I wonder if fine china and crystal are still popular today?

[clifffaith]

Bah, Humbug! Nothing worse than waking up the day after Christmas to a table full of crystal to hand wash! The china and silver went in the new dishwasher (nothing like having the old one conk out ten days before Xmas, but Lowe's did yeoman's duty in scheduling an installation before the holiday), because I am long past babying all of that with hand washing. My grumbling made me do two things, the first was to see what my 30 year old stuff brought on eBay. Well, that was depressing! Then I started wondering how the heck I was going to store all this stuff once we move to a retirement community. My current and last home both had built in china cabinets so it looks like we'll have to buy a hutch when we move.

I certainly enjoyed my annual fancy table back in the day, but I think it has been three years since I went to the effort to drag the good stuff out. And it is likely to be that long before I feel like getting the "good dishes" out again. Are young couples still putting china, silver and crystal on their registries? It's been ages since we went to a wedding.

 

[vacationhopeful]

My last move, my helper basicly limited me to 4 dinner plates/bowls etc. I have NO IDEA what happened 16 months ago to my china. It MIGHT be in storage in a warehouse .. but it is NOT in my current 3 bdr townhouse. Love my Lenox dinner ware and my Lenox Christmas china ... have NOT SEEN it since I moved. And I have almost no boxes not empty.

Have a wedding next month ... giving money ... plus it is 3000 miles away.

 

[Passepartout]

Nobody wants that stuff anymore. Not our kids anyway. There was a thread about this on TUG some time back. Seems to my that my comment to just use it for your every day tableware got a lot of 'likes'.

2 weeks before Christmas the wall oven in our condo rolled craps and the repair guy said they could put a new board in it, but then what next? So Lowes and R.C.Willie had competing sales. We bought a new GE from RC Willie and it went in last weekend. Woo Hoo. I got tired of having just the gas cooktop.

Jim

 

[WinniWoman]

No one wants it. And you can't take it with you. Bring it to Goodwill.

PS One thing I regret was not getting rid of my hutch in the dining room. For sure when we move (in retirement) I will be ditching the hutch and pretty much everything inside it. I have already tossed a lot and I do use some of the other things occasionally, but not enough to warrant keeping them. The rest I have are just dust collectors.

 

[artringwald]

I haven't heard of anybody under 55 that has people over for dinner and puts out nice china, silverware, and crystal. The values have changed, and the supplies from estate sales have far exceeded the demand. We redid the kitchen several years ago, and last month was the first time since then that we unpacked the "good stuff" from the basement to have a nice dinner for the kids and grandkids. It may be several more years before we do it again.

 

[heathpack]

My 77 year old mother is visiting right now.

Every time I see her, she "kvetches" to me about stuff she has that she knows I don't want. Its not that I *say* I don't want her stuff, she just assumes that because the stuff of hers that she values is so different from the stuff I have. For her, its mostly her jewelry that I get hassled about: what is going to become of her earrings when she dies? Oy. I have no answer for her. I don't wear any jewelry and have no interest.

Do I want her diamond engagement ring? Sure
Her jade earrings? Sure
Her garnet ring? Sure
Her pearl earrings? Sure

But truthfully I have no interest in any of it. It seems to bum her out to imagine this, so I feign mild interest. If she wanted to give the stuff away, I'd be fine with that. If she wants to leave it to me, fine. I'll sell it. Just stop with the slight disapproval that I don't value the same things you value...

 

[heathpack]

And the Hummels. Lets not even bring up the Hummels....

 

[Passepartout]

Different generations, different values. DWs 'baby', 43 going on 14 is with us. He showed up at midnight (after his mother told him to be here by 10) Two $5,000 each bicycles, many brand new, high end snowboards, DJ soundboard, grungy clothes enough to travel the world (with backpacks - Patagonia). I think he makes $200K. It's like a kid with waaay too much money goes into REI, and they make him spend it all. But does he want any of the stuff his mother has stored and moved several times for him? Nope. "Mom,you don't understand, I'm rooming in a 600 square ft 32nd floor apartment in San Francisco"

One, or possibly two here are out of touch, and i don't think it's me. Oh, btw, anybody want these timeshares I collected a decade or two ago?

Jim

 

[Panina]

Things that I could sell in my 20’s and make lots of money on, many have no value today in my 50’s. Unfortunately China and crystal fit in the no value column.

I have been donating to Goodwill many of my no value treasures.

Like timeshares, I had my enjoyment and when no longer needed, then go bye bye and I give them away. I think someone else will enjoy and I’m ok with that.

 

[geekette]

I am not young, but when I got married in 92, I didn't bother to pick out a china pattern. Aside from complete disinterest in storing items to use only occasionally, I did not foresee my life as hosting fancy dinner parties requiring "the good stuff." Polishing silver was something I had to do at Grandma's every so often as a kid and there wasn't a chance I would ever do it as an adult.

Pass it along your family tree, if anyone is interested.

