Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents’ Stuff
Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents’ StuffAdvice for boomers desperate to unload family heirlooms
After my father died at 94 in September, leaving my sister and me to empty his one-bedroom, independent living apartment, we learned the hard truth that others in their 50s and 60s need to know: Nobody wants the prized possessions of your parents — not even you or your kids.Many boomers and Gen X’ers charged with disposing of the family heirlooms, it seems, are unprepared for the reality and unwilling to face it. Dining room tables and chairs, end tables and armoires (“brown” pieces) have become furniture non grata. Antiques are antiquated. “Old mahogany stuff from my great aunt’s house is basically worthless,” says Chris Fultz, co-owner of Nova Liquidation, in Luray, Va.And if you’re thinking your grown children will gladly accept your parents’ items, if only for sentimental reasons, you’re likely in for an unpleasant surprise. “Young couples starting out don’t want the same things people used to have,” says Susan Devaney, president of NASMM. “They’re not picking out formal china patterns anymore. I have three sons. They don’t want anything of mine. I totally get it.”
8 Tips for Home Unfurnishing
What else can you do to avoid finding yourself forlorn in your late parents’ home, broken up about the breakfront that’s going begging? Some suggestions:
- Start mobilizing while your parents are around.“Every single person, if their parents are still alive, needs to go back and collect the stories of their stuff,” says Kylen. “That will help sell the stuff.” Or it might help you decide to hold onto it.
- Give yourself plenty of time to find takers, if you can.“We tell people: The longer you have to sell something, the more money you’re going to make,” says Fultz. Of course, this could mean cluttering up your basement, attic or living room with tables, lamps and the like until you finally locate interested parties.
- Do an online search to see whether there’s a market for your parents’ art, furniture, china or crystal.If there is, see if an auction house might be interested in trying to sell things for you on consignment. “It’s a little bit of a wing and a prayer,” says Buysse.
- Get the jewelry appraised.It’s possible that a necklace, ring or brooch has value and could be sold.
- Look for a nearby consignment shop that might take some items.Or, perhaps, a liquidation firm.
- See if someone locally could use what you inherited. “My dad had some tools that looked interesting. I live in Amish country and a farmer gave me $25 for them,” says Kylen. She also picked out five shelters and gave them a list of all the kitchen items she wound up with. “By the fifth one, everything was gone. That kind of thing makes your heart feel good,” Kylen says.
- Download the freeRightsizing and Relocation Guide from the National Association of Senior Move Managers. This helpful booklet is on the group’s site.
- But perhaps the best advice is: Prepare for disappointment.“For the first time in thehistory of the world, two generations are downsizing simultaneously,” says Buysse, talking about the boomers’ parents (sometimes, the final downsizing) and the boomers themselves. “I have a 90-year-old parent who wants to give me stuff or, if she passes away, my siblings and I will have to clean up the house. And my siblings and I are 60 to 70 and we’re downsizing.”
By Richard Eisenberg; http://www.nextavenue.org/nobody-wants-parents-stuff/, February 9, 2017 Image courtesy of Chaiwat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net