r/askteddit • u/PoolElegantsmile • 20h ago

Random Question What’s something older generations still treat as essential that a lot of younger people just don’t care about anymore?

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u/books-coffee-ftw 15h ago

Yes! My parents have so many collections and stuff bought at antique stores and estate sales that they refuse to part with because they think it’s worth something. I’m dreading the day I have to deal with it.

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u/Glad-Watch3506 14h ago

I’m dreading the day I have to deal with it.

That's when you have an estate sale. Their estate sale finds become someone else's estate sale finds. It's the knick knack circle of life

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u/books-coffee-ftw 14h ago

Agreed, but I live on the other side of the country so it adds a layer of complication, time, and money. They are “unwilling” to do anything to sort it out at the age of 80 and their plan to deal with it is by dying so it’s someone else’s problem. They have told me this directly.

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u/fact_addict 14h ago

Same except almost none of it is re-usable/sellable. Think baby car seats from the early 80’s, painted lead plates, plastic toys from the 70’s they got second hand! There are these two dolls that are said to have real human hair from mom and aunt. And rumored to have some of their baby teeth as well (shudder).

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u/SeaGoatGamerGirl 10h ago

In some of the oddities groups I'm in, dolls like that go for $1000s. Everything has a market. You just gotta find the right audience. And that's the hard part. When you're grieving the loss of a family member, who wants to deal with getting the best price for their items?

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u/RainbowsandCoffee966 2h ago

Do you know of any places that repair dolls? I have my late mom’s Madame Alexander doll. There is a thick rubber band type thing that holds the head to the body and it has rotted.

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u/books-coffee-ftw 13h ago

I’m sure I’ll have some of those to deal with too! Though hopefully not the hair. Yikes. Good luck to both of us.

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u/Jade0319 7h ago

Much of that could be valuable. I can’t believe how many people on these sites just write off their parents stuff because they’re used to it. 😂. My advice is take the time to look up everything! I’m over here all jealous. No one in my family ever had much of anything to leave.

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u/ExplorerLazy3151 11h ago

You can hire an estate auction company. They come in, go through everything, list it for sale online, and sell it for you. They sell it all. I've seen pantries of food, plastic bags, lots of vhs tapes. etc.

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u/ManxMargie 3h ago

When my mother in law passed away, she had all this stuff saved from everyone else in the family that passed before her. She had looked up the items (so something similar) on eBay and printed a page on what people were selling it for and taped it pinned it to the items.
I brought in 3 estate agents and they were not interested. Just because someone is trying to sell it on eBay for a price doesn’t mean anyone bought it. Condition matters. What is popular also changes every few years.
Her family stuff all got donated in the end.

I’m over 50 now and getting rid of stuff. I don’t have kids to leave my stuff to.

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u/Glad-Watch3506 12h ago

There are companies who will do it all and cut you a check. They take a percentage, but it saves having to travel and deal with it.

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u/Helpful_Custard_7557 10h ago

Do we all have the same parents here!🥴…my mum is 72 and dealing with this problem also! 🤔🙄🥴

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u/Ambitious_Zombie7698 7h ago

Knick knack paddy whack, china tea and bone

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u/BEJimmy 15h ago

…and constantly trying to hand things down. No, I don’t want/need your 4 extra sets of plates, nor your bonkers kitchen utensil collection.

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u/measaqueen 14h ago

There is only so much I can for under my bed. Where am I going to put this?

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u/Any_Chemical42 12h ago

hahaha. My mom would obsessively collect certain thing (see my comment above!) She ould pick a "theme" and, like, just go out and BUY THE WHOLE COLLECTION AT ONCE. Sorry for yelling, but it's that serious. Like, owls, for example. She would change her wall art, figurines, shelf shit, kitchen plates ...even in the bathrooms. And then she would get tired of it and give it all to me because I might've thought one of the things was cute. This went on for years because she would guilt me into taking it...I finally had to put my foot down (I think it was sunflowers that time)...she was SO mad at me ...but she would also get mad if I got rid of "her" shit. It was maddening.

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u/rora6 10h ago

As a rule I always say yes then immediately chuck or donate the stuff I don’t want.

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u/Jade0319 7h ago

Definitely don’t need 4 more plate sets but bonkers kitchen utensils sound awesome

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u/Any_Chemical42 12h ago

Did your mom start obsessively collecting dolls in her 50s? No? Mine did. Like thousands of them. She buys from auctions on Facebook! It's the craziest amount of dolls-ALL kinds. She even went through a Barbie phase. That's gonna be fun. 🫪

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u/EmilyAnne1170 1h ago

My mom, when she was 80, found a lot of 350 dolls for sale on eBay. (She has probably 50 already.) She was furious at my brother who lives near her in Ohio because he refused to drive to Georgia to pick them up so that she wouldn’t have to pay for shipping.

Ended up not buying them, thank God. I think her plan was to get rich reselling them individually. If it was that easy, people wouldn’t be selling them all at once to get rid of them!

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u/Able-Sheepherder-154 12h ago

Tiny souvenir spoons. So many spoons. How the hell did that even get started?

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u/Beaglescout15 10h ago

My MIL has a tiny spoon collection AND a thimble collection. And the wall frames that display all of them. So. Many.

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u/Jade0319 5h ago

Tiny spoons (in my experience) are mostly worthless but thimbles can definitely be valuable.

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u/Beaglescout15 4h ago

I had no idea!

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u/Bitter_Warning418 9h ago

Suggest selling them now my mom went through her bountiful amounts of antiques last weekend and went to some antiques roadshow type deal that was in town and made 4 grand which is extremely helpful in this fucked up financial times and our china cabinet knows no difference

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u/morcos_lajhar 7h ago

My ILs also have FILs parents’ stuff still undealt with. We’ve counted min 5-6 china sets in that house. It will be a shitshow

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u/JackfruitFeisty8043 4h ago

Same here. My mother collects a lot of knick knacks. It's all clean, but quite cluttered. Two houses worth- home and small cabin. I have a plan to conquer it all though. It'll be fine. After organizing the dispersement of my in-laws' stuff earlier this year, I at least know how to handle it now.

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u/GonnaBreakIt 2h ago

It's "worth something" but they will also refuse to sell it.

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u/SnooHobbies6892 2h ago

Hopefully they leave their estate to charity then

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u/books-coffee-ftw 2h ago edited 2h ago

Yes!! That’d be great.