Moved-your belongings too?

[readergirl]

We retired and moved to Florida. Although we got rid of a lot of stuff, we also moved a ton of stuff. My husband convinced me to get rid of so much. You don't need it. Yada, yada, yada. And I watch a lot of youtube videos of people who also moved to Florida. There is not one thing left from their old life. Their rooms look like a show room. So it can't be they saved the moving costs, yes, they did. But, they had to buy it all over. And there is no loving feelings about the knick knacks. Just-oh-yes-that came from Home Goods, wherever. And we went to garage sales all this past year looking for the tools he insisted he didn't need to bring, and now wants back. The crafty items I didn't need to bring, not my words. So, pay to bring it, or throw it away and rebuy it when you get to your destination? and what about mementos? Remembering where that came from (not a store, but the: where you were, and what you were doing). 

[jerseygirl]

Had an aunt who moved to Florida and did this also. Their Florida house looked like the furniture department at Macys

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

My MIL downsized after being in her 2800 sq ft house for 30 years to a 900 sq ft condo.  She was absolutely brutal when she downsized, and I know that refurnishing her condo cost her a lot.  In her defense, a lot of her old furniture just didn't fit.  A single one of her old chairs would have taken up 1/2 of her new living room.  

She still finds things she wished she had kept, but is annoyed with herself that by getting rid of little sushi gowns that she didn’t think she’d ever be eating sushi again.  But it really isn’t a problem.

TBH, her mementos went where she wanted them to go.  The end result is that if she dies or needs to go to assisted living, she’s already dealt with the angst of getting rid of the stuff that had memories associated with it.  The end result is that SHE chose, and it made life easier for her family in the future.  Her family appreciates that she did this selfless act.  I wish my dad had done this.

My MIL’s new furniture cost waaay more than what she got rid of.  It was custom made for her new condo.  You know what?  It was her money, who cares?  I know her family wants her to have whatever she wants to make her life easier. 

[Bonny]

Aug 21, 2022 9:25:59 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

My MIL downsized after being in her 2800 sq ft house for 30 years to a 900 sq ft condo.  She was absolutely brutal when she downsized, and I know that refurnishing her condo cost her a lot.  In her defense, a lot of her old furniture just didn't fit.  A single one of her old chairs would have taken up 1/2 of her new living room.  

She still finds things she wished she had kept, but is annoyed with herself that by getting rid of little sushi gowns that she didn’t think she’d ever be eating sushi again.  But it really isn’t a problem.

TBH, her mementos went where she wanted them to go.  The end result is that if she dies or needs to go to assisted living, she’s already dealt with the angst of getting rid of the stuff that had memories associated with it.  The end result is that SHE chose, and it made life easier for her family in the future.  Her family appreciates that she did this selfless act.  I wish my dad had done this.

My MIL’s new furniture cost waaay more than what she got rid of.  It was custom made for her new condo.  You know what?  It was her money, who cares?  I know her family wants her to have whatever she wants to make her life easier. 

Not to mention that a lot of stuff people have hung onto for years is worn out and needs to be replaced. We're overdue for reupholstering DH's family furniture. It will cost more than replacing it. It does have some value because of the family name but I hate to go through the math of analyzing what it has cost us to acquire housing which would fit the furniture. 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 21, 2022 11:05:56 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Aug 21, 2022 9:25:59 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

My MIL downsized after being in her 2800 sq ft house for 30 years to a 900 sq ft condo.  She was absolutely brutal when she downsized, and I know that refurnishing her condo cost her a lot.  In her defense, a lot of her old furniture just didn't fit.  A single one of her old chairs would have taken up 1/2 of her new living room.  

She still finds things she wished she had kept, but is annoyed with herself that by getting rid of little sushi gowns that she didn’t think she’d ever be eating sushi again.  But it really isn’t a problem.

TBH, her mementos went where she wanted them to go.  The end result is that if she dies or needs to go to assisted living, she’s already dealt with the angst of getting rid of the stuff that had memories associated with it.  The end result is that SHE chose, and it made life easier for her family in the future.  Her family appreciates that she did this selfless act.  I wish my dad had done this.

