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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.

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Rocket, you will have to keep us posted. These stories are fascinating. Best wishes with that project and hope it turns out to be all that you are hoping for!
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Well I’m not sure this is so much of a “treasure” as a Pandora’s Box. My Mom and father were divorced soon after I was born and I don’t remember him, never saw a picture of him, and she never spoke about him. I know she never got child support because she told me she didn’t want it. It evidently was a painful time for her and I never pressed it when I was growing up. Im pretty sure they were actually married because I have my birth certificate, the church announcement at my dedication and other stuff addressed to Mr and Mrs. and I have his last name. As her memory loss progressed she sometimes would ask who her husband had been and I told her, but she wouldn’t say much. But she also spoke & asked about an old BF and asked me to find a picture of him. So she was very happy when I found a nice picture of the BF in his uniform to keep on her nightstand at the NH and she would say that she missed him. Fast forward, after going through some of her keepsakes I found the BFs Air Force wings, and I began to feel they were a little closer than she had let on. I’ve been trying to track him down with little success since he had a pretty common name, until yesterday I found his hometown on an old ticket stub, and that gave me an extra clue and I stumbled onto their marriage announcement in my hometown newspaper archives. Wow. Just wow. I’m not even sure how to process this. I felt sick at first but now i think I’m just sad about the whole secrecy thing. I’ve only told a couple of my closest friends (and now you guys). Anyway just for kicks I submitted my dna sample to ancestry today. This will be interesting.
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The stories are a delight to read, especially after a hectic day!

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.
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So, I'm an artist and for most of my career I have painted large life size nudes in nature or in knots and folds of drapery. Many of my reference photos are of myself in the nude. Oh but to have that body back, but I don't really want my sons and grandsons to come across all of this. Even though the paintings exist and have been shown all over the world, the photos somehow don't seem to be right to leave around to find when I'm gone. I suppose I should throw them out at some point. That's it. That's all I have that is embarrassing. Even with that I'm an open book, since the painting are from the photos.

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.
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Houseplant102 Aug 2019
I would alter them a little - sort of like the covering from Adam & Eve, or a nice shawl. Your family needs to decide what pictures to keep. I'm sure they would like something that is clearly Mom, but just presentable to a general audience - like their friends or younger family members. With options like reprints, photo shop etc. there must be a way to preserve some of these pictures.
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My cousin had a bag of toys...you know what I mean...although I've never seen one that a witches head on it...and it lit up! The clean up crew and I had a good laugh and then we tossed the bag of goodies!
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cherokeegrrl54 Aug 2019
O this is hilarious. Thank you for making me smile🤣💖
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My FIL moved in with us after his wife died and brought with him a big ugly trunk which we housed in the shed my husband built to store his overflow that wouldn't fit in our home.

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.
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My FIL passed and left us with over 30,000 golf balls.

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.
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pamzimmrrt Aug 2019
I;m glad their ball are warm,, and I cant believe no one beat me to THAT comment.. LOL
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Love your stone story. Here's mine!

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.
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DeeAnna Aug 2019
WOW, That's a lot of pebbles!
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.✏✄👓👛💵📱
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Loving these posts.

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.
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When cleaning out my parent's house, I just recalled all the prescription bottle tops and over-the-counter medicine bottle tops that I found. Hundreds of them. They must have been "trophies" for when Dad finally got that top off the bottle :)
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Found a bag of hair in mother's belongings. She must've told the funeral guy to save it for her when my sister died in '89. Gross & disturbing. (Not the 'parting gift' I was hoping for, lol).
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There's a closet in our house that Mother used as a gift closet,keeping gifts in it,she might give away later.
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.
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Shane1124 Jun 2019
Oh my goodness! Spencer’s Gifts! We had one in our mall & as teenagers went in there for laughs and amazement at their merchandise .
My fav was the Lava Lamp - which is back in vogue these days, lol.
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No biggie, but I no longer possess "the Button Box." My mother was planning on gifting it to my 46 year-old daughter (who wouldn't know what to do it) or my 21 year-old niece (who also wouldn't know what to do with it.) But you're all correct - the Button Box would be used in a classroom of older kids (not young ones who may put the buttons in their mouths).
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LOL! Stace!

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!
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OK, this is a Weird one, but after my parents passed, only 14 months apart, 5 of 6 of us kids gathered at their place (which was one of my sisters MIL apartment attached to their home) to go through their things and divide up their belongings. It was to be a fairly simple job, as we had already moved and downsized them 3 times and they had previously given the majority of their collectables to us, but it was time to finally clear out my sisters place.

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!
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metoo111 Jun 2019
Love it!!! What happened when eldest brother opened the gift???
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Speaking of finding things. Do you ever find that synchronicities happen? My brother has been seriously ill in hospital for the last three mths. Today I was looking for something and opened a drawer where I've kept a lot of my mom's things. On the very top was an envelope with Bob's old report cards from when he was just a child. His birth records. Cards he had made for mom and my dad. Bob is schizophrenic and his grades really reflected this. I had always wondered if this is something that developed when he reached early adulthood or if he had it when he was a child.

