Parents finally downsized. Now what to do with all this stuff?

[Anonymous]

Can you pay a company to digitize photos? Make few short videos with them too? I don't know what lithograph and Stains are. I'd keep gun, ask expert to check if its safe to use. sell sword. Trash rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, photo slides can be converted to photos if you want, but sounds like you have plenty of photos already. For sorting the photos, maybe it could be a family tradition every Thanksgiving to spend an hour together going through a new box and an hour on Christmas?

Please totally destroy the old gun so it doesn't get into the wrong hands. No idea how to destroy a sword.

You can probably take a photo of the lithographs and do a google image search to find out more or just google European Lithographs and spend 15 minutes to get a sense of if they are worth keeping. Could also put on ebay.

All this takes time and your time is worth money too. So many parents think they are leaving some fortune for their kids saving this junk, but they forget nobody deals with it until someone is sick and you need to move quickly and save your sanity. most people I know dumped everything because they did not have an ounce of energy left to deal in the hopes it might yield a few grand. Those who do get one of those special auction companies involved often find rich mommy's junk is still junk.

Why? The antique gun and/or sword are probably the only things listed here which may have value. OP should have them appraised and sold accordingly, especially since the money is needed. Just because you may not like guns or swords doesn't mean there isn't a collectors market out there which places value on them.

Not to mention, people don't buy antique guns for self-protection (or to hold people up).

[Anonymous]

Digitize the photos and slides and turn them into a handful of phonebooks - they will take up much less space than a traditional photo album. There are places you can send them to, and a place in Crystal City that you can TAKE them to if you're too scared to mail them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, photo slides can be converted to photos if you want, but sounds like you have plenty of photos already. For sorting the photos, maybe it could be a family tradition every Thanksgiving to spend an hour together going through a new box and an hour on Christmas?

Please totally destroy the old gun so it doesn't get into the wrong hands. No idea how to destroy a sword.

You can probably take a photo of the lithographs and do a google image search to find out more or just google European Lithographs and spend 15 minutes to get a sense of if they are worth keeping. Could also put on ebay.

All this takes time and your time is worth money too. So many parents think they are leaving some fortune for their kids saving this junk, but they forget nobody deals with it until someone is sick and you need to move quickly and save your sanity. most people I know dumped everything because they did not have an ounce of energy left to deal in the hopes it might yield a few grand. Those who do get one of those special auction companies involved often find rich mommy's junk is still junk.

Please totally destroy the old gun so it doesn't get into the wrong hands. - why not sell it to a gun collector and give proceeds to charity of your choice?

[Anonymous]

Slides can be digitized at the library - at least in Fairfax county. I listen to a podcast called "It's all clutter" (Jes Marcy). Episode #41 discusses what to do with photos. Basically she suggests curating the collection after sorting into groups, like wedding, war, early years etc and selecting a few photos from each significant event or time period.

As for the valuable items, I would find a place that will do the selling and take a cut. We actually paid someone to take care of everything after the in-laws downsized so you've saved a lot doing it yourselves.

[Anonymous]

The daggers and such may be worth money. eBay posts will give you an idea of what similar items sold for in the past.

We will inherit some historic daggers, and I plan to donate them to a museum.

[Anonymous]

Op, first of all -- your parents have said goodbye to all this stuff. Said goodbye by not taking action. None of it is your burden. If it is a burden.

Your biggest challenge is managing resentment of this process vs any joy you get from the sentimental journey. Only you can evaluate this and any decision is reasonable.

When in doubt I like to donate, and I donate the easiest way possible, whatever that is -- and say a small prayer that an object will find a new owner that needs and appreciates it.

[Anonymous]

Lol at the responses urging op to “destroy the antique gun.” Nobody is going to commit a crime with a civil war rifle. It could be valuable to collectors.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t want to do all of this yourself, hire an estate sale company. Yes, they will take more of the profit than you want but they know what is valuable and what is not.

[Anonymous]

We inherited a ton of photo albums. I put them in the attic, but that's just a bandaid. I think the right thing to do would have been to pick out a handful of photos and throw out the rest. You don't need an entire album of photos of a trip from 1950. It's very hard for people to throw out photos, but 99% of photos aren't actually valuable or important or even good.

[Anonymous]

99.99% of the time, photos are not historical documents. Photos are for enjoyment in the moment of taking them and in moments of viewing them, for the people for whom the photos hold some memories. Other people’s random photos are not something that anybody needs to feel obligated by. When you inherit a box of photos, if you want to go through them and pull out a few for some reason, you can. But you should feel free to throw out the rest. They have served their purpose and do not need to be kept any longer. They do not need to be digitized and take up space on your phone. They do not need to be placed into albums. If you store them in a box in the attic, you are just kicking the can down the road and probably handing this problem off to whoever survives you when you die. OP, if your parents don’t have the room, but you think they would enjoy looking at some photo albums, that’s a tough call. In your case I would probably pare down how many photos I had and then play it by ear down the road if I thought my parents wanted to see any of them.

Get the gun and sort appraised and sell them. Sell the silver. Donate the linens.

[Anonymous]

I'm intrigued by the 50 lithographs, if your parents could actually use the money their possessions might be worth.

I recently bought a pretty print in a neat gilded frame at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore. It was in a bin for $5.

Once we identified the artist's signature, I looked to see what it was worth on eBay: more than $100.

If I were you I might also consider trying to sell stuff through a home decor consignment shop.

[Anonymous]

OP I think you should find out by appraisal if any of the collected items have value. Then stage a yard/ estate sale. As for the photos re: Mary Kondo many of them are scenes that will just take up time and give little pleasure or value. My neighbor went on a historical trip to Europe and took 1500 pictures of scenes.

[Anonymous]

Some of your parents collections might be valuable. We have lithographs from post WWII that are very valuable.

[Anonymous]

If it’s real silver, and not silver plate, it could be worth a few thousand dollars. I’d start there. The rest it sounds like trash - you can’t become a museum to your parents’ memories. I dealt with this when my mom died - I went thru and looked at many of her photos and scrapbooks, and then let them go. I don’t have room for them all and I know she didn’t make them to be a burden on every generation after her. I don’t want my kids having to throw out grandmas things. If something was really special I either kept it or took a digital photo. Good luck.