![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2013-02-01-11.17.04-Copy-300x169.jpg\")
<\/a>Mom’s 1962 spinning wheel lamp<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Four years ago when our mother died we had the task of cleaning out her one bedroom apartment<\/strong>.\u00a0 We were so na\u00efve we assumed that\u00a0five of us could wrap it up in an afternoon and then spend the rest of the weekend partaking in some of Sonoma’s great food and wine<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 After all, she lived\u00a0in a retirement home where she received all of her meals – thus no laborious kitchen utensils, pots or dishes to pack.\u00a0 We figured we’d just clean out her personal effects and arrange for someone to haul away the furniture.\u00a0 Piece of cake.\u00a0 Two days later we had filled\u00a055 huge black garbage bags<\/strong> with\u00a0stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 Our mom, who never struck us as a pack rat, had held on to every piece of paper she received and every photo ever taken.\u00a0 Her five-drawer filing cabinet was crammed with both necessary documents and complete trash, the most striking of which was a drawer half-filled with address labels listing her former<\/em> address.\u00a0 She kept photos of undocumented scenery<\/strong>, made worse by fuzzy Polaroid technology, along with old pictures of relatives who were completely unrecognizable to us.\u00a0 When the\u00a0last of her 1962 maple furniture was mercifully taken away by her church thrift store, we fell into an exhausted heap and\u00a0vowed to\u00a0go home and immediately clean out our closets.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dust Collectors<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Apparently we are not alone in this endeavor.\u00a0 According to articles in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today<\/em> and several other publications,\u00a0Baby Boomers are now\u00a0dealing with getting rid of their parents’ possessions<\/strong> and simultaneously trying to downsize their own households.\u00a0 The problem is…no one wants our stuff.\u00a0 Our parents, shaped by the Depression and war, held on to everything.\u00a0 They passed on those same values to us – to be grateful for anything<\/strong> that comes our way.\u00a0 Especially if it’s free.\u00a0 My first apartment was completely furnished with my grandmother’s furniture and I was thrilled to get it.\u00a0 Now, the Gen X’ers and Millennials can cheaply outfit their living spaces<\/strong> with furniture from IKEA, Target or Walmart and achieve the clean,\u00a0uncluttered\u00a0look they desire.\u00a0 Collectively they are rejecting knick knacks, sterling silver tea sets,\u00a0figurines and power tools.\u00a0 Instead, they take a picture of the item with their iPhone<\/strong> and keep it in the cloud.\u00a0 Digital images don’t take up the space that old mahogany breakfronts do in a lifestyle that is mobile and\u00a0\u00a0transient.\u00a0 As a result, one of the\u00a0fastest growing businesses in America is junk-removal services<\/strong>.\u00a0 I shudder to think\u00a0how some of my friends who collect things will react when their kids finally inherit their treasured accumulation of clowns, thimbles, and Corning Wear.\u00a0\u00a0I hate to tell them that it’s all going to end up on eBay.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 Lenox Tuxedo for $5<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n So, back to my own resolve to keep the house clutter-free<\/strong>.\u00a0 Last year I finally threw away my childhood scrapbook, a Junior Miss trophy, and my wedding dress.\u00a0 I realized\u00a0these items held sentimental value to me but were totally\u00a0worthless\u00a0to anyone else.\u00a0 I’d rather throw them away myself than make someone else do it.\u00a0 My latest idea is to get rid of my china, crystal and silver<\/strong>.\u00a0 After all, my “good stuff” requires I cook a meal commensurate with its formality.\u00a0 About a year ago I dragged\u00a0it all out and had a sophisticated dinner party – beef tenderloin,\u00a0hasselback potatoes, green beans almandine – the whole nine yards.\u00a0 Between setting up the table and cooking the dinner, I ended up practically asleep in my soup,<\/strong>\u00a0or wine – it all became a blur.\u00a0 It was a bad night.\u00a0 Clearly my formal entertaining days are over.\u00a0 I contacted Replacements, the huge company that buys and sells fine china, about selling my Lenox Tuxedo.\u00a0 They informed me they aren’t even buying the cup and saucers<\/strong> anymore but would give me $5 for the dinner, salad and bread\/butter plates.\u00a0 Not each – $5 TOTAL! \u00a0In turn, they are selling the same 1974 version of my pattern for $110.\u00a0 That’s a profit that might even make the bankers my brother wrote about last week feel a bit like, well, bank robbers.\u00a0 As for the crystal, a good friend just tried to sell hers and she told me not to bother.\u00a0 She contacted a company that\u00a0sells\u00a0fine crystal on consignment and they admitted to her\u00a0that they hadn’t sold ANY crystal in months<\/strong>.\u00a0 “Nobody wants this stuff anymore”, he explained.\u00a0 She’s now decided to use it everyday, figuring that if it gets broken or chipped it really isn’t worth anything anyway.<\/p>\n I do worry a bit about our collective valuables being so easily discarded<\/strong> by future generations.\u00a0 I think the stories and\u00a0family histories that are connected with these items should carry some weight.\u00a0 I love that I have some of my grandmother’s crystal and think of her every time I see it<\/strong>.\u00a0 But my brothers and I are the only people who remember her so the value to the next generation is not as dear.\u00a0 I don’t know where it will end up but I will take a page from the millennials and capture it in a photo before I give it away.\u00a0\u00a0After all, I love looking at the photo of our mom’s\u00a0precious\u00a01962 spinning wheel lamp, <\/strong>thinking about how proud she was the day she brought it home.\u00a0 <\/strong>On the other hand, I’m glad it’s now in the cloud and not in my living room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson Four years ago when our mother died we had the task of cleaning out her one bedroom apartment.\u00a0 We were so na\u00efve we assumed that\u00a0five of us could wrap it up in an afternoon and then … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/knick-knacks-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Tuxedo-278x300.jpg\")
<\/a>