It was Easter at my parents house. My daughter Charlotte was 10 years. She came up to me exasperated, “There’s something wrong with my grandmother!” she whispered. Now, of course, she had my full attention. “What’s the matter?” “Ammy (my kids’ affectionate term for my Mom) doesn’t know how old I am.” Sweet relief! She hadn’t fallen or had a kitchen mishap, but I had to comfort and explain. “It’s OK, honey. She’s got a lot of grandchildren. She may just be mixing you up with one of the other cousins.” Nope. That wasn’t it. Charlotte explained, “It’s not that Mommy. Ammy doesn’t know how old I am because she just made me pick out a set of china!” Yup. Sounds just like my Mom, doesn’t it? And guess who ended up storing it? Yup. Yours truly. But maybe Mom knew something a lot of us don’t learn until it’s too late. Give it to them early when they’re too young to know any better, because there are things your children don’t want. And what the heck are you supposed to do with them now?
Some of The Things Your Children Don’t Want: China, Silver and Crystal
As this story of my Mom and Charlotte illustrates, china is chief among the things that your children don’t want, but so are silver and crystal. Your adult children often do not have hutches to store china in, if they even have formal dining rooms at all. And the silver and crystal are affiliated casualties of this lack of storage and room. So what to do with them? Well, ladies and gentlemen, these are GREAT things to bring to a consignment shop, like Consignments Ltd. And I bet you’re wondering who buys these things that your children don’t want. No word of a lie, it’s your children. You see, when you give up the Thanksgiving dinner duties, and pass it off to them, they are not prepared because they didn’t want your china, silver or crystal, in the first place. But now… yup. It’s an emergency need for dinner plates. You’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
And speaking of bank, silver, specifically sterling silver, has been running high lately, so check out my blog about What to Do With Your Sterling Silver or make an appointment to bring it in for consignment at 401-284-3399.
Your Children Don’t Want A Lot of Your Holiday Decor
Your kids may have loved how you made their childhood home feel at the holidays. But trust me, if they realize that it took 14 totes full of decorations to accomplish this, they’re out. When you go to downsize and no longer need all this decor, you naturally turn to them, assuming that they’ll want it because they’ll want to re-create this feeling for their children. And that’s when they (or often their spouse) will break your heart. What to do with these items becomes the big question. I’d say with this one, and anything else that is potentially sentimental, take a two-step approach.
Step one is to spread out the decorations on the dining room table (yes, you still have one, LOL) and then call them over. Issue each kid a box and let them choose from what’s there. This may surprise you. Certain things will evoke memories and others not-so-much. And often it’s not the ones you think. My girls would fight to the death over a Christmas tree ornament that I have of Santa driving a Farari. But the sterling silver bells they’d leave behind as they don’t make them giggle. They don’t care about the monetary value. It’s the sentiment.
Step two is to make an appointment at the consignment shop where holiday items sell really well. See my blog: Visit Thrift and Consignment Shops For Christmas Tree Decorations for more on that. And when you’re getting ready for this step, pay attention to the shop’s schedule because they will most likely have rules about when they take holiday items. At Consignments Ltd., for example, we start taking Christmas on September 1st. And as of this writing all of our appointments for these items are booked… all the way through Christmas. Yikes! I know. But it’s a good problem to have.
Books, Books and More Books
When Bruce and I moved in together, we each had so many books. The quantity was past more than some small libraries, but our kids already had huge book collections of their own. We went through them, spine-by-spine and decided what we would keep. There were so many doubles, so many out of date texts and so many that no longer untested us. Some, we put outside the shop for free, but many more we brought to the sale at the local library. It was a great way to move them along and save them from the dumpster. You can look for these opportunities in your community or even use some of them for crafting with books.
Another Thing That Your Children Don’t Want: Figurines
This is one I get. If your kids don’t want the clutter of a collection, like figurines, I’m in their camp. My Mom collected Staffordshire dog figurines and I rather catch a bad case of poison ivy than have them in my home. I, luckily, have a sister-in-law who loves the “Staffies'” as Mom would call them. But if you don’t have another, non-kid, family member willing to take these babies and you’re not going to use the Hummels for target practice with your Red Rider, what are you going to do with them? I suggest looking for donation opportunities, like your church yard sale. Barring that, try donating them to your local charity, thrift shop and you can save guilting your kids for something bigger. LOL
Hope you find this content helpful, my friends. I know there are a lot more things that your kids don’t want. I’d love it if you’d share those things with me and even let me know what you did with them instead? Send me an email at consignmentslimited@gmail.com. I definitely feel at least two or three more blogs coming on this topic as we expand our list. And if you think someone you know needs to read this article, feel free to share it via the buttons below.
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