Downsizing. What do I do with China and Crystal?

[coffeebean]

The Villages lifestyle seems to be very casual and comfortable. I'm already planning how to downsize our belongings when hubby and I move full time into the retirement home we recently purchased. It is a lovely designer home but does not have nearly the storage space our NJ home has.

Providing you had China and Crystal before you made the move to TV, did you bring them with you to Florida? If you did, do you find that you don't have any use for China and Crystal here in TV?

Just wondering if anyone has stored China and Crystal in their attic. Trying to figure out what to do. Thanks.

[billlaur]

Sell It:BigApplause:

[Bonny]

A lot of people get down here and make a ton of friends. Sometimes you like to have a big party and sometimes maybe a few close friends over for dinner. I would bring it. Leave it packed in boxes. Then see if you are going to use it. You can always get rid of it here.

[OldManTime]

I gave all to nieces, grandchildren and nephews

[OBXNana]

Going through this same thing. Do you have children that would cherish the item? Selling them is an option, but you will not get what you feel is a fair price. We have 3 kids and it always seems to work out with which one, wants what. When there's interest by more than one child for an item, they came up with, rock, paper, scissors.

[travlin50]

I struggled with this issue as well, but my children did not want any of it. I kept the set that meant the most to me, and got rid of the rest. I purchased a new dining table with a modern looking cabinet. Put the set in the cabinet and made sure everything was easy to access. I will not use things that are too difficult to pull out of the cabinet. It is really hard to downsize and get rid of special items, even if you know you don't need them. I am a dish person, so I enjoy using different dishes for special occasions. I also had additional cabinets put in my kitchen and laundry room area to accommodate more kitchen items, which I use for my set of Holiday dishes.

[Uptown Girl]

If you love your china and crystal, why not enjoy them and use them as your daily dinnerware? Pamper yourself a bit!

If they are too delicate or too much fuss to use daily, then maybe someone you know someone would love them. A parting gift to someone special, perhaps.

I used to throw fancy dinner parties and go all out. I had a number of sets of china, etc. that I loved and would rotate them for different occasions.
I liberated myself from all the 'good' china, crystal and silver when we moved here.

I do not miss it at all!!!

[coffeebean]

Great advice and I thank everyone who has responded. I'll address some of the issues a little further.....

I looked into selling everything but it is practically an insult what these things will bring. I'd rather donate them then go through the trouble of having to ship these items and wind up spending money to get rid of them.

I do have my sister and BIL in TV and will host some of the holiday dinners. I will use the China and Crystal for only those occasions.

The main purpose for me starting the thread was to see if folks here in TV find use for this type of formal dinnerware.

I like the idea of bringing everything with us and storing it in the attic. We just had plenty of flooring installed in the attic so we would have the room to store the boxes. Does anyone see a problem with storing China and Crystal in the attic in the hot Florida climate?

[Happydaz]

My wife says keep it. In her case she likes throwing parties. We are having four couples over for Easter. It is so nice to have fine dishes and glasses to serve dinner to our guests. Everyone does not have to give up everything to come to The Villages. It sounds as though you are hesitant to give up your china and crystal so I would agree with Bonny's suggestion to bring it and then donate or sell it if you don't want it anymore.

[Judith Ann]

There isn't much of a market for China these days. I gave mine away to my dental hygienist in WI. We were talking about things like that, and she said she'd love to have
it. I hadn't used it in years. I love my sets of colorful modern dishes. I brought some of the crystal to FL. We entertain more here, and I use it. I left my more fragile, fancy crystal to use up North.

[dbussone]

Why not donate what you don't need or want to a charity. The can sell your unneeded goods and use the money for a worthwhile cause. We donated many items prior to moving to TV.

[uprivergirl]

I love all the good comments here. I am in the same boat trying to figure out what to take and what to toss. We won't have family in TV for the holiday dinners but I am sure we will have lots of new friends to share dinners with. I think I will get rid of one set of china and keep one.

