This is funny to me since my grandmother had a great collection of really pretty cups and saucers that my sis and I split after she died. She loves the sets and I appreciate them but they aren’t “my thing”. I still took them though because she can’t store them all and they make great presents to her!
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Hey - as I said - everyone has different likes and dislikes. I do not judge people for liking their “stuff.” People should have/do whatever makes them happy!
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Had the same dilemma as OP with my mom’s good china.
I ended up selling the complete set on FB market for something like $20. The young mom who came to get it all (her daughter with her) was clearly happy to have a complete, nice set so affordable. I knew it would have made my mom happy to see a young family receive the benefit.
I did that with my parents’ furniture too (priced items extremely affordably - young families were thrilled at the chance and brought friends to help move them). It was so good to know those dressers, etc. went to homes where families just starting out could really use them. My parents would have liked that.
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@Jolynne_Smyth - I think that’s the perfect solution. Most of us don’t want money for family items… just a better “good new home” than the trash bin.
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It really felt surprisingly rewarding. There is the temptation to hold on to stuff (but do I need two sets of china? No, barely even need my own set).
I also posted a few items free on FB market with fun descriptions - e.g., my mom’s old clothes from her business-lady days in the late 50s/early 60s were “vintage”. A young girl with pink hair and her bf who loved vintage drove an hour to pick them up & were beyond thrilled to get them. Made me and my brother very happy. 
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I’ve also put things on my own FB page. That way it only goes to friends…who can pass it on. Maybe I should do this with the Orrefors crystal 
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We registered for china, glassware, and silverware when we got married in 1994. It was just what everyone did, and at the time we had grand illusions of building a huge house and hosting big dinner parties. I think we only wound up with a 4 place setting and a few serving dishes, it has been boxed up at my mother’s house ever since the wedding shower. It has never been used, we never had a big house or hosted people and are now divorced. It turned out to be a huge waste of money in our case. I also have a pretty big set of china with flowers that my Grandmother gave me in high school(for my hope chest as they used to say), which she had collected from the grocery store when you could get a piece each week with a certain minimum purchase. It has never been used I don’t think, but I did have it in my farmhouse style china cabinet at one time. I have another set that was collected from the grocery store which has apples on it which is in my china cabinet because I changed colors, my ex-mil had given it to me.
I use corelle dishes that we got for our wedding for everyday and always have, even growing up that is what we had. I don’t remember how much the china and silverware was, but I remember the goblet glasses were $39 each.
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I believe my grandmother has some of these.
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In grad school the house we shared with Caltech students came with Corelle dishes. Someone had read that the stuff didn’t break so of course being scientist they had to test this hypothesis. That’s how I learned that it shatters into millions of pieces. It made a horrible mess. I have a few Corelle salad plates that I now use exclusively for palettes for Chinese painting.
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My mother and her sister had both the pink and green Depression Glass. My mother had dessert plates, cups/saucers, a pitcher and a serving tray. I kept the serving tray and the pitcher and my cousins took the other pieces. I always serve lemonade in that pitcher because it reminds me of summer.
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At one point, they would replace Corelle if you sent them a broken dish. I don’t think they do that anymore.
Corelle will definitely break, but not that easily. It is lightweight, doesn’t chip easily in the sink and fits well in the dishwasher.
I worked with a guy who was a ceramics engineer and his first job out of college was working for corning testing their plates. So basically he broke plates for a living!
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Corelle serving dish slid off the countertop and bounced across the floor yesterday. Noisy but didn’t break.
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I replaced our stoneware with plain white Corelle years ago because my stoneware did not go in the microwave. The only thing that has broken is a platter that had a metal tumbler drop on it from a high shelf. It fits in the dishwasher no matter how I pack it. I love it for everyday use.
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It takes a big drop onto a hard surface to break the correlle. The first one I ever broke dropped form about 4 feet onto a cement floor. I have since broken ones that smashed on my granite countertop. But really they are close to indestructible and unlike china or stoneware won’t chip.
Funny that you mention vintage linen. I just told H yesterday that when we get settled in the next house, I want a mangle / rotary iron so I can more quickly starch and iron table linens and pillowcases. I gave up ironing tablecloths about the time I had rotator cuff surgery but think it will be easier with a rotary iron. Ironed pillowcases don’t matter to H, but I love the way they feel.
Using the linen napkins that my grandmother embroidered or tatted edges for makes me feel closer to her. They’re worth the trouble of ironing.
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My brother-in-law’s mother collected four colors of depression glass. When she passed, each of her four children was given a color (she had two boys and two girls).
Both my mil and sil went through a depression glass “phase” and have quite a bit of it. I think part of their joy comes from the “hunt.”
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Better late than never. Here’s a photo of my entire set (The earlier one was just the serving platter). I dug it out of the garage since it’s been boxed for about 10 years - wanted to see if there was any damage. My two college aged daughters went nuts claiming they’d never seen it. They’ve now made a pact to split the set when they’re on their own with each getting two place settings.
That’s my dining table in the photo, lol. So I do have a rustic aesthetic! We got the dining set in Albuquerque 30 years ago and I’ve painted it three times over the years. It just sort of matches the dinnerware by coincidence.
The dinnerware is Sky Farm by Annee Goodchild. I found very few replacement pieces online, and only one other pattern. So my girls better take care with it!
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That’s a fun set!
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