My MIL’s new furniture cost waaay more than what she got rid of.  It was custom made for her new condo.  You know what?  It was her money, who cares?  I know her family wants her to have whatever she wants to make her life easier. 

Not to mention that a lot of stuff people have hung onto for years is worn out and needs to be replaced. We're overdue for reupholstering DH's family furniture. It will cost more than replacing it. It does have some value because of the family name but I hate to go through the math of analyzing what it has cost us to acquire housing which would fit the furniture. 

Yep.  I paid nearly $1000 between fabric and labor to reupholster 2 small chairs that I could purchase new for $500.  However, they are small, neutral chairs that can go in almost any decor and they are both very well made….and they are comfortable.  If we ever downsize, both pieces are more likely to go with us because they are not huge pieces of furniture.  

We live in about 2800 sq ft too and are in our early 60s.  We know we are going to need to downsize in the future.  We keep kicking that ball down the road, but I know we are going to run out of road sometime.

[weltschmerz]

She still finds things she wished she had kept, but is annoyed with herself that by getting rid of little sushi gowns that she didn’t think she’d ever be eating sushi again.

What in the world is a sushi gown?  I looked it up, but all I could find was dresses with pictures of sushi on them.
I'm pretty sure you could eat sushi in any kind of gown, or even naked.

[Deleted]

I wish we hadn't moved as much as we did, when we moved in 2014.  Now looking at how much furniture prices have gone up and quality has gone down, I might still move my stuff again, if we move out of state. 

Of the stuff I moved, some didn't fit in the new house and some was just wrong.  We moved and either sold or tossed, a treadmill, living room set, kitchen table and chairs, and various dressers and tables.  We sold a dining room set and bedroom set before the move and that was the right choice. We still have our office furniture and 2 bedroom sets.  

I am not sentimental at all.  I don't keep pictures or mementos.  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 21, 2022 11:52:11 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

She still finds things she wished she had kept, but is annoyed with herself that by getting rid of little sushi gowns that she didn’t think she’d ever be eating sushi again.

What in the world is a sushi gown?  I looked it up, but all I could find was dresses with pictures of sushi on them.
I'm pretty sure you could eat sushi in any kind of gown, or even naked.

Autocorrect.  Sushi bowl.  I must have typed a g for a b and autocorrect turned it into gown.

[NastyWoman]

A lot of my furniture has circumnavigated the world several times. I always purged some stuff when we moved but most things moved with us. When I move to Europe in a few years I will have to get rid of some of the larger items as homes over there tend to be smaller. Still I will take quite a bit along. It is hard to get rid of stuff I can handle. Getting rid of all my furniture would be like getting rid of my home so that is not going to happen.

[finnime]

We're right now in the process of weeding out yet more Stuff that we did move, after culling everything before moving. Now I don't understand why I decided to keep certain things, but recall that a lot of this Stuff got packed early in the process.

I wish I had been as ruthless in the beginning as I was in the end. Mementoes and pictures are not the biggest problem. It's excess clothing, books, certain furniture, books, miscellany and books. I do want an entirely different look for this home, a ranch style in a seaside New England town versus a two-story colonial in central Maryland, part of metropolitan D.C. A lot just doesn't go. So we've bought and are buying pieces that are a better fit and expelling others. It's a long slog.

[billisonboard]

I have made roughly one/two car sized moves in my late twenties, mid thirties,  and mid forties. As I look around my place, here in my mid sixties, I could easily do it again. Never been much attached to "stuff". Now if I had to take the wife along, it would be a very different story. 

[scgal]

We are currently going thru stuff -- other peoples stuff. We kinda inherited all my moms stuff, my husbands parents. My aunts which for the life of me I cannot understand why. These so called momento to them mean nothing to me I held them close to 20 years now. Tried to get others in the families interested nope not their problem. It is all going. 

Now for our stuff the items we occumalated through our marriage its downsizing too. It's stuff that is all it is. I refuse to be attached to a knick knack because of a memory the memory is still there. When I die my kids are going to go thru the bullcrap what I have been going thru with my decendents. I love them too much to put them thru that. 

