My grandmother was a quilter. I have ten beautiful quilts. The eleventh is dark purple, light pink, and bright yellow. It’s one of the most hideous things I’ve ever seen. I’ve hauled it from house to house since 1985. , I plan on sneaking it into my mother’s closet and enjoy the other ten.
This reminds me, I still have a set of nearly the first year of Fortune Magazine, still in the original mailing cardboard. My Father took them when by Grandfather (his Father-in-Law) was getting ready to put them in a garage sale. He kept them for decades. Mom kept them for further decades after he died.
They were going to be worth something. Dad had a rant about someone asking about, I think it was the March issue, after they had been set to the side. The inquirer was told that they were not for sale. When that issue was missing at the end of the garage sale, theft was assumed.
Dad collected grievances. So one collection was diminished, but another was increased.
I keep meaning to contact someone teaching graphic arts at UOP, to see if I could sell or donate them all in one set.
My husband’s late grandmother loved to make granny square afghans. I don’t like granny square afghans - your toes poke thru the holes, and they’re just to “country” looking for our decor. Our daughter took some, and we’re about to donate the rest that we have to a nursing home. I checked with him to be sure he had no attachment to them, but he prefers the ones I’ve made. So Grandma Ruby’s efforts will go where they’ll be gratefully received.
Maybe my mittens are beaver fur? These are similar, but not exactly the same.
http://www.htradingpost.com/uploads/1/0/2/5/10251054/2359657_orig.jpg
Over a ten-year period I lost my brother, father and mother. Ended up with stuff each time, and each time it was easier to get rid of stuff.
My basement is filled with stuff that I inherited, but is too good to throw out. On top of that, both of my parents were artists, and my house is filled with their paintings and other artwork . . . in addition to my own. One of these days I’ll have a yard sale, and try to get a parents/son show in a gallery.
Years ago I was advised to save sentiment for people who can return it rather than wasting it on things.
I stayed aware of the advice but it gained a lot more traction last summer when my sister and I were tasked with cleaning out our mom’s house.
I’ve always been a saver of things. Some for family history type sentimental reasons, and some just because they are in a style that’s pleasing to me.
There were things in my mom’s house that I wanted to take home because I associated them closely with her and couldn’t imagine (in one example) that group of books not being together on a shelf in the same order they had been in seven different homes over 45 years of my life.
It dawned on me slowly that having the books was not going to make me happy. I was certainly never going to read them. Some are old enough to be very brittle and crumbly. Taking it a step further, seeing them on the shelf in my house would probably make me sad about missing my mom.
I just reread and absorbed that you asked what to do with them, not how we feel about them. I’m still in the throes of doing. I am aware that there are people who are able to just put all manner of everything in a dumpster without a backwards glance. That is not me. The too crumbly to even open paperbacks I have no problem recycling, but there are items that are either still useful, or collectible. Someone out there wants 1950s “spaghetti poodles.”
Part of what got me started on this phase of this process is that my son (an only child) will absolutely not want any of it, and will most likely call a service to empty my home in a dumpster. So, if it’s important to me that the Wade ceramic figurines that my grandmother collected from boxes of Red Rose tea bags not end up in a landfill I’m going to have to see to that. Have the figurines doesn’t make me particularly happy. Not having them won’t make me unhappy, or more importantly make me forget my grandmother.
In the beginning I thought I’d take the time to put it all on eBay and Craigslist. But I really don’t have time for that, and get bogged down in “I need to take better pictures. And figure out shipping and …”
There are things I need to get rid of beyond my mom’s stuff, too. I’m meeting later this week with a professional organizer/declutterer whose website indicates that one area where he excels is getting your unwanted items into the right places; where to recycle electronics, which thrift shops want clothes but not appliances, which furniture items the Habitat ReStore will take, etc. If I read his information correctly he also has a connection with third party eBay selling service. My fingers are crossed. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh,THOSE. I remember relatives having those. Also kewpie dolls. Never inherited any, though.
Good luck.