Oh how did I get so much stuff? Oh I know it's 46 years of collecting.

[missypie]

We kept our china and glassware. They were wedding gifts and I couldn't part with them.

No one will pay you for what they are worth.

My parents gave their china to our daughter and she was grateful. She had seen the china in pictures when I was a little girl and daughter just was enamored with the gift from her grandparents. When they moved in their new home daughter took a picture of where she placed the china and sent it to grandparents. They were touched.

[applesoffh]

Brought my china and crystal down. Use some of the crystal and none of the china and no one seems to be interested in it, either. In my case, it was a big mistake. My circle of friends are perfectly content with plain white and/or very simple patterns. My fine china is all packed up with no place to go.

[dotti105]

This was a tough call for us.

In the end, I placed by sterling and china with a consignment shop that holds monthly auctions as well has having a store front. I also gave them 20+ antiques and misc goods that were "valuable" to the right person.

We tried selling some things on craigslist and a local TV website classified site. We found little or no interest and it was very discouraging.

These were all items that had sentimental value to me and I really felt guilty about WANTING to get rid of them. We have 4 married kids and offered those things to them. But they reluctantly refused them. They did not want high maintenance items either....

In the end, when they came to pick those things us, I felt really guilty....but once they closed the door on the truck and drove off and I looked around and saw the empty space in the room in which we gathered them, I was elated. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted!!!

Many of those things I had carried around through 45 yrs of marriage and they are just "things" for which we no longer have any need.

The consignment shop pays out once a month. If I never get a check, I still feel that FOR US, it was the right thing to do.

We donated tons of stuff and these items were the last to go and like a chain around my ankle.

We feel like newlyweds setting up housekeeping for the first time!! It is fun to start from scratch and choose the things that we will live with going forward. We brought a small POD and it wasn't even full. It is very liberating to not be controlled by "things".

This, of course, is just our situation. Downsizing sucks! Especially at this stage of life. but we knew we wanted a casual, carefree lifestyle and this just felt right to us.

Good luck, this was the toughest stage of the move for us!! We wish you well!

[CassieInVa]

Check to see if any of your sterling or china patterns are popular on replacements limited website. They will buy your China and sterling. Especially if it has been discontinued.

[graciegirl]

I brought four complete sets of dishes and my crystal. I have used it all. We like to invite people to dinner and we use it couple three times a month.. One set is just for Christmas but Christmas for me begins the day after Thanksgiving. I always use cloth napkins when we have guests to eat anything. Snacks, cake etc. Also use cloth tablecloths. They all are easy care, no ironing.


If that is how you live, you will continue to live that way. If you don't, no one cares. It is just for me. I like a pretty table. I make no excuses. I do not expect or want it from friends when we go out. Paper plates are great. These are things I enjoy, and sometimes I use paper plates too.


Don't be too quick to get rid of it all if you used it quite a bit before your move here.


Just be yourself. Everyone will love you and if it makes you happy, bring it.

[theorem painter]

Check to see if any of your sterling or china patterns are popular on replacements limited website. They will buy your China and sterling. Especially if it has been discontinued.

I just contacted Replacements about my sterling that they are selling on their web site for $300 a place setting. They offered me $40. I will wait until the price of silver goes back up and sell it for scrap.

[dbussone]

I brought four complete sets of dishes and my crystal. I have used it all. We like to invite people to dinner and we use it couple three times a month.. One set is just for Christmas but Christmas for me begins the day after Thanksgiving. I always use cloth napkins when we have guests to eat anything. Snacks, cake etc. Also use cloth tablecloths. They all are easy care, no ironing.


If that is how you live, you will continue to live that way. If you don't, no one cares. It is just for me. I like a pretty table. I make no excuses. I do not expect or want it from friends when we go out. Paper plates are great. These are things I enjoy, and sometimes I use paper plates too.


Don't be too quick to get rid of it all if you used it quite a bit before your move here.


Just be yourself. Everyone will love you and if it makes you happy, bring it.