My husband and I come to realize material things do not mean anything to us anymore. I doesn't bring me happiness to have to dust it, move it protect it uggggg. 

[giramomma]

We probably won't ever move until we need assisted living. We are switching 3/4 of our bedrooms. Which means lots of purging.

We're also buying some new furniture. I will say my DD1 deserves it.

Most everything in our house is old. We really haven't spent a lot of money on furniture  We opted just to use our childhood furniture or take cast offs.  We bought our mattress right before we got married. A living room chair and couch, and a lazyboy. We bought 2 beds for our 4 kids. One will stay, one we'll get rid of. Our kitchen table is a craigslist find.

Even with DD1's purchases, we've spent 6K on furniture in almost 21 years of marriage; over half of that is on the kids.

I've even surprised myself at the "treasures" I got rid of. Purging in your late 40s, I think is nice. I'm certain of who I am where where I'm going or not going.

[nidena]

When I moved from DE to IN, I got rid of a ton of stuff.  I've yet to come across anything that I wish I had kept.  Probably because I kept the pieces that I knew I didn't want to part with.  Very little of it was furniture, though.  I knew that my old furniture needed to be replaced and that it likely wouldn't go with my new house.

In an interesting twist, I just bought a bunch of furniture on Thursday for my unfurnished yet finished basement.  It's all MCM and will go perfectly with the dark brown paneling down there.  lol.  I don't plan to keep that paneling the color that it is but it will do, for now, while I finish up the upstairs.

I'm not looking forward to sorting my parent's house when the time comes.  They don't have a lot, in terms of breadth of collections, but they do have a lot when it comes to depth within the few collections they do have.  Example: Christmas decorations.  They decorate extensively, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, for Christmas and it's all stored in totes.  A few dozen totes.  Then there's her dishes and table decor.  We're talking a couple dozen dish sets, all with 8-12 place settings, plus chargers, cloth napkins, placemats, tablecloths.  I'm very glad I'm not the executor of their estate.

[billisonboard]

Aug 21, 2022 13:15:37 GMT -5 nidena said:

When I moved from DE to IN, I got rid of a ton of stuff.  I've yet to come across anything that I wish I had kept.  Probably because I kept the pieces that I knew I didn't want to part with.  Very little of it was furniture, though.  I knew that my old furniture needed to be replaced and that it likely wouldn't go with my new house.

In an interesting twist, I just bought a bunch of furniture on Thursday for my unfurnished yet finished basement.  It's all MCM and will go perfectly with the dark brown paneling down there.  lol.  I don't plan to keep that paneling the color that it is but it will do, for now, while I finish up the upstairs.

I'm not looking forward to sorting my parent's house when the time comes.  They don't have a lot, in terms of breadth of collections, but they do have a lot when it comes to depth within the few collections they do have.  Example: Christmas decorations.  They decorate extensively, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, for Christmas and it's all stored in totes.  A few dozen totes.  Then there's her dishes and table decor.  We're talking a couple dozen dish sets, all with 8-12 place settings, plus chargers, cloth napkins, placemats, tablecloths.  I'm very glad I'm not the executor of their estate.

I would be uncompromising unloading things. All or nothing on Christmas stuff. Same with each dish set and pluses that go with them.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Interesting topic.

I got rid of stuff in my last move that I truly regret. 18 years agos! I had some lovely scandinavia framed indoor/outdoor furnture I got from an old neighbor of my parents when she sold her vacation home. Liekly made int he 40's. Was in perfect condition,even the cushions. Likely was pretty pricy/high quality. stupid. 

Aside from moving, I've done a lot of purging through the years as well. And I realized something about a lot of these clean/declutter gurus. They are all pretty young.

The stupid mantra - if you haven't used it in a year give it away. I've done that lots of times, to many regrets. You need to be more thoughtful about it than just that. Plenty of things I put aside for 5 or more years, then go through a period of near-daily use. 

