Dear readers: A recent question sought solutions on how to deal with her two adult daughters' stuff, which was filling the family garage after the daughters had left home. I asked readers to offer their solutions, and this column is devoted to these suggestions.

Dear Amy: I have two sons. Getting them to retrieve their "treasures" was a challenge. They were simply not interested. So I have been giving them their own treasures — impressions for braces, awards from elementary school, etc. — for Christmas and birthday gifts. Problem solved.

Dear Amy: 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 and take what they wanted to keep. The most emotional thing to deal was the very, very dusty collection of stuffed animals arrayed on shelves in our basement.

Dear Amy: 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 charity. The few remaining items they wanted were boxed and given or mailed to them.

Dear Amy: The letter-writer 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!

Dear Amy: 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, they would get 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.

Dear Amy: I was in my late 20s and continued to store my childhood possessions at home while living across the country. Once when I was visiting home, my mother came into my room, looked me straight in the eye, smiled and said with deep concern: "You know your father and I love you very much. But whatever you leave behind on your next trip here will go into the trash. You should start looking into shipping what you want now." I knew I had a deadline, and responded appropriately.

Dear Amy: We've been working on this with our kids for years. Each time they visit us I make them take something back with them. When we go to visit, I take something with me. We're whittling down the pile, a little at a time.

Dear Amy: You should have suggested the tried-and-true method of dealing with this dilemma that moms have been using for years: "Come and get your stuff or I'm throwing it all away."

Dear Amy: The frustrated mom should take all of her daughters' stuff to a storage unit and send them the bill for the monthly rental.

Amy says: 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.

If people do choose to do this, I suggest that they make sure the rental eventually transfers to the adult children's names.

Send questions to Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com.