When my MIL passed away last fall, we found some unexpected things in her belongings. She still had her mom's pay stubs from the 1950s, countless obituaries for relatives of her friends, as well as a nude female salt and pepper shaker (one boob for salt, one for pepper).
But, by far, the most unusual thing we found was her long-dead dog's gallstones in a prescription pill bottle.
So, I am wondering what unusual "treasures" you have found in your own clean up efforts?
And, for those brave souls, what possession do you have that might raise some eyebrows from those you leave behind?
I'm realizing that none of my stuff will be unexpected - maybe I need to paint outside the lines a bit!
Hoping to find some things to laugh about! Thanks.
I would wait to make a final decision unless someone in your family has already claimed them. If more than 1 sibling wants them, have everyone draw straws.
The holidays are almost upon us, so they would make a great gag gift for somebody. Or maybe a New Years party decoration for someone?
I would keep them available for "selective viewing" namely adults with a sense of humor, but not young grand kids. When you've all enjoyed the weirdness of family oddities and no longer wish to keep them, just choose wisely whom you would give them too.
Since they belonged to your MIL, your husband needs to initiate any gifting of such items. That way he won't come back later and say you gave away his family heirlooms! Really, if spouse or his siblings don't want them, I would still secure them and revisit this topic with your husband when he and siblings are no longer grieving.
Families are just weird, but a good basis for many good stories.
I bought my grandmother's house from the family when she died and I kept hoping to find something really interesting of hers in it. Money. Letters. Whatever. But nothing. She was pure.
Onice my FIL passed away, we had to go through that shed and get rid of many boxes of old tax returns and obsolete paperwork that they kept for no apparent reason.
But in this trunk we found that my MIL had been secretly married in Mexico (her Mexican Marriage Certificate), to a man who was Already married! Apparently this was her way to legitimize her unborn baby, but I don't think it works that way! Anyhoo, there were also many nasty letters back and forth between my MIL, this guy, and his real wife who was also pregnant at the Same time! This guy was a real scoundrel, and my MIL did get divorced from him, just in time to marry my FIL. Those were Crazy times (the 40's), when there was so much stigma and shame attached to illegitimate children.
We had a good laugh (he lived on a golf course and on his daily walks would pick up stray balls) So BIL said he would count them out and sell them back to the golf driving ranges. Would have made maybe $500, I don't know.
We packed 6 of the BIGGEST bins with these things---and BIL put them in garage and there they sit, 15 years later. They have not been able to park their cars in the garage, but by darn, those balls have a warm, safe space.
I'm sorry, I cannot think of anything craft to do with gallstones. An intriguing problem, for sure.
My parents were 3 states away visiting Mom's oldest sister and her husband. A few days later they packed up and headed for home. They were barely leaving town when Mom screamed and said, "get me to the hospital" while slouching over. So off to ER in a strange town.
The surgeon brought out a huge handful of stones, salt size to pea sized.
When Dad told me about all the stones, I asked how many. He didn't know, so I asked him to count because he sounded so panicked and relieved at the same time. He also said he wanted to show friends because it was a shock to see so many.
At the next holiday Dad unveiled Mom's stones. Sister, brother and I were all howling. All I could think of was my neighbor's cat bringing home a chipmunk, holding so softly in his jaw. Mom was less amused and said she didn't understand Dad showing her stones to people. I told her it was a conversation piece to be cherished as long as Dad enjoyed telling the story.
Fast forward about 15 years later and going through Dad's stuff. Mom said Dad wanted me to have his conversation piece. I was the child who first asked about this, so I won the prize. I was also the best at saving/preserving what was of value and ditching what wasn't of value to anyone. So it's still in the little catch-all box in the back bedroom. I'm still asked to save it by my siblings!
So the 3 of us still howl over this. We've actually considered hollowing out a dry vegetable - the kind you see for holiday displays at Wal-Mart and sealing it up. Sort of like ashes? I've thought of dividing it by 3 and putting 1/3 inside each veggie and shipping the artifacts to my brother and sister. By the way, I counted all the pebbles, large and small. There is 163 total.
If anyone has an idea for what artistic use these stones could be used, send a note along.
Many people put colored glass or river rocks (1-3 inches in size) in the bottom of a clear glass vase and then put artificial flowers in the vase. Maybe you could choose the larger and most interesting "pebbles" and put them in a glass vase with some fake flowers 🌷.
Or you could spray paint the smaller "pebbles" and glue them (with Gorilla glue) to a small plastic flower pot or small box that you could use for your pens, pencils, pocket change, scissors, car keys, etc.✏✄👓👛💵📱
Mum has been helping to clear out the home of her friends as the husband has now gone into a nursing home, the wife went last year.
Their 'kids' live too far away to help out.
Yesterday I was helping Mum sort through some of the boxes that came to her house to see what would go to the thrift shop and what needs to be kept for their kids and what is junk. I am helping to settle two international students at my Uni and have been able to fully outfit their kitchens with stuff from this home. Except can openers, we have found 8-10 graters, but no can openers. I think the wife probably had to use an electric one.
We found a small blue notebook. It is a daily log from a steamship company that ran ships from the West Coast of North America to Asia. The dates in it are from around 1920. We will give that to the Maritime Museum.
There is a package of letters, not love letters, but from an uncle to a favourite neice. I could not make out the post mark, but the envelopes have 4 cent stamps.
