I still have loads of junk in my Mum’s house. It fills the shed in large boxes and tumbles out of less used cupboards. And it seems I’m not alone. According to the Telegraph:
“Now the younger generation – not wanting to mess up their own, often small, living space – are increasingly relying on the old family home to store their share.”
In my case, I’d have to say that the remaining junk is due to my own lack of organisation and a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
But this amusing life-style story (planted as insurance company PR by the looks of it), reflects a reality about housing for the younger generation:
Far more people find themselves renting and sharing with friends for longer than in the past -because buying’s impossible, there’s little chance of social housing and the cost of private rents means several people sharing is the only option. And, as the article suggests, the homes younger people are renting or buying are getting ever smaller – the newest are the smallest homes in Europe.
It’s no wonder, when parents finally get rid of their kids from the family home (at an increasingly later age), that half their stuff stays behind.
So it may be a pain, when you’re pottering at home in your retirement*, to constantly come across boxes of CDs of angry teenage music, old tennis rackets and bin bags full of WWF magazines 1990-1994 (Sorry Mum – they’ll be worth something on eBay one day), but it’s nothing compared to the pain many have of trying to afford a decent place to live.
*To avoid the risk of unfairly characterising retirees, my co-Blogger spends his retirement making up for my lack of posting, running the London Labour Housing Group and fighting the good fight. I think he’s busier than ever.