How many of you are in this position??

My wife has many valuable collectibles. We were speaking with an antique dealer just a few years ago and he was telling us that there just aren’t a lot of Collectors out there like there once was. He was telling us that there was a time when he would ship big items across the world, but that’s very rare these days.

I told her that she should call one of these auction houses that sell expensive items to come in and give her an estimate of the items we need to unload. Just like another poster wrote, our kids already told us that whatever items they inherit,they will be sold, except for the one old handmade German Grandfathers clock that is insured and already crated in a a temperature controlled storage unit.

When our last home burned, she lost a lot of valuable items, but all of them were insured.
 

Ronni said:
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😂 It’s funny, but also not.

I’ve dealt with clients over the years who have expensive collections of things, beautiful oriental rugs worth tens of thousands, large armoires filled with exquisite silver pieces, fantastic art, fine china, delicate linens, objet d'art etc and their kids want none of it!

These are things in many cases handed down from their parents or grandparents, lovingly curated for generations, collected over their lifetimes as their fortunes improved, and now they’re sad and upset that their kids instead want Pottery Barn linens and Restoration Hardware serving pieces and china.

I’m not in that boat. I don’t have much. What about you?
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I have none of that stuff either.... as I see it, it just becomes clutter for someone else to throw away.
 
I don’t really have anything of great value and my children’s taste is different from my own. That’s a question I really haven’t thought about much and because it was raised here, I think I will ask my kids TONIGHT if there is anything they want.
My parents didn’t have anything of great value but I do have a few things that I cherish ….a birthstone ring that my mother always wore, a religious medal that my father wore always and an inexpensive necklace that belonged to my grandmother.
When my mother died, my sisters and I sat down and went through her things to see if there was anything we wanted to keep. I came across a lipstick and I opened it to see it. I was flabbergasted when I screwed up the bullet to find that it was a *****! I was absolutely shocked ……not because I’m some kind of prude who didn’t see the humor in it but because my mother had always seemed like a woman who WAS!
I’ve never laughed so hard! …and yes! I still have it!
 

Jules said:
I agree, yet Antique Stores and huge flea markets do a booming business. My DD and her H spend lots of time going through antique stores, especially when they travel.
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What’s bought is, in many cases, repurposed or redone to make it trendy or in.

a friend bought a gorgeous antique dresser, cut out a portion of the top so she could put a sink in it and surrounded it with granite, and reconfigured the drawers to hide the sink and plumbing. She painted and then distressed the finish, and it’s now in her guest bathroom as a vanity!
 
I have given my kids what they want except for a few pieces of furniture that I am using. I have downsized a few times with last year being the biggest moving into a 855 sq ft condo.

One of my neighbors has hers jammed backed with stuff she doesn’t want to get rid of. I like a leaner and comfortable look and don’t like my closets packed.
 
When we relocated from NW Florida to Central Florida we gave our daughter and son-in-law furniture, tools, mower etc. We were downsizing and they had just bought their first house and needed everything! We have the same tastes. That made it easy for everyone! I am pretty sure that they will keep quite a few things from us in the future. Everything else will go to charity.
 
I have an important comic book collection, records, both albums & 45's and original Nancy Drews, in which she was a snobby racist. Just hope my son saves my political stuff for my grandson, just in case Truth is Banned in his future. Also hope son can at least get a few bucks. Oh, also my antique mezuzah, which I hope he keeps for luck.

My mother's china & silverware he can dump. After it became mine I didn't appreciate it like I thought I would.
 
Alligatorob said:
Much worse, trying to give some of it away, at about 1% so far.

My passing will be a banner day for Goodwill or some thrift store, or maybe the junk man...
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Oh, mine will be a banner day for them, too. I have quite a few things from my parent's. They both passed away in 1994 & I was in my early 40's. I became a collector shortly after of dishes, Department 56 Christmas & Easter plus many other things. I'm really trying to cut down on any new purchases & to get out & use items that I haven't been using. Since Covid we haven't entertained like we used to. I need to get out of that rut!!
 
I have downsized several times but I still have a few what I think are valuables....I think my two children probably think like I did at their age that they don't want mom's old stuff....hoping they change their mind as I did when my mother died.
 
This is why charity shops are so often a source of valuables. They are full of china and ornaments which most young people don't appreciate. I have several items which I could not have afforded to buy new, but are practically given away because the charities need a constant supply of funds.
 
Marian said:
I don’t really have anything of great value and my children’s taste is different from my own. That’s a question I really haven’t thought about much and because it was raised here, I think I will ask my kids TONIGHT if there is anything they want.
My parents didn’t have anything of great value but I do have a few things that I cherish ….a birthstone ring that my mother always wore, a religious medal that my father wore always and an inexpensive necklace that belonged to my grandmother.
When my mother died, my sisters and I sat down and went through her things to see if there was anything we wanted to keep. I came across a lipstick and I opened it to see it. I was flabbergasted when I screwed up the bullet to find that it was a *****! I was absolutely shocked ……not because I’m some kind of prude who didn’t see the humor in it but because my mother had always seemed like a woman who WAS!
I’ve never laughed so hard! …and yes! I still have it!
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Whoa! I was censored! 😳 was that a bad word? I used the medical term for that part of the anatomy.
 
I'm glad that my parents did not collect many things. I didn't collect anything except books. Now I bring them to the municipal waste combustor, since we are in the process of downsizing.
 
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hearlady said:
I wish I could get my husband to clean out. If he passes first my time left will be spent getting rid of things that are not needed.
Every so often he finds a little part needed to fix something and says " See? I knew this would come in handy!"
Yes, dear. We probably have thirty of them.
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My husband still has clothing from the 70s!🤣
 
Marian said:
Whoa! I was censored! 😳 was that a bad word? I used the medical term for that part of the anatomy.
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I always write at least the first and the last letter and omit some of them inside the word. To me it seems that G...le does censoring automatically.
 
hearlady said:
I wish I could get my husband to clean out. If he passes first my time left will be spent getting rid of things that are not needed.
Every so often he finds a little part needed to fix something and says " See? I knew this would come in handy!"
Yes, dear. We probably have thirty of them.
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The only thing my husband collected was porn movies! I put some of his magazines out with the rubbish bin and saw one of the binmen eagerly snap them up!
 
When my father was cleaning out junk from my grandparent's estate (some of the junk is now commanding high prices in antique shops), I asked if I could have my grandmother's china cabinet that was once a museum of miniature glass animals and oddities that I was not allowed to touch, but instead he sold it at a garage sale, and when I asked why, he told me he didn't think I wanted that old thing. It may have been his second to the last act of passive aggression toward me, which I actually expected. But it still stung.
 
My children have not expressed any interest in much. I hate to leave them with a house full of stuff that will probably go in a dumpster .
We do have some nice things they'll want, but those are things we're using now.

Its the things saved in the attic that they have already said they don't want that need to go......"but they may be valuable during an apocalypse," etc etc
 
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