Our precious keepsakes

Sunny

Sunny

SF VIP
Location
Maryland
This came up today in the Games forum, and I thought it might be worth a discussion.

True or false: You have no idea what will happen to all the beautiful and expensive jewelry from our and previous generations because Millennials and younger seem to have little interest in it.

Answer: True, plus all the china, crystal, silver, etc. that our generation either inherited or bought. All that stuff will end up in cluttered thrift shops?

This is something I've been wondering about for a while now. Not that I have so much priceless jewelry, etc., but I do have some very nice things, mostly inherited from my parents or in-laws. And most middle-class people of my generation did accumulate china, silver, etc. in their early adult years, and have kept and treasured all that stuff for their entire lives. What will become of all those things?

Several factors are at work here. Most of us have a lot more "stuff" than our parents' generation did. Most of us, fortunately, live a lot longer than the average person of our parents' generation; therefore, our children are pretty old themselves by the time we pass on. They don't need that stuff either

Part of it is changing ideas of what is fashionable. From what I've noticed in my own family, the Millenials tend to travel light. They move often, and spend their money on a nice house or condo, or travel,, rather than a lot of stuff. Their "good china" tends to be much more casual than ours was.

They do still get diamond engagement rings, that's one thing that doesn't seem to change.

But imagine what the antique shops and thrift shops of the near future will look like!
 

In this area, the shops and flea markets are already flooded.

I've been working at getting rid of my treasures while I'm alive. It has been slow going and a bit discouraging at times but I'm making progress.

I've enjoyed having them and now I enjoy knowing that they are in good hands.

I still have a long way to go and there is absolutely no interest in some things.

Let me know if anyone out there needs a dozen boxes of fine china, crystal, and a large assortment of old family photos!
 
18 months ago I'd fully intended for 2020 to be the year that I started giving away some of my beautiful crystal and glassware. Our Christmas party attendees include many 30-somethings, and I wanted to give something of ours to the kids closest to our hearts. (Our children already have more than they need via inheritance from my mother.)

Covid derailed that plan, but I'm hoping to go forward with it this year.

No idea what to do with expensive jewelry, both my own and inherited. Don't know whether to sell it or what to do with it. Sunny is right though - younger generations aren't interested in it. Sure they have diamond engagement rings, but don't tend to wear other precious jewelry.
Cocktail rings, no. Tennis bracelets, no. Diamond and precious stone pendants, no.

Family photos? My kids wanted (literally) a few. We tossed virtually all of my parents' and in-laws' massive photo collections. Absolutely nobody wanted them.

First world problems, right?
 

There are numerous discussions on early-retirement.org on this subject. Since I remarried after my wife passed away, I tossed our old photo albums. We had no children, so nobody would be interested.
My sister has an extensive Wedgewood collection, and you can see them on eBay for cents on the dollar. (Are you listening @debodun ) 😀
The funniest one I heard is about a couple moving some sealed boxes into their new home that they got from their parents, who got them from their parents. That is time capsule stuff nobody has looked at for 2 generations.
As far as jewelry, it can be repurposed. We took my current wife's old diamond engagement ring and a gold bracelet my late wife gave me and had a jeweler turn it into a beautiful pendant. It is not something she would wear to Walmart, but beautifully appropriate for some occasions. She adores it and the significance of it. It is one of her most prized possessions and I enjoy seeing her wear it.

21373 Wave and Diamonds.jpg
 
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One antique dealer told me that everybody who walks into her store is interested in selling, not buying. I felt kind of sorry for her.

The Millennial's life style is one explanation. Another is the fact that most of our ancestors were, let's face it, a lot poorer than we are (unless we're Prince Harry). They didn't have tons of expensive stuff. The stuff started multiplying with our generation.

And people live longer. My own children are well into middle age. The last thing they want is more "stuff." So I'm trying to palm some of it off on the grandkids, who don't need it either. Let's see, maybe my 4-month-old great-granddaughter would be interested? 😁
 
I think one needs to look at the sizes of living spaces that younger people can afford these days. I would be willing to guess that people simply don't have the amount of space in their living areas as they did in the past. So even if one wanted to have china, silver, etc... there wouldn't be enough space to store it unless one used it as their everyday eating and drinking ware.

It would be interesting to see how the desire to have such things correlates with the amount of space one has in their living area.