While we all do acquire much more than we need to in the modern lifestyle, some things should be saved and it is really important to make thoughtful choices on what you save and what you don't.

[nidena]

In my parent's case, they use everything they own so that's good.

As for saving things, I don't consider it "saving" if you use it quite a bit or fairly often.  Saving, to me, is keeping a kid's baby teeth.  EW!  Or, in my case, I have a track suit that my dad bought me during one of his trips to Korea.  It's purple and gold and has sneakers embroidered hanging over the shoulder on one side.  The embroidery is of a brand of sneakers that were popular during the late 1980s: British Knights.  I'm sure I'll get rid of it some day.  Maybe.

But there is a plus side to getting rid of things early and often: less crap when you're too old to move it due to poor health or some other reason.

As to the OP, I wouldn't want my living space to look like a showroom but I don't want it to look like it's been chewed up by cats and kids either.

[weltschmerz]

Aug 21, 2022 11:58:56 GMT -5 @pooks said:

I wish we hadn't moved as much as we did, when we moved in 2014.  Now looking at how much furniture prices have gone up and quality has gone down, I might still move my stuff again, if we move out of state. 

Of the stuff I moved, some didn't fit in the new house and some was just wrong.  We moved and either sold or tossed, a treadmill, living room set, kitchen table and chairs, and various dressers and tables.  We sold a dining room set and bedroom set before the move and that was the right choice. We still have our office furniture and 2 bedroom sets.  

I am not sentimental at all.  I don't keep pictures or mementos.  

Neither do I.  I think I'm the only person I know who doesn't have walls and mantles cluttered up with family pictures.  
I know what everybody looks like.

[bean29]

Aug 21, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Aug 21, 2022 11:05:56 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Not to mention that a lot of stuff people have hung onto for years is worn out and needs to be replaced. We're overdue for reupholstering DH's family furniture. It will cost more than replacing it. It does have some value because of the family name but I hate to go through the math of analyzing what it has cost us to acquire housing which would fit the furniture. 

Yep.  I paid nearly $1000 between fabric and labor to reupholster 2 small chairs that I could purchase new for $500.  However, they are small, neutral chairs that can go in almost any decor and they are both very well made….and they are comfortable.  If we ever downsize, both pieces are more likely to go with us because they are not huge pieces of furniture.  

We live in about 2800 sq ft too and are in our early 60s.  We know we are going to need to downsize in the future.  We keep kicking that ball down the road, but I know we are going to run out of road sometime.

How small do you think you might go? Asking cause our house is 2,000 sq ft + about 1800 sq ft. I figure I wont go less than 1800 anove grade or more than 2200-2400 lately I think we might be best off staying put, even though taxes are high.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 21, 2022 15:32:24 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Aug 21, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Yep.  I paid nearly $1000 between fabric and labor to reupholster 2 small chairs that I could purchase new for $500.  However, they are small, neutral chairs that can go in almost any decor and they are both very well made….and they are comfortable.  If we ever downsize, both pieces are more likely to go with us because they are not huge pieces of furniture.  

We live in about 2800 sq ft too and are in our early 60s.  We know we are going to need to downsize in the future.  We keep kicking that ball down the road, but I know we are going to run out of road sometime.

How small do you think you might go? Asking cause our house is 2,000 sq ft + about 1800 sq ft. I figure I wont go less than 1800 anove grade or more than 2200-2400 lately I think we might be best off staying put, even though taxes are high.

I'm thinking about 1600 sq ft on a single level.  However, unless we build or move, that unicorn does not exist in this city as a single family home.  We do know that this house will be fairly easy to age in, with minimal renovations.  Some, I'd like to get done sooner than later like installing higher profile toilets and a tiled/roll in shower.

