What have you found clearing out the house of a relative?

[Gingerrogered]

I'm clearing out my Grandma's house. Very interesting. You can see it's a house belonging to somebody from the 'greatest generation'. Everything is neatly saved from threads to buttons.

I knew my Gran loved travelling, but I didn't know how much until I went through her stuff. Franco's Spain and postwar Paris. I even found a medal for someone who fought in WWI but I have no idea who that was awarded to.

Still sorting through the stuff. But I just wondered if anybody else had found something remarkable when they were doing the same.

Magazines and letters that suggested my Granddad spent his whole life in the closet. Incredibly sad.

lovely thread.

A sex manual in my aunt's wardrobe after she died suddenly. She was in her fifties and had recently started seeing someone. I think she'd probably been a virgin up until then.

wrt the soap.
we get LOADS of hand me downs from a friend, she stores them all with a bar of soap in each bag. All the clothes have this slight lemony smell, that lingers for days/months. My kids used to love it, they would come down wearing something sniffing the sleeve saying Oh this used to be XXX jumper!

Hilda - that is actually really sweet about your aunt

Food like herbs and spices and rice etc with prices on in £sd.
This was in 2002.

The leather rod remind's me...
Clearing Dads house I found my old riding crop from my horsey teenage days. It's now hanging on our bed frame as a joke...maybe it needs moving in case someone clearing our house thinks it gets used

A few thou in a sock

Something illegal so police had to get involved. I mean it would be illegal for me to have it, not him.

Siblings. ..4 of them

Great thread btw

What???

What do you mean siblings? You need to tell us more!

When we cleared my 97yo great aunt's house, we found a set of nude photos of her, taken when she was in her 60s by the look of them!

Poos and liver - surely dementia?

A friend clearing the flat of an uncle with early dementia found over £2000 - all neatly hidden inside newspapers and magazines, of which there were many piles in the flat.
Point being, in case of dementia, be sure to check absolutely everything that could possibly serve as a 'container' - before chucking - cereal packets, old shoes, books, etc., as well as the likes of coat pockets.

Not house clearing but I work in care and did a first visit with a new client yesterday.
The house was huge, Victorian and beautiful but a bit shabby from the outside-at the end of a very overgrown dirt track-took me ages to find it. Inside it was like a museum. The woman who is 91 has no heating or electrical appliances at all apart from some very old and dim electric lights (original wiring she said). No fridge, no tv, no radio, a very old gas stove thing. Open fires only for heat (it was freezing) Original kitchen cupboards, ripped ancient wall paper all over the walls, huge dusty oil paintings, woodwormy old furniture with the stuffing coming out of it, A big old grandfather clock ticking away in the hall. Old crockery in the kitchen, books everywhere.
She said she lived there as a girl and never moved out, and before that it was her Dads childhood home and he had said he couldn't remember much being changed either!
Amazing place-very atmospheric. Great for Halloween too! Bit worried about her Surviving the winter mind-though she said 'last year I was fine-just put some extra jumpers on'.
She gave me her shopping list which was excellent too-it was mainly tinned salmon, Jacobs crackers, croissants, bananas, dark chocolate and Gin.

Lol @steppemum 😂 Not actual physical beings...paperwork showing theres more of us...found 2...searching for the others now

omg nigel that sounds such a wonderful house to visit! what an experience.

wow - were the siblings all one other family, or scattered round? Whose kids were they?
That is sort of amazing and sad at the same time.

An old style passbook for the bank with £27,000 in.

My grandads extensive collection of dinky cars and the original plans for the very first MRI machine, which he helped to build

About £3000 in 10 and 20£ notes

mil took cash out regularly seems she didn't use them all.

A poem she had written about her youngest son who was killed in a car crash age 19 together with a lock of his hair. reduced everyone to tears.

About 200 pairs of knitting needles.. now living at home with us and makes me smile every time I pull out a pair.

MIL was lovely and I miss her dearly

The saddest thing was a 1971 calender hung in her bedroom, she never replaced it after her husband died.

Poignant thread

I keep all my coursework and school reports in a memory box. The other day I found my old phone at my mom’s apartment.

A couple of Victorian chimney pots, my fil was going to take them from the tip but I convinced him they could be sold He got £60 each for the

A battery-operated ear wax remover, complete with FIL's ear wax - YUK!

A brown paper bag with clippings of my great-grandma’s hair in it from when she was young. She has gorgeous long blonde hair by the looks of it.

When my grandmother was in palliative care my family basically asset stripped her house before she died. I went in her house the day after her funeral and they had taken everything apart from her treasured box of family photos. That killed me. She was better than a mother to me and those bastards cared more for the big tv and new fridge freezer than they did the things that she loved. They live with me now, and I have some of my favourites on the wall.