My wife would smile at your comments. Maybe she is a close relative?

[big guy]

We had three sets of china...none of which could be washed in the dishwasher so I wasn't unhappy to give it away to family. I gave my great niece, as a wedding gift, a set of china that had been my great grandmother's (her great, great, great grandmother's). She was thrilled. We gave my mother-in-law's china to our niece (her grandmother) and she was thrilled. I sold the other set and kept my silver flatware and crystal. I have plain white dishes that I can use at any time with different linens. I have never used the crystal since we moved 5 years ago. I have never been sorry that I passed the china on to younger people in the family.

[CFrance]

Keep what you really love. You'll find someplace for it if it means a lot to you. I wouldn't get rid of stuff that is really meaningful to me.

[Bonny]

I kept my good set of china for 12 and I have some beautiful Murano glassware. I love it when I have dinner for 6 - 10 of us and I get to put the nice items out. I just feel it's a a little special. Good friends could care less if it's that or paper plates, but sometimes I just really enjoy putting out the good stuff !!!

[CFrance]

I kept my good set of china for 12 and I have some beautiful Murano glassware. I love it when I have dinner for 6 - 10 of us and I get to put the nice items out. I just feel it's a a little special. Good friends could care less if it's that or paper plates, but sometimes I just really enjoy putting out the good stuff !!!

I agree! I didn't care about the Limoges and was glad the kids wanted it, but I am enamored of our Twas The Night Before Christmas dinnerware, and the sterling silverware we amassed over the years.

Twas the Night Before Christmas has two personal meanings in our little family and the dishes mean more to me than any other sets that we have. I kept the stuff that means the most and still enjoy using it. The rest I gave to the kids or donated.

[dotti105]

I just contacted Replacements about my sterling that they are selling on their web site for $300 a place setting. They offered me $40. I will wait until the price of silver goes back up and sell it for scrap.

I had a similar experience with Replacements. My sterling flatware, service for 12 with lots of extra serving utensils was only worth $900 to them. Nope, couldn't do that!!

[Bonanza]

I had a similar experience with Replacements. My sterling flatware, service for 12 with lots of extra serving utensils was only worth $900 to them. Nope, couldn't do that!!

I just contacted Replacements about my sterling that they are selling on their web site for $300 a place setting. They offered me $40. I will wait until the price of silver goes back up and sell it for scrap.

For many years, I was a huge supplier to Replacements, of china, crystal and flatware.
The way they determine a price is very simple.
Without going into details that may sound confusing, it works this way.
When they have an order from a customer,
for a certain pattern and certain pieces or a set (of anything),
they will offer you a very fair and good price for your items.
However, if they are simply buying because someone has something to sell
and Replacements has no call for it (to resell immediately),
their price is very low.

While the above holds true,
the price of an item can change from one month to another.
In addition, what an owner may think is a perfect specimen
could easily have a 25% (or more) reduction of the current price,
because it is not as perfect as they think.

Since the time the Internet became the preferred way to sell things
and the resale market changed so tremendously,
I sell for myself and my customers on eBay and a couple of other sites.
At least that way, I don't have to drive up to the Carolinas!

[andercat]

I saved one bowl from my china set that belonged to my grandmother and a cream and sugar set from her crystal as well. I display them in my hutch and see them every day. Now I can enjoy looking at my grandmother's pieces and not have to carry around a lot of boxes. Saving these few items brings back memories of her just as well as the entire sets.

[graciegirl]

I didn't have GOOD stuff, couldn't afford real silver, but I loved playing house as a little girl and still love to do it now.


I love my home and I enjoy trying to make it feel comfy and welcoming and pretty. I could have a tiny house or a big house and it wouldn't matter to me. It is about making a cozy nest. I love to have visitors and I love to cook. Nothing I have is precious to anyone but me.


I loved dolls when I was little and loved having my children around. The time is past now when a woman is a homemaker. That idea is looked down on now...But, if you did it "right" it was a full time occupation that made life easier and better and more secure and ordered for everyone in the home. I never felt cheated.


