@abasket i hear you. I’m married to a collector - of toys and comics and associated related stuff. Every surface, every closet, every shelf, etc is full of his stuff. It is all very organized I guess but still.
But…speaking as the family geneaolgist, my mom’s old address book from the 60s had a LOT of verifying info for various relatives, esp when census data hasn’t been released yet. It’s the kind of stuff that isn’t passed on in family lore, but can help me connect the dots. Dad still has it, and I need to take photos of it some night after he’s gone to bed.
Keep the pics. My grandmothers labeled the backs of photos, which has been hugely useful in expanding the family tree. My dad took thousands of slides; I’m going to scan and sort.
I saved a plastic container’s worth of Mom’s clothes to use for memory quilts for my sibs; it’s still sitting in a closet. It’s all poly and stretchy stuff, which will be a pain to quilt. A lot of it still had tags on, so it’s not like there’s sentimental value. OTOH, I made her a few cotton hospital gowns in fabrics she liked. Those are what I should keep.
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I envy you going through organized collections. Every time I open a drawer or cabinet, I find more yarn, knitting patterns, needles, etc. Yesterday I found a sweater that was more than half finished and I’ll have to decide what to do about it.
It wasn’t a lifetime supply of yarn, it was more!
I, too, have time to go through this stuff but I have a goal of getting rid of one (two?) bags of trash every week and then a few boxes of donations. My stuff too! Yes, the shredder is getting a workout.
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Lol, all of the above. 
Clearly he doesn’t “see” it like I do - literally. It’s very much an eyesore to me - it’s not a trigger for him
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Oh, I can relate to the “But I want to make a quilt out of that…” comment!
I have a TON of fabric and craft stuff. Ditto photos.
We still have every tax return we’ve ever filed. Back to 1983. If we ever sell our investments, H wants the original buy/sell info for cap gains. PEPCO (now Exelon and Constellation) only have info back to 2011 when they were required to start saving that info. Ditto Vanguard. Was fun seeing our handwritten, pre-Lotus 123 budgets as we did FA applications for
H’s grad school, though!
I try to get rid of old pots and pans, though, and H freaks out. We might need them! Save them for camping!
When I was tossing my own medical bills from the late 80s recently, I noticed my SSN was on MANY of the invoices and reports. It’s not just financial institutions that used SSN as an identifier on documents!
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Yes! Lots of information for genealogy. My mom also had Christmas card lists. A column each for the name, the year, sent, received, and deceased. I’m setting aside all this data and have a big genealogy project ahead.
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I’m not a saver of much. When we got rid of my in-laws stuff we had a liquidator come and that made things very easy. As for documents one of the big benefits of my job is that we routinely shred document from our files. And we get shredding as an official benefit. All I had to do was bring the boxes to work and our shredding vendor took care of it. I bring my own stuff every quarter. Never have to buy a shredder!
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If you still have every “paper” tax return back to 1983, and/or any other document you’re still hanging onto, may I suggest buying a scanner, scan everything you want to keep onto computer, then store on USB drive or external hard drive. Or scan everything onto a USB first, and then back up everything on external hard drive.
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One little tip I stumbled upon with my own paperwork.
I had done a ton of shredding of old tax files, etc., and my shredder was just sitting there. My daughter wanted to buy one, so I gave her mine. Then, of course, I needed to dispose of something.
If you aren’t going to do a burn, get a dishpan full of water and soak your documents. Then, a couple pages at a time, take them out of the water - if you can, because they will already be disintegrating. Ball them up really tight, and just throw away. There is no way someone can take those pages apart, either wet or dry.
This won’t be feasible for boxes of papers unless you are really patient, but for my little shredding (weekly CC receipts, the occasional piece of paper) it really works and avoids a shredder.
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We haven’t been able to shred anything, because we are trying to meet bank requests for emptying the house and there are literally hundreds of boxes (hammerhill bond boxes, you know the thpe) of papers of all kinds – receipts, bills, letters, invoices, more bills ---- dating back to the 50’s. it makes my hair stand on end but there’s no way to finish on schedule AND shred all this too.
We have found 4 partial sets (maybe 60 pieces) of sterling silver flatware. tarnished, of course, but we have no idea what to do with it? I have read some jeweler’s will buy it for scrap? The 5 sets of china are the same thing – nobody wants it at any price. So sad. Oh, and 27 music boxes. One of which had an actual pearl necklace inside (jeweler verified that), so it’s just exhausting to check everything.
Fine furniture being left behind because it is too heavy to move, and nobody wants to come get it. People please, please, think about what your heirs have to deal with.
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Sterling in good condition (tarnish doesn’t count) is worth much more than scrap!
There is a great facebook group of silver enthusiasts- if you post the front and back of each pattern, one of the helpful members can usually direct you to the history and name of the pattern, and then you can look on Ebay to see what it’s worth. Right now, a handy rule of thumb is that good condition is running about $25 per piece… The fastest way to sell is Replacements.com but their commission is high (but it’s quick).
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What constitutes good condition? I cannot bear the thought of selling this piece by piece; otoh, DiL deserves every penny we can wrest from this epic mess.
Good condition means no rough pieces from going through the disposal or major dings from having a metal platter dropped on top of a spoon.
Replacements will quote you a price for the entire lot, not a piece price.
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And the seller has to pay for shipping the goods to Replacements (and back to you if they choose not to buy the items). Less of an issue with flatware than dishes though!
Close up photos and no damage (0ther than tarnish) means a very high likelihood that Replacements will buy the entire lot of sterling. They can quote via email.
Dishes- touch and go. Some patterns are just unsaleable right now, and it is rare that even a
lightly used set of china won’t have knife scratches on the trim or loss of glaze on the surface.
The china, as beautiful as it is, will most likely end up at Goodwill. It isn’t worth the trouble of shipping it anywhere.
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my 90-yr old mother just very recently passed. i was looking at her hutches full of hummels and lladros; no idea what to do with them, nor all the crystal and china. but i will say - it makes me want to start using my own china more often.
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You can always try your local buy nothing groups. Recently a bride to be was asking for floral china which was to be used at her wedding dinner.
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Replacements might be easy, but you will get a dime on a dollar for anything they think they might want to buy…and that doesn’t include the cost you pay to ship the items.
If you have a place that sells used silver nearby, that’s a better option. Especially since you don’t have complete sets.
The china dinnerware….oh my. I just got home from my volunteer job…there are five boxes of used china and no place to even put them in our shop because we also have five complete sets out already…all for way less than $100 for the whole sets. Do you have a swap shack at your landfill?
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I did find a charm (knitting needles and yarn) in an old sewing box with mostly sewing kits from hotel stays. You do have to check everything.
We have a thrift shop here that is the fund raiser for the charity next door. The charity provides hospital equipment (canes, walkers, toilet and shower aids, even ramps) for people who need them for a short time or long time. They are very nice.
Often in the shop they have sets of china, collectibles. They may be getting a whole bunch of Hummels soon…