A Yamaha baby grand is indeed a fine and beautiful instrument. I suspect we will have to find a home for the piano in my mom’s house someday when the house is sold. I believe it’s a no name instrument and hasn’t been tuned in many many years.
We donated parents piano to the chapel of a continuing care facility. It was a baby grand, but definitely not a Steinway.
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We know a photographer who had an old piano he used as a prop. That may not be a bad suggestion if they’ll come get it.
We have a Yamaha grand. D will take it when she’s finally settled somewhere. She’s already said she will make space for it even if that means not having a living room ; ). I will miss it when it’s gone as I’ve always had a piano in the house. We may get a used baby grand for me but H is wanting to convert that space into a bar area ; ). I figure we are at least 4-5 years away before she can take it.
We have a 1920’s player piano, along with 100+ spools, in our beach house. We bought the house from my MIL, the piano has been in the family since it was new.
DIL is a piano technician and has taken a look and tuned it…it’s fine but we’d never move it to our home if we sold the beach home…
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The new owners of our old house agreed to take our piano.
We were happy not to have to deal with it.
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Thanks @Marilyn
It’s possible one of D’s friends will take ours next year when we move, but good to have a backup.
LOL, as many things on CC ours was just a good old used simple piano when we bought it 20+ Years ago. We paid maybe $500-800 for it then. Gulbransen. Looks something like this one. Vintage Gulbransen 1940's ornately carved piano with bench
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We actually like our Kawai console piano…and so do our kids. It was the last year this brand was fully made in Japan. It has a beautiful sound, and we have maintained it well.
Still…not sure what will happen to it when we move someday.
If we pay to have it moved, I believe our senior center would be interested in it.
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It looks a lot like mine, which is not a well-known brand, but it’s a solid sounding piece.
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As posted above, friends weekly got lucky listing free piano online. However I should mention that other friends a few years ago were not so lucky. They had to spend some bitter hours dismantling and adding the big dumpster they had hired for haul-away stuff. So… it’s good to be thinking/planning so as to not be in a time crunch like they were.
I donated mine last month- I recently cleaned out a relative’s home and found a non profit thrift shop that happily took a lot of very nice stuff so I asked them to take the piano off my hands which I don’t think they normally do. During lockdown last year many in my neighborhood were looking for free/reasonably priced pianos but I haven’t seen anyone looking for one recently. I’m sure someone will want yours!
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There was a local HUGE estate sale last week of a home that likened a castle. (@toledo did you know this home??) Sounds like they sold an overwhelming amount of the items available for sale. I saw this morning that one thing that did not sell was an old organ. Apparently they sold another piano (notable one) and another organ but are now desperate to get rid of this unsold organ. Price, FREE.
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One place I took things when cleaning out my parents house was The Scrap Exchange, our local “creative re-use center”. They accept lots of weird odds and ends that people can use to make art. I don’t know if they would take a piano, but they might. They took my parents’ vintage 1960s/70s World Book encyclopedias!
There are some cities that have pianos on the street for folks to come along and play. Seems like that would be a much better option than the dump if you can’t give it away to another family. Check this out and maybe contact a street piano organization near you. Organizing Labels - World Pianos
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I had a beautiful upright that was a gift from my husband. I haven’t played for years and needed to move it out for a remodel. I posted it free on our neighborhood Next Door and a military family paid for the move and tuning for their young daughter to learn piano. I warned them it would be a bear to move around and they said ‘Navy pays for all their moves’. It was really difficult to take out of the house, did not fit through back door and they only sent one guy to pick it up!!
But the family was so grateful and I received a lovely Thank You from the young girl
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Someone took our very old and not very good upright piano for the metal parts inside. I wanted to transform it into a bookcase but don’t have the skills to do that or donate it to one of those outdoor piano art installations but there wasn’t one going at the time.
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The organ in my parents’ house is just gorgeous. I wish a creative person could take it and make something out of it.
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Around here, I think organs are harder to give away than pianos. I love the idea of a creative reuse. @MaineLonghorn - Maybe you could find a taker at your parents church?
I found a website to advertise free pianos (my antique baby grand needed serious restoration) and received a couple of offers immediately. So glad to have it finally gone! I think the website was called “Piano Adoption”.
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We have a beautiful upright Petrof piano that we purchased new 20 years ago when D1 was playing. It has a gorgeous tone and we keep it tuned although no one really plays right now. One day when D1 has a permanent place to live it will go to her.
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About 15 years ago, we donated an upright piano to a senior center. We paid for the move and had the piano tuned after it was delivered. The same senior center received our pool table. We later replaced the pool table but not the piano, which was harder to give away.
We’re now considering an electronic piano just for fun but haven’t made a decision yet.
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