 

[heathpack]

Different generations, different values. DWs 'baby', 43 going on 14 is with us. He showed up at midnight (after his mother told him to be here by 10) Two $5,000 each bicycles, many brand new, high end snowboards, DJ soundboard, grungy clothes enough to travel the world (with backpacks - Patagonia). I think he makes $200K. It's like a kid with waaay too much money goes into REI, and they make him spend it all. But does he want any of the stuff his mother has stored and moved several times for him? Nope. "Mom,you don't understand, I'm rooming in a 600 square ft 32nd floor apartment in San Francisco"

One, or possibly two here are out of touch, and i don't think it's me. Oh, btw, anybody want these timeshares I collected a decade or two ago?

Jim

Haha now if she had a couple of $5000 bicycles, I might be interested....

Seriously. I am no longer too interested in "stuff". I have never asked my mother to store any stuff for me. Twenty years ago, she was buying Hummel plates specifically to leave to me as an inheritance. I told her not to buy stuff to leave to me. Buy stuff because she enjoys it. likes it, wants it or whatever. She really didn't like that, what she wants is for me to value stuff that she likes. Pretty tough, though, we just have way way different tastes and interests.

When my MIL passed away, she did have some stuff that we appreciated inheriting. Some of it was just interesting, not valuable- she had been to China before people went to China, and Russia during the Cold War. Some of it was a little valuable- a friend of the family was an artist for the US Navy and we inherited some artists's proofs. She also left us a mildly valuable Norman Rockwell artist's proof, which I find old-timey and intriguing, although not exactly my style. Ironically, i also LOVED her china, she picked it up in Denmark and gave it to us as a wedding gift, a decade before she passed away. I rarely use it anymore, but I still really like it.

 

[DaveNV]

I recall the recent thread about how multiple generations are all trying to downsize their lives. I'm back at it myself. My goal for 2018 is to really, really (no really, I mean it this time) get rid of all the crap in my house. It's not really crap, and all of it is worth having, just that there's too darn much of it. Luckily, I don't have fine china or glassware, but where the heck did all these holiday platters and "party ware" serving dishes come from? We don't DO that sort of thing! It's maddening.

Dave

 

[rickandcindy23]

Still value my china but for different reasons. It was my grandmother's china. Then I expanded the set through ebay. She would roll over in her grave, if she knew how inexpensively I added pieces to her now 75-year-old set. I could serve 25 people for dinner with my china.

I boxed up my old china when my grandma died and left me her old set. It's not valuable at all and worthy of a donation to Salvation Army.

Our daughter has a nice set she got when she married 13 years ago. Our daughter-in-law also registered for china when she married our son 2.5 years ago. Our other daughter-in-law is not impressed by china and didn't register for fancy stuff.

I don't have silver or crystal. Neither does my daughter or daughter-in-law. It's too precious. I don't know another word to describe expensive stuff that has to be handled with that much care (crystal) and work polishing (silver).

Sentimentality is something you cannot pass down to people who don't care for it. I know my daughter and daughters-in-law will donate my china, even though it's very old, as soon as I am gone. That is fine by me. I don't care what they find valuable of mine. I love my china because my grandma loved it. She didn't get it until late in life, probably after or during WWII. I know she bought it at Montgomery Ward.

Maybe I will someday take some of the broken and chipped pieces and make something nice with the pieces. Disneyland has some great decorated exterior walls with pieces of broken dishes mixed in.

 

[DeniseM]

I recently had to clean out my elderly Aunt's condo after she passed away. She had lots of antiques, crystal, china, and sterling silver. It was difficult to even get antique dealers to come look at the stuff, and they were only interested in about 10% of it - only the unique stuff.

 

[clifffaith]

I recall the recent thread about how multiple generations are all trying to downsize their lives. I'm back at it myself. My goal for 2018 is to really, really (no really, I mean it this time) get rid of all the crap in my house. It's not really crap, and all of it is worth having, just that there's too darn much of it. Luckily, I don't have fine china or glassware, but where the heck did all these holiday platters and "party ware" serving dishes come from? We don't DO that sort of thing! It's maddening.

Dave

Big mystery yesterday was where had the large red poinsettia platter that had the cheese and crackers on it come from. Cliff and I had a big discussion, then Mom arrived and we went through the whole thing again. No one remembers ever seeing it before. We had an open house in 2013, so it might have arrived as a hostess gift was our best guess.

 

[Talent312]

My brother and I inherited our parents' china and crystal. We never use it.
I plan to ask my brother if we could give it to one of his daughters (my niece).

Today, we managed to "unload" a small rental house...
We deeded it to a stepson, taking back a mortgage for half its value.
We'll have to file a Gift Tax Return for the other half, but it's worth it.

.

 

[dougp26364]

We now have 3 full sets of China and various other glassware and silverware. None of it is ever used anymore. Some is displayed in a nice china hutch. Some stored in boxes under the stairs. We keep it for sentimental reasons. My mother’s china was purchased for her by her brother when he was stationed somewhere in Asia.

Why 3 sets? No one else wanted it and my wife wants to preserve family history. One room in the house is an antique room with all the old stuff she’s salvaged. It’s important to her so we keep it. When we’re gone, I anticipate it will be gone as well. Either as someone else’s treasure or to the landfill.