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.
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While going through my mom's things I found a bathroom glass and soap dish that she was going to give me when I moved into my new home in 1989. I was divorced in 1991 and never moved into the home. My mom passed in 2010. She held onto that glass and soap dish for 21 years because she didn't want to me to be reminded of a tough time in my life. I treasure that soap dish and glass and I treasure my mom's protection from hurt and love for me.
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The only odd thing that I knew of which my mother possessed was a post mortem photo of my Great Uncle Hazzie (It was typical in those {1919-ish] days to snap a photo of the deceased, but I found it to be macbre!). Also we found a box of buttons that my mother kept from Depression era days/mindset.
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cwillie Jun 2019
As as child I used to love to sort through my grandmother's button box. there were some really different and pretty ones!
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I just finished cleaning out my parents house and could spend an hour listing the things I found! My favorites are:
- 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?"
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My MILs former partner selfishly got rid of 90% of her personal belongings before we had a chance to go through them so if she had anything unusual, we’ll never know.

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......
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metoo111 Jun 2019
That is a beautiful memory...I read it with tears in my eyes.

Thank you for sharing!
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My deceased grandmother in law kept a dead bat in her freezer for years, and also she was a hoarder of VHS tapes...it was hell going through all that stuff...
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Isthisrealyreal Jun 2019
Oh Lacey, you made me remember that I have a frozen hummingbird in my freezer. I totally get keeping the bat preserved.

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.
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When my mother-in-law died, my husband and his brother found wedding photos of her and a man who was not their father. They never knew their mother was married before she married their father! That was a real shocker!
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When I was cleaning out my mother’s dresser, I found my baby brother’s first pair of eyeglasses (he was about 9 months old when he had to wear glasses due to lazy eye). I gave those to my brother, and we both smiled.

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.
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Some of this is hilarious... I think it is time to give some serious thought to purging more of my stuff!
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cherokeegrrl54 Jun 2019
I so agree with you!
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What great stories here! I don’t have anything unusual, just something precious to me. When I was probably 5 or so my dad took us shopping for mother’s day. I found a lime green scarf with fuschia flowers painted on it, I thought it was beautiful. It was hideous and I remember my dad trying to talk me out of it, but I was convinced my mom would just love it. So we bought it and I happily presented it to her. My child nature moved on to other things and I never thought more of it. When mom died and I was sorting through her things there was the scarf, I was stunned and touched to see that she’d always kept such an ugly gift! The other thing I found was that she’d written the names of grandchildren on the bottom of many collectibles, no one knew she’d done it, her quiet way of passing something on
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Daughter1 came across her umbilical cord clamp when she was going through her remaining things in my house last weekend. I got them each a big storage box so that I could put their respective treasures and heirlooms in. "UGGHHH!!! it's still got dried CELLS on it!!!" Well, only *her* cells... Can't think what she was making such a fuss about.

She's kept the wristband instead.
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Houseplant102 Aug 2019
This reminds me of what my mom used to say when something just way off the mark would be discussed: "Truth is stranger than fiction". I think this is a great story!
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My mother, who loved nature, had placed a dead bluebird, carefully wrapped in a clear ziplock bag, in the chest freezer. Had it struck a window and died? Had she found it in the yard? Was she planning to make a drawing or photograph it? Or did she simply find it too lovely to throw away? I'll never know. It was weird and touching... and of course I threw it out. Sorry, mom!
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pamzimmrrt Jun 2019
That is hysterical and brings back memories of when my DDs hamster passed.. no one knew what to do with him,, so until we decided I put him a zip lock baggie,, and into the freezer he went. He got moved around several times, and became a bit of a joke.. whats for dinner? Tater... One day he mysteriously disappeared.. wink wink.. I think they were glad I made the decision for them...
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It will be 3 weeks this Friday that my 90 year old mother passed. She lived with me and I was her care provider for the past 5 years. I've just started sifting through the mountains of things she stockpiled in her room. I found a silver oval tin with small circular openings at the top of each end and a little silver coin in one of the small circular openings. I think it might be an old transportation token holder. IF ANYONE KNOWS, PLEASE TELL ME! With that thought in mind, as I ran my finger gently over the opening and the coin I imagined my mom dressed in stunning business attire and lovely high heels, walking to the bus in West Philadelphia in the late 50's early 60's and giving the driver that tiny silver coin to head to her job at Gimbles Department Store in Center City. This is one momento I will not part with.
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I have raised my eldest granddaughter from the age of three, she is now 30. Her mother (my daughter) has pretty much cut out the whole family. As a result I am mom as well as grandma. We share everything...everything!
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!
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metoo111 Jun 2019
Hilarious!!! My kinda 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 :)
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Not so funny, but more like a "WTF".....I found out that my mom had an alias!!!!!!
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metoo111 Jun 2019
Really?? That would drive me batty trying to figure out the "why" behind that!
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