For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 04, 2021

Two weeks and just now getting calls? What is wrong with the place? Have they set the asking price too high? Is it in a bad neighborhood in Vancouver?

all sorts of things are on your minds, Elly

What’s a pipe organ? I’m young and don’t know about the old things.

Maybe you should find out what they’re actually keeping Elly.

It’s going to be hard for Ellie and her mother to jettison what’s “unneeded”. Too many memories. :D

So, tell her, El!!

Ellie, this is what you get for talking them into moving.

“Getting calls“? Like, are people calling their house and talking to them directly? Because this is what real estate agents are for.… Unless you know how to buy/sell property yourself… Which I doubt that the elder Patterfoobs do…

When my parents moved from our house to a 1-bedroom senior-living apartment, they of course had to clear out a LOT of stuff. Unfortunately, I lived in a small apartment myself, and couldn’t afford a storage locker, so I had to say “goodbye” to a lot of things I wished to keep, like my mother’s cup-and-saucer collection (I DID manage to get a few) and my childhood rocking chair & doll highchair.

Oddly enough, when I was asked a similar question, I found that I really didn’t want anything. I’m not happy about that but it was mostly old and worn. Sad..

My parents were practically hoarders. And somehow I ended up a minimalist. My Mom was so unhappy that I didn’t want anything. She assumed I would just take all the stuff that they had stored in their house and store it in mine…especially since I didn’t have much stored or saved. Never could make her understand my life view on not saving everything forever.

In today’s market, at least where I live, it would have been gone in a day.

The guilt…

…and a place to put them

Mom, tell me the things that you can’t take to the condo, and then I’ll let you know.

When one set of grandparents moved, my mum at first thought she didn’t want anything, but ended up taking a few pieces of mid-century furniture, which we came to love. Now worth a fortune, but they’re staying in the family.

This was set in the 1990s, It is NOT Toronto where you list a 1000 square foot house, and in two days you get four offers from rich Asians who will never live in it, and sell it for over one million dollars. Ellie lives in a small town, like her parents do. It is NOT in a bad neighbourhood in Vancouver. There are bad neighbourhoods everywhere, but they live in a nice house in a nice town.

Now that I have those items of furniture I love, I miss my parents and grandparents even more.

Speak up! I’m absolutely SURE grandma would love to give you this family stuff rather than give it away to strangers.

My mom asked if there was any artwork I wanted from their house and I told her just the one picture in the kitchen. Turned out my sister had already spoken for that one but my mom didn’t believe me when I said other than that, I was all set. When the piggy back van load arrived, it contained all of her artwork. 8 years later, I’m waiting for our church rummage sale. A dealer will come buy it all and give the money to the church. I just want it out of this closet and into someone else’s.

Where I live there is a housing shortage, so buyer’s have a bidding war.

Guess she has thought about it.

Panel 2 confused me a bit, but then I realized that what I was reading as “July, 80” was actually “July, so”!

My aunt had an old pump organ! It was like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Your feet had to keep a regular rhythm to keep it going, while your hands were keeping the rhythm of the song.

She’s thinking now!

Pump organ? That sounds dirty!

Don’t you have to do that BEFORE you list it?

This one reminds me of the time I had to clear out my mother’s house about a decade ago, when she moved it with us.

One thing it does, it makes you look at your own stuff and start to wick away even more, that’s for sure!

My mother, long before she passed, wisely labeled keepsakes and antiques she wished to leave to certain family members. The same for pieces of furniture. The rest would be sold as part of the estate.

She’d seen what vultures the relatives could be when her own mother died and wanted to avoid that kind of family feuding when she was gone.

My brother and I did have to bar one cousin from setting foot in her house after she’d died because we knew what thieves he and his wife were.

Two weeks? Currently that would be outrageous. I’m selling my parent’s house in St. Louis. A “preview” listing was published last week with showings beginning Saturday. My realtor only managed to get the photos of the place posted Friday, yet we had 15 showings just this weekend, and received a fantastic offer which I officially accepted yesterday.

Better tell her before your siblings grab it all

I would love to see her grow down to the younger days while recollecting her childhood days, similar to Rose is Rose.

Your parents should have a yard sale. They kept tons of antiques in there attics or their celler. The ones you dont want you can get rid of it and make some dough from it.

Rent a U- Haul and get going Elly..

Get it out there, Elly! You don’t ask, you don’t get.

Happy Star Wars Day!! May the Fourth be with you!

A pump organ? Where the heck can she put it? She doesn’t even have a room for April!

I am so grateful for the fact that my brothers and I never had to squabble over anything. Our interests are so different that none of our desires overlapped.

My Mother-in-law, who I loved dearly, put pieces of tape with people’s names on all of her things. When we lost her, her final wishes were easy to carry out.

and a partridge in a pear tree…

they may have to buy a bigger house to accommodate all the things she wants from her parents downsizing.

I love this. Her first thoughts are of all the things that mean something to her, but she doesn’t speak because she doesn’t know what her brother wants or her parents will keep, and she doesn’t want to sound greedy, but all those memories are choking her!