It used to be difficult to acquire things of value so they were treasured. Nowadays it seems we live in a disposable society we’re even the most disadvantaged financially persons have a phone in their pocket and a couple of tv’s in their house whereas 50 years ago families often had one phone in the house, and even that phone might have been on a party line.

 

[DaveNV]

It used to be difficult to acquire things of value so they were treasured. Nowadays it seems we live in a disposable society we’re even the most disadvantaged financially persons have a phone in their pocket and a couple of tv’s in their house whereas 50 years ago families often had one phone in the house, and even that phone might have been on a party line.

I remember those days. Can you even get a party line anymore? I remember my sister tried eavesdropping on the neighbors's calls. She got in SO much trouble for doing that.

Dave

 

[dioxide45]

I remember those days. Can you even get a party line anymore? I remember my sister tried eavesdropping on the neighbors's calls. She got in SO much trouble for doing that.

Dave

I consider myself young, 42 and grew up on a semi-private line. A line shared by two houses, where I suppose a party line was shared by three or more. We would pick up the phone wanting to make a phone call only to hear my uncle or grandma on the line already talking to someone. Had to keep checking to see if we could make a call. After a while, my grandparents switched to a private line and we got allocated to some stranger three roads over. We know at times they were listening in on our calls. We switched to a private line rather quickly then. Nowadays one is trying to decide whether to get a land line at all...

 

[VacationForever]

We still use our fine china and crystal when we have guests over a dinner that is a little more formal. The last time we put them out was about a year ago.

 

[stmartinfan]

I have some serving pieces that have no monetary value but were ones my mother, a wonderful cook, used for our holiday dinners. But I realized my kids don’t have the kind of emotional connection to them that I do, because she died more than 20 years ago when they were still young. I haven’t used them much so they're just “things” and I will likely get rid of them when we downsize in a few years. I do try to use many of the things I acquired over time, even when our get togethers are just our immediate family so I get the pleasure of seeing them used. Luckily most go in the dishwasher or don't require polishing!

 

[easyrider]

My wife ended up with her moms sterling silver ware set. It is a fancy one from the Bon Marche. We rarely use it. I weighed it and figure it is about 85 troy ounces and is worth under $1000 if we sold it for scrap. Online it looks like it would cost about $7000 to purchase something similar new.

The China was given to us about 40 years ago when we married. It too was from the Bon Marche. We rarely use it. I have no idea what its worth. It has to be hand washed is one reason it doesn't get used. Same with the silver ware. Who wants to spend an hour washing and sorting this stuff.

The plates we use are Corelle from Costco and the silver ware is a mix of 40 years of different sets and all of it goes into the dishwasher.

I have brought up the "lets just use the good stuff" idea and my wife kind of agrees , and we did pull it out ,but we must of forgot to keep the good stuff out or maybe she just isn't ready to use it up yet, idk or care.

Bill

 

[bluehende]

And the Hummels. Lets not even bring up the Hummels....

I actually like Hummels. I am in my 60's so that may be it. I got into them late and bought them on ebay on the cheap. I laugh when I see books that value something at 150 dollars that I can buy a dozen of for 10. I like them, but the kids could care less. I imagine when I go they will sell them for pennies on the dollar (the dollar I spent). My mother passed a few years ago and had collected quite a bit of "valuable stuff". The kids wanted none of it. The funniest thing was that for years my mother would walk through the house and tell us "don't sell this at a yard sale it is valuable". The funny part is she bought most of it at a yard sale for 25 cents. There are a few things I have that have sentimental value that it would bother me not to see in one of our kids house after I go. Of course I will be well beyond caring and the kids didn't have the same emotional attachment growing up with it. My only hope is that there is something here they do want to remember us by. It was funny that when Mom died each kid did have 1 or 2 things that they wanted to remind them of her. They were small things that I had no idea.

Like others we like china but use it. It is pretty cheap these days on clearance so we use nice china for our dinners. I will happily use the things I like that have gone out of style.

 

[rapmarks]

I have my husband's grandmothers set, and when she remarried his first wife had same set so every additional piece is there. It is well over one hundred years old. I only entertain family and with four boys between three and eight I don't put it out. I hope my daughter will take, it is a waste. I use my husband's mothers set and daughter took her second husband's set. Both nice sets, but not fragile like the delicate China of grandmother.
I asked for a simple Mikasa set when I got married in 1970 and use it every day. It is almost intact, my daughter likes the pattern and wants it.
I also have piles of one of a kind plates, bowls, platters and pitchers that date from the 1850 or so that were grandmothers ancestors. Never use. They are probably valuable to someone who collects, but how do you find that person.
I had one bowl from my grandma and I always loved to use it, brought good feeling. I discovered a matching set at a garage sale. I bought the set for ten dollars. I use them all the time, and I love enjoying them every day. I prefer using something I like, and don't worry about breaking a piece. In my Florida house, I am realistic to know everything will get sold with house or dumped. So I have a note on only one thing, keep this, it was grandmas set.

 

[pedro47]

I have an eight piece setting white china set from England that were purchased in the 1970's. I paid some good dollars for it and I am going to keep it.
In the last forty years, maybe we have used it five (5) times. It is used for very special occasion liked my parents sixty(60th) wedding anniversary.