A recent question from “Not So Empty Nest Mom” sought solutions on how to deal with her two adult daughters’ stuff, which was currently filling the family garage after the daughters had left home.

I asked readers to offer their own solutions, and this column is devoted to these suggestions.

-I have two sons. Getting them to retrieve their treasures was a challenge. They were simply not interested. My solution … I have been giving them their own “treasures” for Christmas gifts and birthday gifts!

-We went through all of our kids’ stuff by ourselves and made a (small) stack of what we wanted to keep, a stack of what we thought they’d want to keep, a pile of likely to donate, and a pile of trash. Our kids came home to go through each pile. They took what they wanted to keep (and their father jokingly offered to contact the Smithsonian to see what treasures to donate to the museum).

I have three daughters and I was storing many items for them. For a few months, I would take out a couple of things each day, photograph them and text the photo to the owner, asking what they wanted done with it. Most of these items went to the charity pickup van. The few remaining items they wanted were boxed and given or mailed to them. I’m now down to just a few boxes of their stuff.

-“Not So Empty Nest Mom” should see if her community has a local “Buy Nothing” group. If so, she can list items on the group’s social media page and members can claim things for “porch pickup” – which is to say, people will come and take your stuff! – Buying Less, Sharing More

– Here’s one thing we did to “help” our sons take possession of their things: They live locally and visit regularly so, in addition to leaving the house with leftovers and their mother’s fresh-baked goods, they would also return home with a box of their stuff from the basement. Eventually, we held a final “love it or leave it day” and whatever didn’t go home with them hit the trash or the Salvation Army store.

Many readers suggested offloading their kids’ stuff into storage units. This is a logical and good solution for freeing up space in their own garage, but it really just transfers the original problem to another location.