Well one day recently,I decided to look way up on the top shelf where Iv'e never looked before and I found a bag with a note inside.The note says"Confiscated from the children",meaning the 3 of us kids and when I looked to see what was in the bag ,it had nasty boxed jokes we used to buy at Spencer Gifts in it as well as a doodle cover that was an elephant with a place for the "trunk" and a big clothespin with 2 people doing it when it clasped together.
I'd forgotten about some of those things but I'm gonna blame my 2 brother's when we go through everything together....IF we ever do.
My fav was the Lava Lamp - which is back in vogue these days, lol.
My story, mom had not passed, actually far from it. She and dad divorced when I was young. She dated, her mid-40's. When she was out one night, I went snooping through her dresser. Found a diaphragm, shocking! Actually, shook me up a bit. I must have been 14 or so. Well it was in the drawer then....
Mom dated the minister that married her and my dad for awhile. They once went out of town for a weekend, I was probably 16 by that time. So, I decided to check to see if the diaphragm was there. Nope!
She had great admiration for this minister. He was cool because he smoked. How times change!
My eldest brother could not be there for some reason, so a few things were put aside for him, but we did come across Ahem.... my Dad's Penis Pump kit, a full on medical device Rx'd by his Urologist and purchased from a Medical Supply store. I thought it sweet that my Dad thought enough of my Mom and their romantic life that he wished to do everything he could do to maintain their sex life one it became difficult due to his Prostate issues. Still, it produced a laugh to all of us.
Anhoo, after the laughter finally subsided my younger brother decided that it would be funny to put a post mortem "note from the grave" from my Dad to our eldest brother "gifting" him his Penis Pump, as he "knew it would come in handy for him one day soon". We all laughed our Azz's off for a long time as it was something my Dad would have thought funny too and would have got a kick out of, but my Mom would have been mortified! It brought some real laughter to what was a somber situation, but was exactly what we needed, and a real bonding moment for all of us. We are all super close anyways, so it is a great memory and one we bring up every once in a while, Notes from the grave! Lol!
So I was looking at this stuff and thinking I should give it to my other brother who has been doing most of the looking out for this brother as of late. Then the phone rang and it was him.
The weird thing is I looked at all mom's stuff and I never recall seeing this envelope before and there it was right on top of all the other stuff. I must have pored over all of mom's stuff a hundred times and do not recall ever seeing this envelope.
Strange indeed.
- the cast my brother wore when he broke his hand at age 8 (he didn’t want it)
- our birth announcements from the 50’s (Which I had never seen)
- an incredible lacy dress with bonnet and panties Mom made for my 1st Easter
- cash tucked in cards, purses, pocket, and film canisters (always check! We found over $300 squirreled away)
- enough pencils, pens, markers and erasers to fit out an elementary school
- 5 gold pocket watches
- a receipt for materials for a hat rack my dad built in high school wood shop (I still use that)
- the toy Batman car my brother's couldn’t agree who owned (sold that on eBay and gave Mom the money)
- 3 sets of very old silver plated flatware that she never used
- a paper Cuban peso dated 1895
- a complete set of state quarters that "the kids might like to have" (the kids are all in their 30’s!)
- a knife sharpener with a deer antler handle
I could go on and on! The best thing is, whenever I show Mom these things she says "where did you find that?"
What we did find was a side of her we didn’t know existed until she died. She had a huge trunk that, as far as we all knew, had family pictures and a few things from when her kids were little. Now, over the years she never seemed to appreciate anything anyone gave her. She would ask for receipts to return them. Or they wouldn’t be used. Some were regifted. I finally gave up and started giving her photo books & pictures of the grandkids for Christmas and flowers for her birthday. I figured she was even more disappointed with those things than all the other things we’d given her in the past. Well......when we went through that trunk, we realized she was an extremely sentimental person! That trunk was full of pictures, every card her children and grandchildren had ever given her, old school assignments, love letters to and from my FIL/her ex husband. She kept EVERYTHING! Then we found that she had a special wood box for each grandchild full of pictures of them, some of them had albums she was working on, plus trinkets and party favors from their baby showers and birthday parties and The photo books I made every year.
It was just really a surprise finding all that stuff, carefully stored. It really meant a lot to all of us actually. It was comforting. And we learned a lot about her......
Thank you for sharing!
I found it dead in my backyard and I thought I would save it to show the kidlets.
Wouldn't people be wondering about that.
On top of my mom’s dresser was an empty plastic container (like what an individual serving of jello comes in). Inside the container was a tissue, and I almost threw out the entire item, but something told me that I needed to take the tissue out and check beneath it. When I did, you can imagine my surprise to find the wedding band of my mom’s oldest sister. Mom apparently inherited it from her sister several years before when my sweet aunt, who had no children of her own, had passed away. She and my mom were extremely close, so I was glad that I didn’t throw out the wedding band with the tissue!
My dad was an artist. In his last years, he painted on various pieces of paper that ended up in his room at a nursing care facility—paper placemats, greeting cards from friends, etc. Sometimes Dad would set one of his finished (or nearly finished) pieces on a table between newspapers and magazines. I had to make a point to look between every layer of newspaper whenever I was helping him pick up in his room. Sometimes I found lovely art work that I took to my brother to be framed. We have no idea how many paintings ended up in a dumpster (or in the home of one of the cleaning staff), since we didn’t do a daily purge for him.
She's kept the wristband instead.
One day we were talking about being prepared for the inevitable and she said "Tell me where you keep your "toys" and I will make sure to get rid of them before anyone knows about it!" I love that girl!
You have raised that woman well. Hats off to you!!
My MIL and I had a running joke that she donated her "toys" to charity. My husband did not find that funny like we did :)