Does anyone else have parents who keep giving you their (mostly worthless) stuff to sell online? I've got a couple rubbermaid bins of Stuff from my mother. She has expressed to me that she does NOT want it donated or given away; she wants money for it. Ugh.
I've hauled this Stuff through the last two moves and we're hoping to move again in spring. I do not want to haul it through yet another move. I have had this stuff listed on Craigslist, ebay, Facebook yard sale groups, etc. for literally years and I've now given up. No one wants to pay money for this. Of course, my mother will not believe this because "they're collectibles! They're worth something!" She cannot sell it herself online as she doesn't have a computer, smartphone, or Internet service, and her HOA doesn't allow yard sales so she can't sell it in person.
I only took this stuff from her in the first place because she has hoarding tendencies and I was happy to see her willing to let stuff leave her house. Now it's in MY house and I can't seem to get anyone to buy it!
The way I see it, my options (other than continue hanging onto it, which will piss off Boyfriend) are:
- Give it all back to her. I no longer have a car, and it's too much to haul onto public transport, so this would mean renting (and paying for) a car to get it to her. I would really rather not do this. Her house is full to bursting as it is.
- Donate it and don't tell her. She's got a memory like an elephant, though, and often asks me about stuff she gave me literally decades ago. (and I think it's likely that eventually she'll ask for it back, in which case I'll have to do option 1.....)
- Donate it and tell her. This will result in repeated angry phone calls in which she screams and cries at me for not respecting her things.
- Donate it, tell her I sold it, and give her the money she wants for it. This is sort of what I'm leaning toward, mainly because she's in pretty dire financial straits and I can afford it. But man, it would piss me off to pay her to get rid of this crap. (This would also encourage her to give me yet MORE crap to sell "because you're so good at it!" and I really don't want to do this any more.)
What would you all do? Has anyone dealt with this?