Family furniture disputes rarely stay simple, and one sister’s approach to divvying up their mother’s belongings turned what should have been a straightforward move into a full-blown power struggle.

While their mother prepared to relocate, the sister showed up loudly demanding entire furniture sets, securing both the dining room and living room collections while criticizing their mother for giving her sibling a single small table.

She then claimed the family piano too, despite neither she nor her husband ever having played it, only to turn around and demand payment for moving and storing it once her sister, a trained pianist with nowhere else to keep it, asked for a temporary storage arrangement.

With a 3000 square foot Victorian house and plenty of unused space, the request for money over what would genuinely be no imposition left one sibling wondering who’s actually being unreasonable here.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA? Sister wants me to pay storage for my piano.

I’d like to get some perspective here. I play piano, have studied for several years.

I have a small spinet piano that was gifted to me by a family member and is currently at my mother’s house. My mum is moving out and no longer has room for it.

I live in a small studio apartment and don’t have room for it now either. My sister has a large Victorian house, I think around 3000 square feet.

That’s when an argument between the sisters broke out.

My sister barged in while my mum was getting ready to move, loudly demanding several pieces of furniture, including the dining room set, the living room set, which she got. She yelled at my mother for giving me one small table.

She then said she was taking the piano. Neither she nor her husband play or have ever played.

So when she asked her sister about storing it, she wasn’t too happy about that suggestion either.

I asked her if she could keep it for me for a few months while I looked for a larger place. She rudely said I would have to pay for it to be moved (she is using a friend to move it and is not paying him). Also I would have to pay her storage fees.

I think since she has plenty of space and it would be no imposition that I shouldn’t have to pay her! Also I don’t really have a lot of money, so paying would be difficult.

AITA for asking her to store it for me for a short time?

This family couldn’t be further from the same page.

What did Reddit make of this dilemma?

This commenter thinks her sister was right to demand payment.

It was her sister’s choice to not be generous, so at the end of the day, she needs to accept that.

This commenter thinks both sisters are at fault here.

Entitlement seems to run in the family.

Ultimately, neither sister comes out of this looking great.

One barged in, cleaned out the furniture, and criticized her mother for giving away a single small table, then tried to charge her own sister to store a piano she’ll never touch.

But asking to leave a piano in someone else’s house indefinitely, with no clear timeline beyond “a few months” and no plan for what happens if the apartment search drags on, isn’t a fully reasonable ask either.

A verbal agreement with no end date is exactly the kind of arrangement that turns into resentment on both sides eventually.

Both sisters would benefit from treating this less like an emotional standoff and more like a simple, written agreement.