I think children came out better raised by the person who loved them most in this world. Now people hand their babies over to someone they wouldn't trust with their car keys. That is sad to me.


There was time later to have a career.


Now I sound like an old woman. Guess I am and loving it.

[CassieInVa]

Okay so the Sterling is probably not a wise move on Replacements. But years ago I had a set of china from the 80's Johnson Brothers and I discovered that it was discontinued and they paid me quite a high price for it more than I could get on ebay or a yard sale. With nice sterling you're better off putting it probably on ebay or taking it to a consignment shop possibly.

[OBXNana]

I brought four complete sets of dishes and my crystal. I have used it all. We like to invite people to dinner and we use it couple three times a month.. One set is just for Christmas but Christmas for me begins the day after Thanksgiving. I always use cloth napkins when we have guests to eat anything. Snacks, cake etc. Also use cloth tablecloths. They all are easy care, no ironing.


If that is how you live, you will continue to live that way. If you don't, no one cares. It is just for me. I like a pretty table. I make no excuses. I do not expect or want it from friends when we go out. Paper plates are great. These are things I enjoy, and sometimes I use paper plates too.


Don't be too quick to get rid of it all if you used it quite a bit before your move here.


Just be yourself. Everyone will love you and if it makes you happy, bring it.


As we're going through years of accumulation, I found this post to touch a nerve. I just pulled the Christmas set of dishes out of the "to go" pile.

Thank you. If I change my mind, I can always donate, but once they're gone, all I'll have are the memories.

[CFrance]

I didn't have GOOD stuff, couldn't afford real silver, but I loved playing house as a little girl and still love to do it now.


I love my home and I enjoy trying to make it feel comfy and welcoming and pretty. I could have a tiny house or a big house and it wouldn't matter to me. It is about making a cozy nest. I love to have visitors and I love to cook. Nothing I have is precious to anyone but me.


I loved dolls when I was little and loved having my children around. The time is past now when a woman is a homemaker. That idea is looked down on now...But, if you did it "right" it was a full time occupation that made life easier and better and more secure and ordered for everyone in the home. I never felt cheated.


I think children came out better raised by the person who loved them most in this world. Now people hand their babies over to someone they wouldn't trust with their car keys. That is sad to me.


There was time later to have a career.


Now I sound like an old woman. Guess I am and loving it.

Hey, I did the same thing--kids first, career later. I've never regretted it. They were both fun--the kids and the career. I don't know if either would have been as much fun if I had lumped them together.

I'm just grateful that jobs were plentiful back then and we could afford a good life on one salary. I feel sorry for the people who have no choice. it's a different financial situation today, and many have to work.

I also support those who want to work.

But back on topic, I kept the things I love and brought them to FL, and haven't regretted that either.

[coffeebean]

Check to see if any of your sterling or china patterns are popular on replacements limited website. They will buy your China and sterling. Especially if it has been discontinued.

I have checked wtih Replacements Limited website and my China pattern is not one that is popular.

[cbh1975]

If you love it--keep it. If not, the give it away or sell it.

That was my rule--if I truly loved something, it came to Florida. I was amazed to discover how much stuff I'd kept over the years that I really didn't like. Gave some of it to family and friends, sold some, and donated the rest. We brought one U-Haul full of loved stuff with us.

[jtdraig]

You should sell it or donate to a charity/church/whatever. You won't have many occasions to use formal chinaware unless you have a lot of formal dinner parties. We did in Connecticut but made the transition when we moved here. It wasn't an easy thing but we sold or donated three complete sets. We kept one set and have used it about six times in eight years. Life is much more casual, relaxed, and informal here.

[coffeebean]

Such great advise from everyone. Thanks again. I have two to three years to come to a final decision but it's always good to start early.

