Furniture, silverware, books or collectibles – who has room for it?

By Morf Morford
Tacoma Daily Index

Have you been to a thrift store lately? They are packed with furniture and odds and ends that, up until recently had been in daily use – or were even favorite objects.

A generation is dying off – or downsizing – and that means that an avalanche of random, once-treasured stuff is flowing like a generational glacier across the thrift store landscape.

But most of it just sits there.

Some charities like Salvation Army and Goodwill even frequently refuse to accept donations of home furnishings.

Dining room tables and chairs, end tables and armoires (so-called “brown” pieces) have become furniture non grata. Antiques are antiquated. No one wants them now – and no one is expected to ever want them again.

If you are thinking your grown children will gladly accept your or your parents’ items, for sentimental reasons, you’re likely in for an unpleasant surprise.

They don’t have the room, but mostly they just don’t want it.

Formal china? Why?

I’m of the generation that valued patterned china – even if we only used it once or twice a year – or less.

But we only had it (and kept it) because we inherited it.

And that big, boxy furniture that we sought out?

Yep, no one wants it.

And those books? Or DVDs? Or CDs? Same.

Increased mobility, tighter budgets and even tighter living quarters have made those “collectible” items even more cumbersome than they seemed.

Antique stores (packed with stuff many of us grew up with) do a brisker business with Fisher Price toy people and Star Wars action figures than with oak or maple sideboards and credenzas.

Midcentury furniture – especially the sleek chrome – is of interest, but that Depression era stuff? Nope.

Welcome to the Ikea and Target generation.

If you thought fast-fashion was limited to clothing, think again. Furniture needs to be simple, affordable and portable – or even disposable.

Emotional attachment to furniture? Not for this generation.

As always, of course, there are exceptions.

Those vinyl records (or at least some of them) could be worth a lot.

Most won’t be worth much, but some, especially those in very good condition could be worth hundreds – even thousands of dollars.

Got any John Coltrane or Miles Davis among those LPs? They might be worth a few hundred dollars. Beatles, ABBA or Mamas & Papas? Not so much.

No matter what you (or they) have, get started now on your clean-out projects.

Get jewelry appraised, take a trip to a consignment shop, search online for the value of collectibles – but don’t expect much for them.

If you have tools, a local group or tool library (tacomatoollibrary.org – 754 S. 38th) could always use them.

If you have silverware, look closely. If it is silver-plated, it is worth close to nothing (except perhaps to an artist who could use it). Real silver is only worth the current scrap value of silver.

Rugs? Good luck getting anywhere near the original purchase price.

As you look over everything, the prime consideration should NOT be how much someone paid for it, or who it came from, but who, if anyone, would want it now.

When my daughter was in high school, various groups would sponsor scavenger hunts. The list would usually include items like a newspaper or magazine from the 1970s, a 45 rpm record, a wooden kitchen implement, a children’s book from the 1950s, a lady’s hat from the 1930s, a board game or a recording of a specific Broadway musical.

Our daughter would bring her group to our house and find it all.

I know that she would never want her house to ever become a nexus for cultural ephemera.

And I’m not sure how our house got that way.

We’ve been in our house a little over 25 years and over those years various friends or relatives have died, moved away or downsized – and somehow we got all their stuff.

Sometimes I think we might have had burglars in reverse; where someone snuck into our house and put stuff in it – instead of taking it away.

Either way, it’s time for us – and everyone else I know, it seems – to get rid of the stuff we spent a lifetime gathering.

Know anyone putting together a 20th Century themed scavenger hunt?