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It's not just stereos that the kids don't want.

sqlsavior

sqlsavior

Lunatic Member
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...y-heirlooms/iP0yVeN49gLF55nq47M7gK/story.html

I'm not sure what the "anti-brown-furniture" movement is, but I don't like the sound of it - I like wood.

Not a whole lot of my clutter is from my parents; I accumulated quite enough on my own, with the help of my wife. With no children, a lot of "nice stuff" will have no home in a few years when we're gone.

What about your "stuff"?
 
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I read this same article some where else last year!
But we have no young-uns ... our brothers and sisters have different furniture tastes than we do
(we love MCM and scandanavian design, they like faux colonial) ...
and certainly no interest in serious home theater or audio systems ...
but we are just hitting our 60s - I hope to hold on and enjoy all this STUFF for quite a few years more, thank you very much (grin)!
 
We have discussions about who gets the dining room tables, chairs, buffet and desk from the parents. We all like all of it. Parents bought Danish while we were in Germany in the 60s, nice MCM teak furniture built to last.
 
Like @hjames, my stuff is a mix of MCM and Danish Modern 'antiques' [shudder]. Nobody in my immediate family, and I don't have kids, is even interested in it since it's not their style (also, coincidentally, faux-colonial). My entire 'estate' (LOL), has already been catalogued with pics and description - approx age, mfgr, etc., and has already been pre-arranged to be handled by my ex in DC. As an architect with an appreciation for great and classic design, he's the only one I know and trust to see to finding appropriate new homes for it all - probably make a good couple bucks off it, too.

I've put a lot of effort into selecting, acquiring, and restoring it all, and I'll be damned if this stuff is just gonna get tossed to the curb in a pile when I'm dead. :angel:
 
The problem is that china cabinets full of delicate objects tend to rattle badly when the music gets loud.

I personally enjoy valuable dishes as long as they get used. Dishes that spend their entire life on a shelf or in a cabinet, only to ever be brought out for semi-mythical "special" occasions, are borderline worthless IMO. Thankfully my parents have plenty of dishes that are both valuable and functional, that get used frequently. I wouldn't mind having them some day.

Funny about parents and stereos though. Both my parents are in their 50's yet I'm the only one who cares about having a good stereo, while they are happy to listen to Pandora on their tablet speakers. I've got a lot of great hand-me-downs from my uncle though!
 
My life observations don't generally support the notion that inheritors are frequently indifferent about stuff. Often there is that one Johnny-on-the-spot friend/family member who handpicks the valuables, whether monetary or sentimental or both, and the items are gone for others. Sad, but true. However, just another reminder that our lives don't consist in our possessions, however much we might own.
 
Dr. Morbius said:
It doesn't surprise me. I didn't want my parents furniture either. It looked like old people's junk from a thrift store. Why would anyone want gaudy old crap?
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When I was in high school, we called 1959 cadillac convertibles "Dinosaurs". They were big, sloshy and inefficient.

I'd love to have one now.

i.e. tastes change and ebb and flow. Get it cheap, when nobody wants it, and then sell it high when everybody wants it.

You know, like vinyl. :)
 
My dear old Ma had great taste, but no money, so she was on a first name basis with every consignment and antigue shop in town. They'd call and tell her to hurry down, or just put a new arrival that they knew she would want in the back for her.
She left a lot of neat stuff for my sister and me to arm wrestle over.
 
My wife has "collectible old stuff" from her grandmother and her mother. She has all her parents photos, slides, videos and memorabilia. She has stuff from her high school, college, all of her nursing books and every seminar she ever attended. She has clothes covering many sizes in 5 closets, 3 dressers and also stored in extra totes and boxes. She has 175 pairs of shoes (for example). She saved her kids toys, grades, papers, photos, videos, awards, and whatever. She has aquarium equipment, photography equipment, sports equipment, and office supplies that will never see the light of day. She has tools that we already have two of that she is still hanging on to. She has kitchen supplies and home products that we will never use.

My three kids and her two kids are all adults, all have there own places and all of them are maxed out on taking her stuff.

Her two kids do not want any of it, not their old toys, not the memorabilia, none of the old grandparents stuff. Her 3 siblings do not want any of it.

Our home is lovely and clutter free thanks to my influence. All of this "stuff" is packed, labeled, and stored on the many, many, many shelves I built in the spacious basement of our home.

Someday it will need to go somewhere. As we near retirement I have been talking to her about letting it go. I could see this dilemma spawning a whole new industry.
 
When my MiL passed away a few years ago, we spent months cleaning up her stuff and moving my FiL in with us. When my FiL moved to a nursing home, I spent weeks of time and hundreds of dollars cleaning out his accumulated stuff. Fortunately, my mom has done her own decluttering so that when the time comes, it will be a relatively painless process.
 
Maybe I can melt down the family silver that was buried under the pig pen when Sherman came threw and make some nice low resistance wire? On a serious note my mother has spent a great deal of time and effort in keeping family treasures in the family and making arrangements to pass it on weather it be furniture pieces my great grand father, grand father, dad made to obvious valuables like crystal, China, silver. Sometimes things have more meaning than uses. How many of us have scored on the old stereo grand dad had and probably proudly passed on only to be sold for a quarter of its value. I get it though, you can't keep everything just because your parents owned it, I think if they made it it's a different story.
 
We gave my wife's oldest son a oak dining room table & chairs and sofa when he "needed" it.. When he moved out he left it all behind in the house he was sharing with his buds. It had zero value to him at that point I guess :wtf:.
 
When the time comes I think the way to go will be to bring in an excavator and dig a hole in the yard and bury everything, furniture, stereo equipment, anything that we held dear because the future generation is into other things now.
 
Will S. said:
When my MiL passed away a few years ago, we spent months cleaning up her stuff and moving my FiL in with us. When my FiL moved to a nursing home, I spent weeks of time and hundreds of dollars cleaning out his accumulated stuff. Fortunately, my mom has done her own decluttering so that when the time comes, it will be a relatively painless process.
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I had the same problem when my parents died. They were depression era kids ... i.e., hoarders. Threw away more junk than you can imagine. My dad had put 3 old non-functioning lawnmowers in the attic for God's sake. What on earth did he think he was going to do with them? Beats me, but he saved them for future generations.
 
I think the issue is that the word "heirloom" is being used rather loosely here. I'll give an example. My great grandfather was a doctor, in the early 20th century. My parents have his microscope on the fireplace mantle, this neat brass and iron bausch and lomb thing which is quite small, and beautiful to look at, and even still functional. I remember using it to look at blood cells as a child.

My grandfather on the other hand, left me among other things, a 32" sony Trinitron console tv, which weighed 200 lbs, and had an enormous oak veneer cabinet with water stains on top. That was not an heirloom, it was garbage, and it went to the dump.

I suspect most "heirlooms" are somewhere in the middle. We just don't need to save it all!
 
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