When my mother died, I got a couple boxes of depression glass. Our family never had any valuable heirlooms, but we'd always been told that it was worth a lot of money. I took it to an antique dealer specializing in glass, who said basically it was worth maybe a couple bucks a piece. He said there were a few brands like Swarovski that would have value, but not just standard stuff. Went directly from there to the Salvation Army store, and dropped off all the legendary depression glass that had taken on mythical proportions over a couple generations in my family.
Don't get me started on china. When we got married, my wife got something like 18 place settings of china with every possible accoutrements..gravy boats, etc. 90% of it has never been unboxed in 20+ years. What was unboxed was to put on display in a china cabinet. We recently moved, and I could simply not convince my wife to get rid of it. It took her like two weeks to pack up the china cabinet display items, and I was like "for what"? Why are we shlepping these 20 boxes of china to our fifth location? It will NEVER be used. We'll end up splitting it between three kids when they get married, hopefully they'll actually use it until it breaks just so it gets used, or they'll take it straight to goodwill.
We got rid of everything else thankfully, and it was a lot. I gave away some handmade FSU girls dresses that my mother made on this board. Got rid of stuff from when I was a baby that my mother had saved, and a lot of childhood memories. But the thing I had to impress upon my wife is that everything, EVERYTHING we stick in a box this time in the attic is going to be something our kids have to go through and throw out when we're dead. What are my kids supposed to do with hand made baby outfit I wore in 1972? Or her baptism candle? We're not hauling any of that out to look at it again, I literally kept having to ask..."Cool, so we're saving that for our kids to throw out when we die?"
At some point, it's about being merciful to your kids. Why give them the guilt of having to trash it, or feel like they have to carry it on? We only boxed up and held onto stuff (books, special toys or clothes) that actually belonged to my kids, and that they might want when they're older and have their own kids. They can decide to throw them out or not, but that's it.
I'm not particularly sentimental, but it was still difficult to throw out stuff that meant enough to your mother to save it for you. But got to be done.
