I’ve read that a lot of that “valuable” china really isn’t - some of it may have been at one point, but the younger generations just aren’t interested, so the market has just dropped out.
Comment on Mom with the real questions
Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
A few years ago my wife and I decided to finish the basement. The first step was to clean it out, which involved going through all the junk that I had inherited from various family members. My mom always asserted that all of it was very valuable and CONSTANTLY checked that I still had it all and was taking good care of it.
I went through each item one by one and looked them up. Dishes, nick knacks, all of it. It took me hours. The highest value item was maybe $10. Several large and heavy boxes that I had been obligated to haul around to all of the places I lived for the last 30 years, as my mother constantly asked me about them. It was all worth maybe $100, if I made the effort to attempt to sell it. Which would have taken a lot of time as we’re talking dozens of fragile things. It just was not worth it.
I shoved it all into the trunk of my car and took it to the dump. My Mom died in 2011, so she wasn’t around to check up on all that crap.
God damn I was so pissed. 30 fucking years of hauling that worthless junk around probably cost far more than it was worth. My mother was so insistent that I even had it sitting around taking up space in my basement 12 years after her death. Just another one of her little power plays.
limelight79@lemmy.world 3 days ago
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Oh yeah none of it matters, gramma’s china is mass manufactured catalog crap.
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
why did they collect all that? was it for fancy dinners that almost never happened?
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
My understanding is there are several related things at play:
- The jello effect. So, once upon a time, serving gelatin was reserved for the wealthy because making gelatin from scratch means rendering animal bones. Then after WWII, there was suddenly a mass-produced easy to use product on the shelf called Jell-O. So in the 50’s and 60’s you saw an explosion in popularity of jello molds because serving gelatin was, to quote a Redditor I once read, “an impressive feat of housewifery.” Fancy dishes were similar; prior to WWII, fine decorated porcelain dishes were expensive, after WWII there were factories churning them out, and now Gladys from Topeka could have a floral print gilded gravy boat.
- Fancy dishes, and housewares in general, were marketed HARD to young women. Macy’s popularized the wedding registry, supermarkets started offering catalogs…it was common for young women to receive a portion of a china set for most of her adolescent gift-receiving occasions; Christmases, birthdays, high school graduation…this was the era of the hope chest, an entire industry sprang up for manufacturing pieces of furniture designed for young women to squirrel away a physical dowry in. You just weren’t a proper middle class lady unless you could come up with a fancy set of dishes to serve a Christmas dinner worthy of a Norman Rockwell painting on.
So these damn dishes that can’t be machine washed were manufactured in the quadrillions; Gramma got really protective over them, she was taught to value them from a very young age, and they’re delicate, easily broken, her particular set hasn’t been manufactured since the Truman administration so in a way they’re irreplaceable, and they must be hand-washed. So only a few Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, “special occasions” were served on them, and then by the 80’s gramma got sick of washing them, boomer dad “remembers that from when he was a kid” and thus they’re more sacred than God, God’s brother Jod and God’s nephew Zhod. To a boomer, there is no occasion special enough to break out gramma’s china, it’d be like eating dinner off of the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Unthinkable.
Millennials, who eat a lot of meals out of paper and plastic takeout containers, have no attachment to those damn dishes and haul them to thrift stores by the truckload.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 days ago
We actually got a full set of wedding china, and we got married in 2018. We’re elder Millennials. While I tell people that they should probably skip the hina, I actually enjoy it. Growing up my parents had a set of china that only came out for company and holidays, and it had a certain charm to it. And I’ve found our set serves a similar role. I actually keep it in the very same cabinet my mom had when I was a kid (she’s long since used a fancier cabinet that matches their dining set.)
But even in 2025, it can be nice to have a set of China. There’s just something special about having people over, either for social occasions or holidays, and being able to offer them a really nice place setting that isn’t part of your normal repertoire. I do got out of my way to use it though. You could just be stopping by my house for a chat, and if I offer you coffee, I’ll probably give it to you in fine china.
Tabula_stercore@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Good on you.
Just as advice for next time; bring it to a secondhand/thrift shop.
Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Honestly, I just wanted that junk out of my house and my life. These were several very large and heavy boxes that I had been obliged to haul around for nearly 30 years, all because my mother was playing one of her power games over me. My mother was so far up Cluster B that they probably should add a letter.
I did not want to shackle anyone else with it, because who would have bought it? Other assholes to keep around till they foist it off on their kids or some other unsuspecting schmuck. It was all mass produced garbage. The “China” dishes that were supposed to be “fine” were listed on Ebay and a couple of other sites for $1 each. My mother insisted they were extremely expensive and sought after. I never used them because I was afraid of breaking them. The crash they made when I flung the box into the dumpster was cathartic and healing.
