Clean House Storage Versus Adult Children

If you have checked out the Style television series "Clean House," you may have noticed an interesting trend in today's society. It seems that many times a parent's home becomes a place for an adult child to store their things, even if the child does not live at home any more.

Clean House Storage Tip and the Temporary Absences of Adult Children:

Often, going off to college or the military will require adult children to have some form of storage for their transitional years. Parents are often left with mountains of mementos the adult children do not want to lose and yet, they cannot take things with them. Thus, parents are left with those mountains cluttering up their homes. Parents can make a stand by limiting the amount of space or the amount of time things can be left in their care. Consider writing up a contract for your adult child to sign stating just how long you will be willing to care for their things in their absence.

Clean House Storage Tip Keep Your Things Separate from your Adult Children's Storage Items:

One way to minimize the impact of an adult child leaving their belongings in your care is to make sure there is a separate place for the temporary storage of their belongings so that they do not get mixed up with yours. There may be an area in the garage or the attic that could be used for the storage or, if all else fails; you may rent a storage unit to house the items for a specified period of time. When the time is up, the adult child can either take over the rental of the storage shed or clean it out and take their stuff with them.

Clean House Storage Tip and Handling an Emergency Storage Issues for Adult Children:

When Jeni, David and Brian's father passed away unexpectedly, the kids gathered up his belongings and took them to their mother's house for storage. Brian and Jeni both lived out of state and had to return to their homes immediately after the funeral. Fortunately, their mother's yard had an old mobile home and one room was used to house their father's belongings. When circumstances changed and Jeni and Brian moved back to the area, their mother had a difficult time getting the kids to go through everything and deal with their father's final effects. Finally, just before David was ready to move out of state, their mother called all three kids in for a family meeting, "If you do not deal with this now, I will deal with it in my way." The kids understood that their mother's way would be to take everything to the dump and quickly got busy with sorting and handling the last of their father's estate. She told the kids, "Your father and I divorced many years ago. There is no reason his stuff should be cluttering up my home."

Parents need to stand up for themselves by ensuring that adult children deal with the things they leave behind in a timely manner. Parents want their children to do well, to live and to thrive. Adult children may not realize what a burden they place on their parents by leaving behind a house full of clutter for the parents to deal with. By insisting that adult children deal with their things in a timely manner, parents can enjoy when their adult children stop by for a visit.