We have friends who have been looking forever.  Right now, his wife has MS and it's out of remission so she has been deteriorating faster than expected.  Right now, in their 2 level home they have installed a lift to get her upstairs, but she is rapidly reaching the point where she's not going to be capable of going up stairs this way.  There is no space for an elevator.  He also needs to do a major renovation of 2 bathrooms to deal with this.  At this point, I think that they are going to give up the search and renovate what they have.  A few years ago, friend built a large building intending it to be a shop for woodworking.  However, it has also been plumbed and can be used as an ADU according to city regulations.  I think right now he's trying to figure out how to renovate it for a place for his wife to live.  I think he said that the building is about 550 sf, so it could easily be made into a bedroom (with all the hoists that are going to be needed), a h/c accessible bathroom and sitting room.  

[haapai]

Aug 21, 2022 13:15:37 GMT -5 nidena said:

When I moved from DE to IN, I got rid of a ton of stuff.  I've yet to come across anything that I wish I had kept.  Probably because I kept the pieces that I knew I didn't want to part with.  Very little of it was furniture, though.  I knew that my old furniture needed to be replaced and that it likely wouldn't go with my new house.

In an interesting twist, I just bought a bunch of furniture on Thursday for my unfurnished yet finished basement.  It's all MCM and will go perfectly with the dark brown paneling down there.  lol.  I don't plan to keep that paneling the color that it is but it will do, for now, while I finish up the upstairs.

I'm not looking forward to sorting my parent's house when the time comes.  They don't have a lot, in terms of breadth of collections, but they do have a lot when it comes to depth within the few collections they do have.  Example: Christmas decorations.  They decorate extensively, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, for Christmas and it's all stored in totes.  A few dozen totes.  Then there's her dishes and table decor.  We're talking a couple dozen dish sets, all with 8-12 place settings, plus chargers, cloth napkins, placemats, tablecloths.  I'm very glad I'm not the executor of their estate.

I am extremely grateful that my parents never discovered totes.  I am also grateful that they voluntarily downsized in their late seventies and didn't leave the job to me and my brother.  Every once in a while, we wonder what happened to something or get a twinge of bad feelings about how something was disposed of.  When that happens, I try to remember everything that they got rid of, that I will never have to deal with again, and I'm grateful. 

My mom called me quite a few times before disposing of stuff.  I almost never had space for it.  I almost always wanted it but I'm glad that they chucked it for me.  All of that stuff, coming at me at me at a vulnerable time, could have easily buried me in stuff.  I need to be glad that they got rid of 75% of what could have landed on me. 

[Deleted]

Years ago, after cleaning out DH's parents' home, we brought home some beautiful family furniture. Rosewood, handmade in Japan etc. And we lived with it for many years before realizing it totally didn't work with our look in our house. We offered it around to some cousins, one of whom wanted part of it which we delivered to Dallas. The rest was sold to a local antique dealer. Dito the silver-plated wine goblets, toothpick holder, salt and pepper, coffee and tea service and all the other stuff that would never see the light of day here but consumed our closet space.

Since that experience we purge on a regular basis because living happily in 1,300 SF requires self-control and we don't want anyone else to have to deal with stuff. We have an album of family photos going back to the very early 1900's and a box of DH's father's military memorabilia and medals.

When we move to an apartment it will probably be about the same size we have now, just arranged differently. Some of the bulkier desks and chests might need to go away but the sofa, love seats, chairs, dining room set and bedroom stuff will be fine. Reupholstery is not cheap, but accomplishes miracles and new furniture is not cheap either.

[Tiny]

I've got relatives that moved to Florida.

My biggest observation is that for the most part is that Florida homes are more "Pastel" and "summer colors" while our Up North homes are darker and heavier in color(s).

One family had planned their move for almost 2 years and off loaded a lot of their furniture to family, friends, and the trash (because it was just old and worn out). This family was also known to "re decorate" by replacing old furniture/decorative items so I wasn't too surprised by this. I think they have the "it's disposable" it just needs to look trendy and last for a while. No need to spend a lot of money on it - it's destined for the trash.   They just stopped replacing stuff/lived with deteriorating stuff/make shift stuff, or mostly empty rooms, for a while.   The excuse repeated over and over again was "oh, it's just temporary, we're moving."   So their move to Florida worked out ok... they bought new stuff that goes with their new "light colored, beach themed" home.

