Baby boomers are downsizing — and the kids won’t take the family heirlooms

Boston Globe ^ | 04 June 2017 | Beth Teitell

[Drew68]

For 30 years, Pat Fryzel stored her children

[Drew68]

I went through this when my parents passed. Emptying a huge house full of stuff nobody wanted.

[Jagdgewehr]

And yet the vintage market is booming.

[al baby]

Me and my sis did our late folks stuff we were blessed my folks did well of getting rid of stuff along the way

[dfwgator]

Ebay!

[discostu]

The only piece of furniture any of my elderly relatives have that I have any interest in is the FIL’s (now MIL’s since he has passed) gun cabinet. And honestly it’s not that nice a cabinet, I’ll probably find something else to keep the guns in once they’re in my home.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

We know a wealthy lady who recently offered her daughter a large set of sterling silver flatware and serving pieces she’d had in the family for a while.

The daughter didn’t want to be bothered with polishing it, so she declined.

The woman ended up selling it for a large sum of money. Kids are stupid, sometimes.

[ClearCase_guy]

As a general statement, Americans have too much “stuff”.

“Stuff” will generally not make you happy.

That being said, if someone wants to collect tons of stuff and what to argue with relatives about holding on to that stuff for generations, then they are welcome to do so. It’s certainly not up to me to say “You have more than you should have.”

But I do think our love of “stuff” hurts us in many ways.

[Red Badger]

Same thing with us. My daughter doesn’t want any of our ‘stuff’, pictures, artifacts, nothing..................

[Buttons12]

Ebay, or bonanza.com if you prefer lower seller fees and a lot less risk of bad faith buyers.

[kosciusko51]

I wonder how much of this is that in some families, the parents did much better than the children, relatively speaking, but in other families, the children are doing better than their parents, and want the vintage items their parents could not afford.

In other words, social mobility.

[Mears]

Can we post Boston Globe articles?

[discostu]

Who’s inheriting the money? Sometimes kids are smarter than you think.

[oh8eleven]

I went through this when my parents passed.
I'm a "boomer," and about to go through it. I've been in the same house for 40 years, and my wife has accumulated 40 years of "stuff" including some valuable family heirlooms.
We've decided it's time to downsize, but both my kids have been made it fairly plain, that they have no room (or desire) to take the family stuff. Problem is my wife, a mild hoarder, doesn't want to sell it either. Oy ...

[BunnySlippers]

I agree.

Sell it on eBay and take a vacation on the proceeds!

[Right Wing Assault]

My daughter and son-in-law gladly took our brown La-z-boy loveseat.

[Jeff Chandler]

asking what’s next? Am I going to be useful? Will my life have meaning?”

If you haven't figured that out by your golden years you may have wasted your life.

[TADSLOS]

I agree on all points.

[Drew68]

Same thing with us. My daughter doesn’t want any of our ‘stuff’, pictures, artifacts, nothing..................

Getting rid of the old photos was strange. My brothers and I didn't want them but we didn't want to throw them away either. My mom took thousands of photos when we were growing up. In the end, most went into the garbage.

[bigbob]

“It’s not the money...it’s the STUFF!”

- M. Kahn

[gathersnomoss]

I see antique opportunities abound.