A friend of a friend has a estate sale company and sells/ donates everything in the house. We used that service when Rick's stepmom died in July of 2020. She was a packrat, but she was 92 and unable to do anything with it. All total, her "treasures" brought in about $16,000, we got half of that. It was better than we could have done. There are companies that will do that for you. They empty the house completely. I took a few cleaners and photo albums out. Most of the photos are of Rick's dad and stepmom on cruises and on vacations. They had a timeshare in Breck that they loved. I still have not gotten rid of those albums, but no one wants them, so they will likely go to the garbage dumpster. Most don't have them in the pictures. I never have understood why people take pictures of anything without people in the foreground. Please tell me what's up with that?
My guilty pleasure is my china, which belonged to my grandma on my dad's side of the family. The china was easily matched on ebay, so I made sure I had enough of that pattern to add about 12 more place settings. We are now 16 people, so it was not a bad plan; however, it's a huge bunch of dishes, unnecessary pieces I should not have purchased (how many cups/ saucers do you really need). I could easily sit 24 at dinner. My thinking in the 1990's was that our family would grow and that some would get broken. I have yet to break a single dish. I also have Princess House crystal to go with it, and not just glasses, but an entire array of various pieces that I still love, but those things are not used much at all, nor is the china. I will keep them for now.
My mom has one of the Royal Doulton patterns with a huge number of place settings. She died almost 20 years ago. I do not want her china. My stepdad has it labeled for me. Nope. My great grandfather had a cabinet made in the 1800's for my great grandmother that my mom has. None of grandma's kids wants that, and it's beautiful. My mom has it. It's solid oak, has old mirror in the top of it, but it's not valuable to anyone. Grandma had four kids and dozens of grandkids and great-grandkids. Not one of them wants that cabinet.