My parents are 77 & 82. After my dad fell last month, DH suggested we buy the house across the street from us that is for sale. It has a first floor master and is 1,000 sq feet bigger than our house and only about 50K more than we could get. We all toured it and my parents kept saying how there was room for all of their stuff and they didn’t have to get rid of anything. I thought DH was going to have a stroke listening to where they were going to put their dark, Colonial style furniture including the massive (and UGLY) hutch and how there was so much room in the basement.
I had to tell them we couldn’t do it. It’s one thing to have to clear out their house when they aren’t here anymore. It’s a whole other thing when they insist on dragging it all into where I have to live.
If solid sterling, sell to a reputable dealer for the weight of the metal. We did this with Mom’s silver and gold pieces and jewelry that no one wanted. After research, I found a jewelry store in their town that actively sought estate items. He was able to advise if any of the stones were worth anything much (they weren’t, as we suspected) and if the pieces were worth more as jewelry or metal. Based on his advice, we decided to keep a few more items and sell him the rest.
Ask first. Some places no longer take these as donations because no one wants them.
When my mom died, I donated all of her silverplate serving pieces to the SCF where she lived. At the time, they were thrilled because they had little receptions and such and these pieces were something the residents appreciated.
But with Covid…not sure these would be a welcome donation there…
I was in a consignment shop recently and they had a silver tea/coffee service where each piece was about $3. Looked just like my mom’s which I think my sister ended up with.
We were lucky in that we were working with a pair of sisters whose business was to help people clear out family members’ homes. They gave us a few fine metal sources and I checked them out. The sisters company was able to advise what was worth keeping, what to donate, where to donate, which items might need appraisals, what should be trashed, and arranged for it all to be done. They helped us decide not to have an estate sale (tricky in a condo anyway). I took care of all papers and found a place to shred what needed shredding. They were lifesavers.
By the time we had to do Mom’s place, we had already been involved in closing out my MIL’s house, and later moving from our home of 25 years. So I was definitely in favor of streamlining!
The biggest bullet I dodged was a giant Rococo mirror in MIL’s dining room. At her shiva, the geriatric counselor learned it had belonged to the grandmother. (This counselor had become great friends with MIL, and I’m sure they spent many happy hours discussing my faults.) Anyway, I said it didn’t go with our style. She said, “But it was Grandmother’s!” I said we had no room for it. She said again, “But Grandmother’s!” I managed to avoid having to take it; not sure if husband would have knuckled under.
You can sell sterling on ebay and get a little more for it than you would at Replacement.com . it is not hard to ship it either (not like china).
I bought a whole set on ebay a number of years ago. I bought the same pattern my mother has so now we have about 18 placesettings between us (not all the same pieces, but close enough).
You could offer it to your kids to sell and let them keep the profits.
I had to get rid of my MIL’s minks!
No one wanted them! I tried.
Besides being a big no-no for my kids, (“GAWD Mom! Those are the furs of defenseless animals!”), facilities didn’t have a place for them.
They were beautiful and I didn’t want to throw them away. I passed them on to a friend, who tried to give them away to some high school theater groups but they didn’t have the space!
I would sell on ebay. It’s easy to do a search of sold items in the same pattern for an idea of price. I’m still buying some of my silver pattern on ebay. Depending on the pattern, there could be a fair number of people looking.
Another idea is selling to an estate silver company like The Silver Queen in Largo, FL or Beverly Bremer Silver Shop in Atlanta. They should be interested in buying pieces that are still in the plastic wraps, again depending on their current inventory of that pattern.
Before anyone gives away or sells a silver tea set, make sure you know whether it’s silver plate or sterling silver. The sterling sets are still bringing in thousands.
And minks! I still have some perfectly good furs hanging in the guest room closet because I don’t want to just dump them, and then, out of sight, I forget about them
I have heard that some animal rescues/shelters like furs to make them into cuddlies for their young animals. Real fur/faux companion!
Never fully investigated this as the donors of two lovely but never worn by me mink coats are still alive and would clutch their pearls in horror if they ever found out that’s what had become of their gifts to me.
Ages ago, someone left a mink in the free box in Telluride and nobody would take it. That always made me chuckle.
We have a lot of antique mismatched china at our Vermont cabin. I love it. My younger son uses my parent’s wedding china for his everyday china. It was a weird modern 1950s pattern that has seen too many dishwashers.
My friend’s MIL has more than 25 fur coats in her closet and she lives in San Diego. My friend wore a gorgeous mink to a Christmas party we attended last month. It was in the low 40’s that night and she looked gorgeous with the fur over her gown since the party was outside.
A few years ago we went to the Hotel Del on Christmas Day and there were two ladies of a certain age clad in floor length white furs dining outside. Maybe I should break out my very very old full length coat that’s been in the closet since we moved.
