My house needs an enema....

KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:

Chuck it.  We all have so much crap in our lives that it's already overwhelming.  Forcing someone after us to go through it all is selfish.

I don't know. The guy next door to me died without any kids and his ex-wife died before he did.

The mortgage company brought in a dumpster and hired a bunch of laborers to empty the contents of the house into the dumpster. The laborers grabbed the flatscreen and the stereo and anything else worth money for themselves as they were told they could do as part of their payment. Everything else went to the landfill. Photos, clothes, furniture, sheets, personal items. Everything. 

Done. 

Next week the mortgage company sold the house to a flipper and made back what it cost them to haul the stuff to the dump and probably much more. 

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :

We have some interesting memoirs.  Very interesting.  If there were more I would edit and publish them

If you can review the videos, I'd recommend a quick check of them, but don't feel guilty at all about just tossing it.    If any of the videos happen to be vacation footage of places that have changed a lot (Hawaii and Las Vegas come to mind), there is some demand for that footage online, but it probably isn't worth much money.

In reply to stroker :

Does your area have a local historical society? They may be interested in the old 8mm movies and may see stuff in them that others might miss or jsut be ignorant of.

I find old footage like that interesting, even when it's mundane family life. If it wasn't costly I'd consider digitizing it and uploading it to Youtube since other people might be interested in it. If you aren't trying to sell it there's no need for releases. Also, in normal circumstances, people photographed in public paces don't have an expected right to privacy so it's kind of a non issue anyway. Once digital, putting it on Youtube is effectively making it publicly available for any interested parties to view. People might find it interesting, and you never know if it might help with someone's historical research for something we would never think about. I was just watching random street video footage from the early 1900s and it was really cool. 

A different thought for the medals, assuming you don't want to do a shadowbox. Was he part of a school or league or something that still exists? Would they be interested in a donation of them as historical items? Hang in a trophy case somewhere?

My parents emigrated to the US from England in 1949.  I was born 10 years later.  I'm guessing the films are no later than 1964 and might be of when they went back to visit family in "merry 'ole" with my brother before I came along.  Dunno.  I've never had a 8mm projector so I don't know what's on 'em.   They were living in WI at the time.  

So far I like the shadow box idea.  That might be something I can get my kids involved with.