[LeeM]

For many years, I was a huge supplier to Replacements, of china, crystal and flatware.
The way they determine a price is very simple.
Without going into details that may sound confusing, it works this way.
When they have an order from a customer,
for a certain pattern and certain pieces or a set (of anything),
they will offer you a very fair and good price for your items.
However, if they are simply buying because someone has something to sell
and Replacements has no call for it (to resell immediately),
their price is very low.

While the above holds true,
the price of an item can change from one month to another.
In addition, what an owner may think is a perfect specimen
could easily have a 25% (or more) reduction of the current price,
because it is not as perfect as they think.

Since the time the Internet became the preferred way to sell things
and the resale market changed so tremendously,
I sell for myself and my customers on eBay and a couple of other sites.
At least that way, I don't have to drive up to the Carolinas!


Thanks for sharing this info. - very interesting.

Another option is to try a coin exchange for silver. I recently sold some pricey jewelry to a local one and they gave me a lot more than I had been offered at other places. I noticed that they also bought silverware. So check around.

[Bonanza]

Okay so the Sterling is probably not a wise move on Replacements. But years ago I had a set of china from the 80's Johnson Brothers and I discovered that it was discontinued and they paid me quite a high price for it more than I could get on ebay or a yard sale. With nice sterling you're better off putting it probably on ebay or taking it to a consignment shop possibly.

If you received a high price for your Johnson Bros. dishes,
it was strictly because Replacements had a customer who was looking for it
and they could do an immediate sale of buying from you and selling to them.

The same would be true for flatware -- sterling or plate.
With Replacements, every sale is contingent upon whether or not
they have a customer ready to buy what you have.

[asianthree]

i am bringing my good stuff with me..i use it at least three days a week

[maddie101]

I have lots of china that I plan on using, but I also have my grandmother's dishes that now have many chips. I plan on sending several pieces to this site to have jewelry created for my daughter, a cousin, my aunt and myself to preserve the memories these dishes bring when I look at them. It is something that some of you can do if you have an extra cup or dish before you sell or part with your sets of dishes (if you decide to part with them).
There is nothing more important to me than MEMORIES and the good feelings that most memories create. I have used this company before, but it was several years ago.

Broken China Jewelry - Vintage China Jewelry (http://www.chinabaroque.com/)

[CFrance]

I have lots of china that I plan on using, but I also have my grandmother's dishes that now have many chips. I plan on sending several pieces to this site to have jewelry created for my daughter, a cousin, my aunt and myself to preserve the memories these dishes bring when I look at them. It is something that some of you can do if you have an extra cup or dish before you sell or part with your sets of dishes (if you decide to part with them).
There is nothing more important to me than MEMORIES and the good feelings that most memories create. I have used this company before, but it was several years ago.

Broken China Jewelry - Vintage China Jewelry (http://www.chinabaroque.com/)
Great idea!

[LeeM]

I have checked wtih Replacements Limited website and my China pattern is not one that is popular.

Do they just come out and say it is not popular or is this based on the price quote they gave you?

[Lauren Sweeny]

I too have looked at E Bay to see what fine china, silver setting and stemware are selling for. Replacement does not give you anywhere near the E bay prices. Replacement wants you to send pictures, description and pattern before they will act interested. I finally decided to just go ahead and use my things. My mom kept nearly everything for good only use. Some things stayed in drawers and shelves for years! Estate sales in the Villages sell a lot of the above because today's generation do not want them. My advice keep what you love , favorite memory pieces and write off the rest.

[CSilvestrucci]

When I was packing to move I was given a piece of advice that has served me well. You can always give it away but once it's gone,it's gone. Take your time and wait until you are ready to part with it. You will know. I still have all my china,crystal and sterling and still enjoy using them. They bring me joy.

[coffeebean]

Do they just come out and say it is not popular or is this based on the price quote they gave you?

Based on the quoted price they gave me. It was more of an insult, actually.

[RErmer]

When we moved here I just decided to start using the "good stuff" instead of saving it for special days. My POV is, why did I wait so long to enjoy it?