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malnpudl at 08:32pm on 19/12/2014
malnpudl at 08:32pm on 19/12/2014There seems to be no end to decluttering. Every time I make a clutter vacuum, it sucks more clutter in to fill the void. This, combined with my severe and lifelong case of Horizontal Surface Disease, makes for an endless struggle.
I've lately been eyeing my considerable collection of not-at-all-valuable family *airquotes* heirlooms *airquotes*. You really have to use the airquotes, because they really do fall that far short. I have oodles of heavily tarnished silver plate things, some of them with family monograms. They're clunky old relics that wanted to look like Real Stuff but never managed it even in their day, and that day is so many decades past that a century is visible on the horizon. Ditto for the wanna-be-crystal stuff. And so much flatware and odd serving utensils that they require a second chest to hold them, because the chest for the 12-piece silverplace flatware set doesn't have near enough room, even with its extra drawer.
I did a bit of googling and a bit of ebay surfing and I didn't find anything realistically going for more than $20 or so. There were a bunch of higher priced listings, but they'd been sitting for so long without activity that there were layers of dust, so I can't take those prices seriously. Point being, it's not like I could make significant money off these things.
What do people DO with all this stuff? By this point, the weight of family history is heavier than the pieces themselves. But I don't know of anyone my age or younger on either side of the family who would get excited about them, much less pay to have them shipped across the country. And yet it's hard to think of just... unloading them on strangers just to make them go away. Because... family history. Argh.
I don't even know.
Thoughts? Advice?
I've lately been eyeing my considerable collection of not-at-all-valuable family *airquotes* heirlooms *airquotes*. You really have to use the airquotes, because they really do fall that far short. I have oodles of heavily tarnished silver plate things, some of them with family monograms. They're clunky old relics that wanted to look like Real Stuff but never managed it even in their day, and that day is so many decades past that a century is visible on the horizon. Ditto for the wanna-be-crystal stuff. And so much flatware and odd serving utensils that they require a second chest to hold them, because the chest for the 12-piece silverplace flatware set doesn't have near enough room, even with its extra drawer.
I did a bit of googling and a bit of ebay surfing and I didn't find anything realistically going for more than $20 or so. There were a bunch of higher priced listings, but they'd been sitting for so long without activity that there were layers of dust, so I can't take those prices seriously. Point being, it's not like I could make significant money off these things.
What do people DO with all this stuff? By this point, the weight of family history is heavier than the pieces themselves. But I don't know of anyone my age or younger on either side of the family who would get excited about them, much less pay to have them shipped across the country. And yet it's hard to think of just... unloading them on strangers just to make them go away. Because... family history. Argh.
I don't even know.
Thoughts? Advice?
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