How to dispose of your tools, and books, when no one you know well wants them.

[micky]

For people expecting to die who have heirs for their money, but no one in their family or friends who wants their books or their tools or their office supplies**, what do you plan to do? .. In my case, partly because most of the people I know are old and my niblings don't live nearby and are two generations younger than I am with different interests.

**Don't knock office supplies. My desk is full of good things. How many of you have a point stick? It's like a yard stick but it's a foot long and marked in points (1 point, as well as 6 points, as well as inches and millimeters. I had to go to a printing supply company on the south side to find that, and even the man there had a bit of trouble finding it (though it is now for sale online.)

I have a lot of interesting books on various subjects, but no single person would be interested in more than one or two sections of the books.

The clothes and the furniture, whatever is still usable, could all go to Goodwill.

There is a scene in the movie... What's that movie from the 60's set in Greece with Melina Mercouri and a very popular theme song? ... where someone dies and the other people of the town storm her house as a mob and grab everything she had. I wouldn't mind that, except some people will take tools they can't use and books they'll never read. Some will take anything just to sell it, and I wouldn't mind that either if they only came after others had taken things they at least might use.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Actually, I do. But we called it a "pica pole". I also have a circular "slide rule" for calculating percentages when you want to scale up/down a photograph so it will fit in the space on the page.

I frankly don't know what I'll do with my husband's tools should he predecease me.

Cindy Hamilton

[Retired]

When I was cleaning out the house after wife died, I took books to a local, independent, bookstore. They gladly took them.

For tools, if you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in your area, they will take tools and materials.

[Frank]

You know what us husbands say. Don't sell our guns or tools for what we told you we paid for them.

[Iggy]

replying to micky, Iggy wrote: Goodwill, Salvation Army, Green Drop/Red Cross, etcetera. They all take a myriad of things and not just clothes, large and heavy items they'll even remove from wherever they stand or sit. I almost completely cleared out my house with a local Auctioneer.

The Auctioneer gave me a $1000, came with a moving and truck and all of the crap hand-me-downs and accumulated always-in-the-way junk was gone in a couple of hours...beat-up metal lockers, extension ladders, antique and mass production furniture, pictures, mirrors, glass dining table, old particleboard kitchen cabinets and even an old Mercedes.

Absolutely Wonderful and I ain't old-old. The family was pitiful and only took a dinette set, a couple of side tables and some lamps. Almost couldn't tell they had run-through at all. 3 of their kids finally moving out had me thinking my prayers had been answered, but nope.

[micky]

Did you have a contract with them?

Did they actually want all the stuff they took? Or did they take it because their own standard contract say they would?

[Iggy]

replying to micky, Iggy wrote: Nope, no written contract, just a verbal understanding. And yes, they wanted everything. Unbeknownst to me, they very commonly do House Clean-Outs as they call them. In my case, I could consign everything and they'd pay me quite possibly more after everything had finally sold off or I could take their somewhat meager "Buy It Now" amount.

If you consign, they'll actually list everything out and give their best estimate of value, which is what they expect to get at auction. Basically, if it ain't Limited Edition or Antique, it ain't worth much at all, as I confirmed on E-bay with most of the furniture.

I'm pretty kind to my stuff and nothing was far from mint. But still, it's a shame to see a bunch of real wood things that served flawlessly for decades be of no more value to today's people than used Ikea garbage. My stuff served me well or had just been dumped on me, so gone was all I really cared about.

[micky]

My stuff is nothing special, but I sold some of my mother's solid mahagony furniture, the bedroom suite, for %50. The woman was upstairs at a party on a Saturday n ight when the host told her I was selling stuff. At least she did appreciate what she was getting.

[Iggy]

replying to micky, Iggy wrote: Yeah, I've done Yard Sales (literal giveaways), bi-annual trips to the dump and bi-annual SUV loads to Goodwill for decades and still didn't make a dent. But, I had quite a few people thank me afterwards for the Yard Sale stuff, especially the Brass Bed lady.

The crux of my clean-out was to get rid of my Mom's stuff too. My problem was that I never wanted, needed nor asked for any of it. I was just the guy with the good back and plenty of room. I'm actually a minimalist that it took 30-years to stop being a forced-hoarder. The family's "Public Storage" was finally shutdown.

[hubops]

[Don Wiss]

Brown furniture is no longer in. Even 18th century antiques, though they still have value, are worth a fraction of what they were in the 1980s.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Iggy]

replying to hubops, Iggy wrote: I always think of that and wonder what she means. She'd stop me on the sidewalk and thank me saying "that brass bed is just wonderful". I don't know if she means the look and the constant polishing or the finials...she was always overly happy about it.

[micky]

That was supposed to be $50. New it would have been more than 1000. It was in very good to excellent condition, even though it was 50 years old at the time. If you dont damage things they don't get damaged.

She appreciated the solid mahogany. Although she wasn't buying it for herself but to furnish an apartment she rented. Were it not for the bed she might have wanted it for herself (and her husband) but it had two single beds on one wide headboard, that rolled apart into a V, so one could make the beds. I don't think king-size mattresses existed in

1945.

[Ed Pawlowski]

When we moved we gave away a bunch of stuff. I made a trip to Salvation Army store a few times a week but most other stuff we did not take was given away. The dining room set was very expensive when we bought it over 40 years ago but it is not easy to find the right person that would appreciate it.

I just figured we enjoyed it for many years and it was just the cost of buying a new house and moving.