It may also be part of a change in the way people get together these days. I see very few younger people have dinner parties and fancy celebrations in their homes. They often go out for celebrations or meet other places for dinner. Having friends and family over for meals and celebrations was more the norm in the past.
 
Another reason - people are more mobile these days. They don't want to be tied down to a house filled with trinkets and dust-catchers when they are moving all the time.

Again, when people are eating out of pizza boxes and fast food bags, why would they need sets of china?

When my mom was buying all the things I've now inherited, she probably thought it was a good investment. It's a good thing she passed before the bottom fell out of the antiques market. She's be shocked to find the Depression glass he paid top dollar for in the 1970s is almost worthless now.
 
In 2014 I moved from my 3-bedroom house to this small 1-bedroom apartment. My house had big yards, front and back, so I had a lawn mower, weed-eaters, tree trimmers and several hoses and etc. A few days before I moved I put all that stuff plus the big pieces of furniture, like the entertainment center, and some tchotchkes and paintings out on my driveway and along the sidewalk in front of the house. I put a sign out that said FREE.

Three days later there were just a few things left, including the entertainment center. I hauled that stuff plus the furniture from 2 bedrooms and the dining room to Goodwill. They don't take used mattresses so I had to take them to the dump. Whatever else I didn't need or have room for I just threw in the garbage.

When my mom died, my brothers and my sister and I did the same thing multiplied by 100, because she was a collector. You're not going to make money off old stuff unless it's a national treasure. You gotta let it go; give it away or throw it away. You can take jewelry to a jeweler, though. Some of them will melt the gold down and make ingots for you.
 
Nathan said:
True, they just don't cherish material things like our generation. One other reason millennials might be minimalists is that they have less money than the Baby Boomers. Good jobs are scarce, many work 2 or 3 jobs that and still don't have benefits like group insurance or retirement.
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Let's face it, they'd rather pay $85 for a video game than shell out the same amount for a set of China, especially if they still go to mom's house for Christmas dinner.
 
asp3 said:
It may also be part of a change in the way people get together these days. I see very few younger people have dinner parties and fancy celebrations in their homes. They often go out for celebrations or meet other places for dinner. Having friends and family over for meals and celebrations was more the norm in the past.
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I see this, too, and certainly understand the attraction. No muss, no fuss, they split the check, and there's no worries about gently prodding the couple who won't take a hint that it's time to go home.

These days, nearly all women work outside of the home for most of their adult lives, some by choice, some by necessity, often for both reasons. They have neither the time nor inclination to throw five course dinner parties (as my mother often did) for their husbands' bosses. Furthermore, today's bosses wouldn't know how to respond if they and their wives or husbands were invited to underlings' homes for dinner.

It's unreasonable to expect young people to cherish the social activities, traditions or possessions earlier generations held dear. Time doesn't still, and traditions change.

Doesn't solve the problem of our generation not knowing what to do with these things, of course, but that's no reason to blame or disparage younger folks for choosing the the way they want to live.
 
My wife has a set of her grandmother's china sitting in the cabinet over the fridge, taking up about half of the storage space. Never used it, never will. Her kids aren't interested in the set anymore than we are. The concept of "good china" and all sorts of other "good" items is antiquated.
A sizable percentage of millennials were fed on fast food containers regularly, good china would understandably mean nothing to them.

Getting rid of our collective "keepsakes" will be a monumental task, a lot of our stuff has no resale value, but most is "too good" to simply drop in the trash. My wife has a jewelry box with an assortment of the usual rings, bracelets etc, she'll divide it up between daughters, daughter-in-law, and gran-daughters in her will. My tools will be divided between my son, step-son and son-in-law.
Heaven help us, in getting rid of the massive amounts of dusk collector stuff! 🙄
 
My kids have no interest in any of my keepsakes.
I have Roseville vases that were my moms. I display them not because I love Roseville but because she cherished them.
My daughter can't understand why I keep something I'm not particularly fond of just because of its history. She doesn't understand that when I dust and handle them a flood of wonderful memories come back.
I'm sure my moms teacup and plate collection will be given to goodwill even though she and I enjoyed collecting them.
I have no jewelry to speak of except for my charm bracelet that I want to wear when I die and also my birthstone ring my mom gave me. That would also go to goodwill so I might as well take it with me. They can have my diamond ring so they can put it in a new setting.
These last couple of years I've purged this house of things that have no meaning but the rest will remain for them to dispose of.
I may have shown this before but the photo is of the teacup collection.teacups.JPG
 

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