A woman has revealed she feels guilty for throwing out treasured possessions owned by her mother, but claims it was a necessary action as the items were caked in mould and dust
A woman has revealed her guilt after throwing out cherished items owned by her mum – but claims there is a key reason for their removal.
Explaining her reasons in a heart-breaking thread on Reddit’s r/Confessions forum, the unnamed user explained her mother had refused to throw most of their items out and insisted on keeping empty candle holders in a disorganised garage. Even though they “knew it was wrong”, they decided to clear out the area and threw out bundles of cherished items.
Now the 23-year-old is trying to figure out if they were a “monster” or not after clearing out the garage so she and her sister, 15, can use it as a social space without clutter.
She wrote: “My mom’s (58F) the type of person to keep everything; and I mean everything— from old clothes that haven’t fit in decades, to empty candle containers she swears she’ll reuse but never will, to actual garbage she’ll ‘one day find a use for.’ My mom’s dreamt of having the garage as a functional social space.
“With the goal of making space in mind, I knew I was going to have to go through and get rid of a lot of the random garbage my mom keeps around and I couldn’t feel bad about it if I wanted it to be done in an afternoon or two. I don’t know, it’s like I turned off my empathy or something. I came across a box hidden deep in the pile of random s**t containing a bunch of mine and my sisters old childhood things. Pictures, art we’d made, report cards from school, baby blankets, baby clothes, the works.
“I threw half of it out. Dropped it off at the dump myself. I’m not a total monster, I kept the photos and a few of the art pieces, some of the clothes. Most of what I threw out had gotten damaged or even a little mouldy. But there are definitely things that could’ve been salvaged. [sic]”
She also expressed regret over throwing out the items without letting her younger sister see them, and feared she had “destroyed these ties to our childhood because I wanted to get out of the garage faster”.
Other Reddit users were sympathetic to her situation. One user wrote: “You were tasked with the burden of dealing with someone else’s memories. I can assure you that while right now it feels awful, all of those things, while nice, wouldn’t have survived in that garage over time. You are not a monster, you are a caring person doing the best you can.”
Another user said they had struggled with something similar and had to throw away their father’s items. Their comment read: “Almost the exact same for my dad but he didn’t let anyone throw anything away so I did it without him knowing which started him to make progress with his hoarding.”