The other family was always about "hand me downs" and "used/second hand" furniture... so their dark, bulky, furniture went with them. I think some of it got "updated" with a new coat of light colored paint - and some of it just stayed dark colored until it got replaced with some new "lighter colored" used stuff.  They also painted the interior walls of their "Florida themed house" with darker colors  so their darker furniture didn't look so weird/out of place. 

Back in 2010 when I (and a relative) were looking at houses/townhouses in Florida - nearly every property had light colored tile floors on the main floor and then either light carpeting or tile on the upstairs (if it had an upstairs) and had a pastel color scheme for furniture, baths and kitchens. In 2019 when I was looking at properties again - most of them had "plank vinyl flooring" - usually with a hardwood look (sometimes very dark) and any carpeting was a darker color. Kitchens and baths have much darker cabinetry and counters. It looked a lot more like what I currently see in the places "Up North" that I look at.    So it might be easier to move with a "wood" themed kitchen table and chairs - and not feel the need to change it to a "white" themed kitchen table and chairs - to go with the lighter color house theme.     

A friend moved from here to Tennessee - the new house had a lot of the "warm honey brown" trim and cabinets and non-descript wall colors so pretty much all of the furniture they moved with - went with the new house. They did opt for new window treatments and they did repaint a couple of rooms
but the color scheme seemed to be similar. OK, the style of house also seemed similar to what's here (in newer sub divisions).  They also were ready for some furniture changes - they left behind their 1980's bedroom furniture for example and updated to something more modern and more comfortable for aging bodies.   


I do agree that downsizing is challenging. I'm not downsizing - but thanks to the pandemic I became very aware of how much stuff I own. Much of it stuff that I could eventually use - I just need to use up a bunch of stuff first. I also own a lot of craptastic stuff - one time use or trendy or too much work to use more than once or twice. I'm slowly but surely using up the stuff I have (and now starting to use the stuff I had waiting in the wings) and getting rid of some of the craptastic stuff. Not buying new stuff (that I can use someday) on new craptastic stuff is a challenge. There's a lot of pressure to "keep up with the Joneses and their craptastic stuff."

And it kind of sucks to NOT doing the keeping up thing - it mostly means I have even less in common with relatives and friends because we can't connect over the new trendy thing we both own - we can't share that experience.   

I've moderately embraced some aspects of minimalism   (especially the idea that having stuff sucks up time and energy - you have to clean it, move it, care for it.  If it's put away in storage - do you really need it?   being aware of how many daily decisions are made about the stuff in your house... and do you really need to keep making those decisions over and over and over again?  Would it be better to have less stuff?? 

[Artemis Windsong]

Aug 21, 2022 12:21:36 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

I have made roughly one/two car sized moves in my late twenties, mid thirties,  and mid forties. As I look around my place, here in my mid sixties, I could easily do it again. Never been much attached to "stuff". Now if I had to take the wife along, it would be a very different story. 

I'm sure she has stuff!  You're so funny.

[Artemis Windsong]

We didn't prepare to move or downsize.  We had the house spray painted.  Nearly everything had to be removed from the walls.  The furniture able to be easily moved.  Our end tables have storage in them.  We want to update those but are unable to find anything.  We're not working hard at that.  We were 6 weeks hauling stuff to the basement where a lot still lives.  And to closet shelves.

AZ villa.  I cringe every time I bring something in.  H. is even worse not wanting to put displays on the walls.

[jerseygirl]

Books, books, books for both of us
Tools, tools tools for Jerseyguy
Clothes clothes clothes for me

Furniture either traditional or mid century
Oriental carpets ( weird writing that since only use Asian now) Think could be sold easily or given away, Habitat Humanity. Right now kids would keep mid century
Lots of kitchen stuff trying to go through this for Good Will. 2 ‘good’ dish sets one from my mom keeping both . Kids will keep or donate
Gave mom’s crystal champagne wine glasses to DIL already

Trying to get rid of silver plated pitchers, trays, sugar creamers , candle holders , etc. Posted on eBay, 0 looks.
Any ideas ?