So while it might have been a bit of a waste, it wasn’t as much of a waste as you might think and nobody needs it.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
My mother was so far up Cluster B that they probably should add a letter.
BS
Starski@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Watch, there was actually a hidden fortune stuffed somewhere in there
Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
LOL. That would be funny.
But no, my wife and I went through every piece, opened all the lids. No fortune.
ChexMax@lemmy.world 2 days ago
There’s always money in the banana stand
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Never met her but there’s a chance she might genuinely not have known.
My grandparents and great-grandparents thought a lot of family stuff was worth something but they never actually got it professionally valued. One thing that really stuck out was an ornate silver tea set that looked really nice, was in great condition, was a complete set, hallmarked, turned out to be worth fuck all because nobody actually wants silver tea sets in the 21st century, but they were a big thing a hundred years ago so there’s millions of them out there flooding the market.
There was also a minor hoo-hah over inheritance of the family piano, which then turned out to be a mass-produced budget model that was no longer physically able to be tuned to concert pitch without risk of damage. Turns out budget pianos don’t become antique, they just become old and you have to pay someone to take it away.
Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 2 days ago
You’re probably correct… For most people’s mothers. No, I know mine and I’m positive it was a power play on her part. The reason why I say that is because when she died, my brothers, Dad and I went through her things and guess what we found?
If you guessed items that actually had value, either sentimentally or financially you’d get a prize.
So she purposely separated anything of value from the junk. Then gave the junk to me and my brothers. My brothers also went through their items and sure enough it was all junk. Of course the apples don’t fall too far from the tree. So when our Dad died two years ago my two brothers kept everything. We are all now permanently estranged as far as I’m concerned.
So yeah, I had a fun family growing up. My wife and kids are now fully protected and will never see those people again.
But just to be clear, my family is not rich. I’m not talking about enough money to make dealing with narcissistic power plays worth it.
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Yeah, I feel a lot of the boomer generation has a hoarding problem despite so many not being in a situation to need to. I would have taken it to a thrift store though regardless. Even if they don’t sell it someone of the staff may make use of it. That said, good on getting rid of a burden on your life mentally.
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
I wonder what caused it? was it stuff all of a sudden becoming cheaper than places to put it? was it wisdom passed down from parents who experienced the great depression. an ideological commitment to assigning moral worth to wealth and by extension material possessions?
zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Some of it was their parents having lived thrush the great depression and lost out on having much of anything and wished their grandparents would have kept stuff just in case. So our boomer parents were taught how important hoarding was.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I think it may be more that they were the first generation to really be targeted by a disposability culture. The world they were born in was such that tv repair was a job and it was expected that if your small appliances broke you’d fix them rather than assuming it’s just not financially worth it. And their great grandparents had lived in a world where middle class people may have a few nice things that were hand crafted and meant to be passed down in a sort of poor person’s version of wealth.
So as mass production and upward mobility skyrocketed in the 20th century, it makes perfect sense that the generation born in the middle of it would not really get that the fact that their parents and grandparents had boxes of “valuable stuff worth a fortune” despite never actually having a fortune or anything close to it means they didn’t, they just had mass produced imitations of what once had been reserved for the wealthy.
Today all items are disposable because consumer goods are either too cheaply made to last a long time (furniture) or too complex or hostilly made to be able to efficiently repair compared to the labor and materials to make a new one (electronics)
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I feel like it wouldn’t even be hard to make small appliances or even major appliances that were designed with repairability first, we just need somebody to hurry up and design such a thing and get the parts manufactured
fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 days ago
web.archive.org/web/20220124075045/…/619650/
You might like this. There’s a relevant book mentioned too.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Their parents grew up during the Great Depression, so they learned a lot of that stuff from them. Probably
nomorebillboards@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Luckily this is less of an issue in the future with “Ikea” or whatever
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
it’s furniture adapted to the different needs we have. little space, frequent moving. cheap furniture that only has to last until the next change in space usage renders it obsolete
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
it’s furniture adapted to the different needs we have. little space, frequent moving. cheap furniture that only has to last until the next change in space usage renders it obsolete
hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
Glad you freed yourself from all the stuff. I had a similar experience clearing out my grandma’s hoarded house.
I am curious though, why take it to the dump instead of donating it to a thrift store?
Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Spite.
Honestly, it was all junk.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
At least you got something out of it. Feeling good throwing it away