full.Means a lot to me but no one else. They can have estate sale and junk what they don’t want.Right now it’s so much a part of my life – I can’t let go. At 77 it’s my way of dealing with emotions and efforts to help others. I love to remember all the good times and good things those people did for me and I have tangible goods of their life, vice just graves and pictures.

My mother in law recently bestowed upon us the finest China and silverware that’s to stay in the family. Lucky us /s

Family heirloom, a term for leaving all your junk for your heirs to clean out.

The family won’t feel the attachment to his stuff as Uncle Ted does. When my mother-in-law passed away it took my wife more than 3 months to empty her house of the “heirlooms” so the house could be sold. Very little of it was claimed by the family.

In other words, “Not my problem, someone else can do it when I’m gone”.

One of my favorite Born Loser strips (a couple of years ago) was when Uncle Ted said “I came to the realization that when I leave this life, it will be in a hearse, not a moving van!” I have it pinned on my home screen. When i moved recently from my home of 27 years, I told people that I got rid of a ton of stuff, which was a mistake…. should have been TWO tons. You GO, Uncle Ted! : )

When it’s your own stuff, it’s important. When it’s someone else’s, it’s clutter. We should clean out each other’s homes.

I think Uncle Ted just made the items in the attic Brutus’s problem.

A friend said he was having a Swedish Death Sale. I asked if he was sick and he said no, it’s where you sell things you know you won’t be using before you die so your kids won’t have to deal with it after you do.

Careful, Brutus! I thought my Dad had a lot of junk, but after both my parents had passed my siblings and I cleaned out the house and found a lot of collectible items my Dad had collected while working for a supply company for gasoline/automotive stores. Especially those old point-of-sale signs for various products such as motor oil, spark plugs, etc. Added a couple thousand bucks to each of us kids (six of us) inheritance.

Such a challenge! My wife and I enjoy yard sales, estate sales, antique stores and regular trips to our local thrift store. We have a modest two-bedroom apartment, so the things we acquire have to be reasonably small. My specialty is books of cartoons, comic strips and other kinds of humor. I’ve made some real finds in those places. But I know my kids won’t be interested in most of that stuff. All I can do is hope that at least some of it might end up in the hands of people who treasure it as much as I do.

It will be a burden on those settling your estate. They can buy their own junk.