Your Money & Business
Cash or Trash?
What to Do with Your Stuff
June 2022
Photo Courtesy: Cecilia Beisler
By Carol Lippert Gray
I think I’ve reached the age where downsizing is more appealing than accumulating, so I’ve been trying to get rid of stuff. Down the line, I certainly don’t want my daughters to have the burden of dealing with 60 or 70 years of collecting. Trouble is, no one wants certain categories of stuff that once were considered essential to running a properly furnished home.
Consider silver (plate or sterling), fine china and crystal. Younger people don’t entertain formally anymore and don’t want to deal with how labor-intensive it is to keep it in shipshape. They may move more than we did, and who wants to keep packing, schlepping, and unpacking all of that? Plus, who wants to devote precious, scarce storage space to hold something you’ll never use?
I recently called an antiques dealer who advertised on Facebook to come to my home to buy some items. My Lenox china? Nope. My Orrefors crystal? Nope. There were other things I’d laid out on my dining room table in the hope she’d buy them. “Can’t use this,” she said of a pair of large glass urns with silver-plate bases. “Can’t use this,” she said of a stained-glass table lamp probably from the Nineteen-teens (Tiffany-style, but unfortunately not Tiffany). “Can’t use this,” she said of silver-plate platters and bowls.
She did buy some gold jewelry I no longer wear, lots of sterling jewelry, some costume jewelry, three Victorian beaded purses, and various other flotsam and jetsam. All of it had meaning to me, and I thought she’d appraise each item individually. Nope. The lot of gold was one price, the lot of silver another. She put it all in a shopping bag, paid me cash, and left.
Consider silver (plate or sterling), fine china and crystal. Younger people don’t entertain formally anymore and don’t want to deal with how labor-intensive it is to keep it in shipshape. They may move more than we did, and who wants to keep packing, schlepping, and unpacking all of that? Plus, who wants to devote precious, scarce storage space to hold something you’ll never use?
I recently called an antiques dealer who advertised on Facebook to come to my home to buy some items. My Lenox china? Nope. My Orrefors crystal? Nope. There were other things I’d laid out on my dining room table in the hope she’d buy them. “Can’t use this,” she said of a pair of large glass urns with silver-plate bases. “Can’t use this,” she said of a stained-glass table lamp probably from the Nineteen-teens (Tiffany-style, but unfortunately not Tiffany). “Can’t use this,” she said of silver-plate platters and bowls.
She did buy some gold jewelry I no longer wear, lots of sterling jewelry, some costume jewelry, three Victorian beaded purses, and various other flotsam and jetsam. All of it had meaning to me, and I thought she’d appraise each item individually. Nope. The lot of gold was one price, the lot of silver another. She put it all in a shopping bag, paid me cash, and left.
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I tried to consign the china and crystal to The Real Real. Nope, although the site did accept some Royal Worcester odds and ends.
So, what’s a packrat to do? I asked Cecilia Beisler, of A Simpler Life Now, a move management company based in Warren, NJ that serves seniors and their families with downsizing and moving. She says, “Clients can have estate sales or use online auctions like MaxSold if they have a large amount of stuff and would like to try to sell it, but these sales take time to set up, price and schedule, and then you need to [coordinate] pick-up times. It’s best to have a sale once the client has moved out and everything left in the home gets sold.” For higher-end artwork, sterling, gold, etc., she says local auctioneers may purchase these items and pay cash on the spot. (It’s probably smart to do your due diligence first, with a little online research, to suss out what the items actually are worth.) |
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She suggests trying FaceBook MarketPlace "for china, Hummels, Lladros, and glassware. Or join Freecycle and list your item for free. This is for people who would like to give or get items free without good stuff going into landfills." For name-brand clothing and handbags and some furniture, she suggests consignment shops [or sites].
“Otherwise,” she says, “I help clients donate furniture, clothing, and household items to local charities. Green Drop is terrific for all household items. VA Hospitals are good for men’s clothing. Habitat for Humanity, Vietnam Veterans of America, Dress for Success, and local thrift shops are good options. For larger items, like furniture, sometimes we need to call a local hauling company to pick it up and drop it off at the charity. Things like large brown furniture, pianos, large gym equipment are hard to sell or give away. If someone is willing to just pick it up for free, it’s worth it.”
“Otherwise,” she says, “I help clients donate furniture, clothing, and household items to local charities. Green Drop is terrific for all household items. VA Hospitals are good for men’s clothing. Habitat for Humanity, Vietnam Veterans of America, Dress for Success, and local thrift shops are good options. For larger items, like furniture, sometimes we need to call a local hauling company to pick it up and drop it off at the charity. Things like large brown furniture, pianos, large gym equipment are hard to sell or give away. If someone is willing to just pick it up for free, it’s worth it.”
Additional Resources:
BIBLIO.com: For books you think might be rare or valuable, this site will provide comparables. If the book then seems to be of value, contact a rare-book expert.
Replacements, Ltd: You can try to sell collectibles, fine jewelry, china, crystal, and sterling here.
Etsy: If you have a cache of embroidered or crocheted linens, consider finding someone who repurposes them. Etsy has thousands of craftspeople who might be interested.
National Association of Specialty & Senior Move Managers: An organization that manages the stress of relocating older adults, individuals and families.
BIBLIO.com: For books you think might be rare or valuable, this site will provide comparables. If the book then seems to be of value, contact a rare-book expert.
Replacements, Ltd: You can try to sell collectibles, fine jewelry, china, crystal, and sterling here.
Etsy: If you have a cache of embroidered or crocheted linens, consider finding someone who repurposes them. Etsy has thousands of craftspeople who might be interested.
National Association of Specialty & Senior Move Managers: An organization that manages the stress of relocating older adults, individuals and families.
Carol Lippert Gray is an award-winning public relations professional and longtime freelance writer and editor. Her career has spanned books, newspapers, magazines, broadcast and online media in fields as diverse as crafts and corporate finance, parenting and philanthropy. She is Co-Associate Editor for Sanctuary.
