jaybirdsmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2008
there have been articles about how even before the big decluttering trend many of the goodwill/salvation army type places were refusing donations b/c of the massive amounts they were getting from boomers downsizing. items that traditionally people would pass down to their family members apparently hold no appeal to many younger people these days so much of it is ending up going to charities. i went into a charity store the other day and was amazed at how much crystal, china and NICE solid wood furniture was available-and it's going for cheap b/c they have a warehouse stuffed to the brim.
We have one thrift here that turns their noses up at stuff, but they've been like that for years. All the others happily take whatever you give them. I wish stuff was priced cheap here. The picky thrift store would have that nice china going for $200/set, the crystal would be $10/piece, and you could buy new furniture for what they charge. The others aren't much better.
I have no idea what we will do with the stuff in my Mother's house when she passes (hopefully no time soon). She has 2 sets of her own china and at least one set belonging to each of my Grandmothers. I have 2 sets from one grandmother myself (both grandmothers were dish hoarders, she bought them with grocery store stamps). There are also 3 sets of crystal and 3 sets of silver plus the one that my grandmother bought for me when I was born. All of my grandparents died within a 3 month period of each other. My parents moved their stuff and a lot of my maternal grandmothers stuff into my paternal grandparents already overflowing house. You literally cannot walk through parts of that house and I have nightmares about the basement. There's just me and my brother, I know he doesn't want any of it. There are some pieces I'd love to have, but I really don't have any room for it.
As for Marie Kondo, I love the idea of her method but a friend tried it and my greatest fear came true. She piled all her clothes out onto her bed, then ended up sleeping on the couch for a month because she got overwhelmed by the pile and just couldn't deal with it. My brain would look at a big pile of whatever and just say "nope" and that would be that. Also, like the other poster said, some days if I got rid of everything that didn't bring joy, I'd have nothing left but the coffee pot, my PJs, and a few bottles of adult beverage.