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Original poster

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

114 replies

Gingerrogered · 30/10/2018 16:21

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.

OP posts:
bringbackthestripes · 01/11/2018 21:29

That’s sad PtangyangkipperbangOi

myidentitymycrisis · 01/11/2018 21:56

in my DF's things a photo of my DM's first love. My parents had been divorced more than 30 years.

Bacardibabe · 01/11/2018 22:36

I could be somebody you I also had a container of mercury(odd shaped container can't even describe it) that my g.father gave me when young. Don't know where he got it and I didn't realise what it was till years later and then realised how dangerous it was! Threw it in the rubbish as well. Would love to have known where it had come from.

brizzledrizzle · 01/11/2018 22:47

Back in my schooldays we were given mercury to hold and play with in science lessons 

madmum5811 · 01/11/2018 22:54

A packet of condoms in my late FIL`s new car. They were not for my MIL thats for sure Grin

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 01/11/2018 23:10

Not so much found but we inherited my late Fil’s collection of taxidermy. Not really my thing and dh didn’t want it so it went off to the auctioneers. Made a few bob which was nice.

Found a shopping receipt from the village shop that was nearly a hundred years old. We live near the shop now so it’s a nice keepsake.

cablewable · 01/11/2018 23:15

Not a relatives house but the house we moved into- we found in the loft a couple of suitcases with raffle tickets with our address on and newspapers, supermarket receipts and a couple of ladies hats. I framed the lot and dated it with a note and put it far back into the loft for maybe the next finder. A bit like a time capsule. It was such an interesting find- that was about 10 years ago

SanFranBear · 01/11/2018 23:35

I found out my Gran was a Wimbledon champion after finding three medals in her jewellery box! She was Ladies Badminton Champion for three years running in the 30's.

MrsGollach · 01/11/2018 23:41

The Military Cross, found in my parents' house. I'm sure I had been told, but had been too young to appreciate and it was too late to discuss the circumstances when I found it. I have it in a drawer, don't really know what to do with it.

heatherblue · 01/11/2018 23:50

My parents marriage certificate. Dad was described as a bachelor but Mum was "Previous marriage annulled" . I had no idea she'd been married before and there was no one still alive who might've known anything about it. I did some digging on the Ancestry site and found out her first husband's name and their wedding date but everything else will probably remain a mystery.

RumbleMum · 01/11/2018 23:55

Clearing out my Dad's (female) cousin's house I found her son's old-fashioned baby shoe from the 1950s with an envelope inside containing a lock of his baby hair. He committed suicide a couple of years before she died and he was her only child. She had dementia too so kept forgetting. My parents couldn't bear to have it but I couldn't throw away and have it at home. It makes me so incredibly sad to look at.

BreakWindandFire · 01/11/2018 23:58

I found lots of things that were kept 'for best' but never used. Sad

MercianQueen · 02/11/2018 00:01

I spent weeks sorting through my Granny's house after she died, working through no end of tat. But I loved finding:

The double entry book-keeping for every household expense, going back decades

The newspapers she'd kept from the Moon landings

The keepsake handkerchiefs, embroidered by her whilst my Grandad was fighting in WW2

Her wedding stockings, wrapped in tissue paper, and apparently made from seaweed (?) as nylons were prohibitive.

All of which is massively outing if you know me or are related to me. But they were wonderful and surprising things to find.

PickAChew · 02/11/2018 00:01

"NO ONE needs 26 torches!!"

DH would disagree....

Birdie69 · 02/11/2018 00:06

Every gift I'd ever given my mother, slightly unwrapped but not taken right out of the gift paper. All neatly filed away in her wardrobe.

A £20 note neatly folded in half, under every tin in her kitchen cupboard. I ended up with about £500 by the time I'd cleaned the cupboard out.

LookingThroughTheLookingGlass · 02/11/2018 00:14

I read your previous post about this Birdie... hugs x

abbey44 · 02/11/2018 00:16

Clearing out my parents' home, I found a lot of the presents I'd bought for my mother, kept safe in the top of the wardrobe in the spare bedroom, clearly unused...unwanted, kept for best? Who knows? I'll never know. And the thing I never did find was my engagement and wedding ring from my first marriage that I'd given to her for safekeeping after my divorce. Shame really, the engagement ring was a really pretty one I'd have happily worn now, but again, I'll never know what happened to it. On the other hand, WTF was the 25 bottles of Jif lemon juice all about...? Hmm

abbey44 · 02/11/2018 00:19

Oh Birdie is that nearly a snap...?

BiologyNotBigotry · 02/11/2018 00:41

The letters my grandfather wrote to my grandmother when they were courting. Unfortunately, they were in a pack of things labelled "private: to be destroyed" & my aunt was a better daughter than I am a granddaughter... I'd totally have read them if they hadn't been whisked away! Blush

Doubletrouble99 · 02/11/2018 00:49

When clearing out my aunt's house recently we found a copy of my grandmother's will from the 1960s. It left my mum an equal share with her siblings of all her assets, a considerable amount, that my mother had never had any of!

MaryJenson · 02/11/2018 01:11

This thread has made me realise there’s a couple of things in my home I should dispose of. Just in case!!

RedneckStumpy · 02/11/2018 02:38

Bacardibabe

My dad gave me and DS a handful of Mercury switches a few years ago so we could make booby traps.

youknowyourself · 02/11/2018 07:34

Such a lovely thread, thank you for sharing everyone.

Not belonging to a relative or found in a house but my husband bought a big tool box from a charity shop. The bottom tray was jammed but he managed to get it open.
Inside was old photos and an old passport. There was also a few certicates for bonds.
We tried to trace the owner but no luck.
Not sure what to do with the bonds or if they are worth anything! They are happy in the drawer now anyway Grin

Sweetpea55 · 02/11/2018 07:51

Helping a friend clear out her deceased aunts house..

Over 30 pairs of shoes still in their boxes unworn with the shoes trees still in them
18 bottles of pine disinfectant
27 bottles of Aussie shampoo
3 commodes

spiderlight · 02/11/2018 12:28

Boxes and boxes of Leo dried peas at the very back of the cupboard under the stairs, some of them dating back absolutely years. I had never in my life seen my mum eat dried peas but for some reason she had deemed them necessary for emergencies and collected a hoard of them.

A WWI bayonet that had been given to my father by a relative who'd apparently used it at the Somme.