[haapai]

Aug 21, 2022 16:21:05 GMT -5 soupandstew said:

Years ago, after cleaning out DH's parents' home, we brought home some beautiful family furniture. Rosewood, handmade in Japan etc. And we lived with it for many years before realizing it totally didn't work with our look in our house. We offered it around to some cousins, one of whom wanted part of it which we delivered to Dallas. The rest was sold to a local antique dealer. Dito the silver-plated wine goblets, toothpick holder, salt and pepper, coffee and tea service and all the other stuff that would never see the light of day here but consumed our closet space.

Since that experience we purge on a regular basis because living happily in 1,300 SF requires self-control and we don't want anyone else to have to deal with stuff. We have an album of family photos going back to the very early 1900's and a box of DH's father's military memorabilia and medals.

When we move to an apartment it will probably be about the same size we have now, just arranged differently. Some of the bulkier desks and chests might need to go away but the sofa, love seats, chairs, dining room set and bedroom stuff will be fine. Reupholstery is not cheap, but accomplishes miracles and new furniture is not cheap either.

There's a rosewood piece coming at me and my brother soon.  I've checked.  My parents still have it.  It does not fit well in either my brother's house or mine.  I suspect that I will land up with it and live around it for many years.   It's not very old or valuable but my parents bought it when I was quite young and they were immensely proud of it when my brother was too young to remember anything.  I'm pretty sure that I will still own it when I die and that my brother and nephews will be completely confused by the piece. 

At this point in my life, all that I can do about this is to muck out my own house to make the decisions that my heirs have to make simpler.  I'm stuck with the rosewood coffee table, but I can make sure that the rest of the house is not packed with choices that they have to make. 

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2022 17:03:59 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Books, books, books for both of us
Tools, tools tools for Jerseyguy
Clothes clothes clothes for me

Furniture either traditional or mid century
Oriental carpets ( weird writing that since only use Asian now) Think could be sold easily or given away, Habitat Humanity. Right now kids would keep mid century
Lots of kitchen stuff trying to go through this for Good Will. 2 ‘good’ dish sets one from my mom keeping both . Kids will keep or donate
Gave mom’s crystal champagne wine glasses to DIL already

Trying to get rid of silver plated pitchers, trays, sugar creamers , candle holders , etc. Posted on eBay, 0 looks.
Any ideas ?

No one wants silverplate any more, not even the antique dealers.  Even the sterling items were tough to ditch and didn't yield much.  

[Bonny]

Aug 21, 2022 17:03:59 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Books, books, books for both of us
Tools, tools tools for Jerseyguy
Clothes clothes clothes for me

Furniture either traditional or mid century
Oriental carpets ( weird writing that since only use Asian now) Think could be sold easily or given away, Habitat Humanity. Right now kids would keep mid century
Lots of kitchen stuff trying to go through this for Good Will. 2 ‘good’ dish sets one from my mom keeping both . Kids will keep or donate
Gave mom’s crystal champagne wine glasses to DIL already

Trying to get rid of silver plated pitchers, trays, sugar creamers , candle holders , etc. Posted on eBay, 0 looks.
Any ideas ?

Donate. Let someone else have fun creating a "glam" look.

[jerseygirl]

Aug 21, 2022 17:22:43 GMT -5 soupandstew said:

Aug 21, 2022 17:03:59 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Books, books, books for both of us
Tools, tools tools for Jerseyguy
Clothes clothes clothes for me

Furniture either traditional or mid century
Oriental carpets ( weird writing that since only use Asian now) Think could be sold easily or given away, Habitat Humanity. Right now kids would keep mid century
Lots of kitchen stuff trying to go through this for Good Will. 2 ‘good’ dish sets one from my mom keeping both . Kids will keep or donate
Gave mom’s crystal champagne wine glasses to DIL already

Trying to get rid of silver plated pitchers, trays, sugar creamers , candle holders , etc. Posted on eBay, 0 looks.
Any ideas ?

No one wants silverplate any more, not even the antique dealers.  Even the sterling items were tough to ditch and didn't yield much.  

So do you do? Throw away in garbage? Recycle?