Episode 84 - Tip Tuesday - What to Do With Antiques and Family Pieces when Decluttering and Organizing - Intentional Edit

Decluttering an entire home is a HUGE project and the proper decluttering plan and organization process are essential to having success with this BIG task! When special family pieces and antiques are involved the process can be even more difficult. On this Tip Tuesday episode of The Intentional Edit Podcast I’m answering a listener question to help her solve the dilemma of what to do when purging pieces that are anything but ordinary.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

Decluttering an entire home is a huge project. And the proper decluttering plan and organization process are essential to have success. When you have a big task like this, that you’re trying to conquer when special family pieces and antiques are involved in this, the process can see more complicated and more difficult on today’s tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. I’m answering a listener question to help her solve the dilemma of what to do when purging pieces that are special family pieces, antiques, these things that are anything but ordinary. Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with short episodes, answering your questions every Tuesday.

(00:55):

If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there. Let’s get started on this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. Hey there busy mama. I’m happy to have you here for this tip Tuesday episode where I’m sharing the specifics on how to declutter antiques and those special family pieces that can be sentimental. I know you’re looking for actionable steps that you can use to make changes in your home to simplify every single thing you’re trying to make life easier. I’m always intentional about what I put out on these episodes, because I don’t want to waste your time. And I want you to have success on this journey to a simplified life. I love answering questions that are specifics, because then I know it’s exactly what you need. Exactly what you want to hear, because we’re coming up with a solution for your struggle.

(01:51):

If you want all the information that you need to purge declutter, organize, create systems and routines for every single room in your home, all in one place. I have created something for you. You asked for this. And so I have spent months and months putting this together to make sure that it is something that will help you. And I created something called the simplified home master class. It’s from intentional edit specific for you. It’s now available. You can go to intentional edit.com, click on simplified home masterclass and get all the details over there. It’s an ideal program. It’s self-paced so you can consume this and work on the process, no matter how busy you are in this stage of life, it walks you through the exact process on how to declutter, and it helps you make decisions about what stays in your home and what you can let go of without feeling any guilt.

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It also teaches you the step by step process that I use for home organization, with my, my friends and family. It’s the same process I used as a professional home organizer in many houses. So I know that it works a hundred percent of the time. If you follow the steps, there’s detailed information about every single room in your home. So if you are struggling with a specific room, you just go to that section of the program. And there are examples in there and it walks you through how to declutter and organize no matter how messy it is and how cluttered it is right now. So you’re gonna go from overwhelmed and surrounded by clutter to knowing where every single thing is, and having more margin in your life to spend doing things that you actually enjoy in this program. I will equip you with steps.

(03:47):

You need to finally get your home organized so you can stress less, not be so stressed all the time and have more time to enjoy the things that matter to you. I wanna see you succeed and you hear me all the time say simplify your life. I want you to live that simplified life, where you have more time to spend doing the things you love with your favorite people. I want you to live in a clutter free home, turn that overwhelm and frustration into adventure and peace and live a life that you enjoy. When you make that commitment to the simplified home masterclass, you are making a commitment. You’re investing your time, your energy, your resources for a brief time to get this project done, to gain freedom, peace, simplicity, like simplicity in your life and simplicity in your home and productivity. Self-care time. You will have an overall improved mindset, a better attitude, and to get more time back in your life than you can imagine.

(04:53):

When you do this, you have more time. If you’re done feeling like you’re at the end of your rope and on the verge of a meltdown, if you’re done wasting your time, you’re tired of searching for belongings because you can’t find them because you don’t know where you put them. You are struggling to establish any kinds of routines. You know, you should do it, but it’s just not happening. You’re not getting anything done. You’re running late. You’re always feel like you’re scattered in behind. I want you to show up with intention and finally change your life for the better it’s time for you to bring simple systems, ultimate organization, peace, more time to spend with your favorite people back into your life. And you can do this. You’ve been asking me for this. Now it’s here. The simplified home masterclass is available. It’s unintentional, edit.com/simplified home masterclass, or just go to intentional, edit.com and click on the simplified home masterclass button.

(05:51):

At the top of the page, you can also click the link in the podcast description, sign up today, make this commitment to yourself and walk through the process of how to purge, how to organize and finally simplify your home because you’re creating systems and routines that maintain the organization and prevent you from BA bringing the clutter back in and letting it pile up. This program is amazing. And I can’t wait to see your progress and how you have success and walk through this. It’s an exciting time. My friends now let us get into this question that we are answering today about antiques and family pieces sometime will organizing and decluttering when it has to do with sentimental and family pieces makes the struggle that much worse. So I have a few options and a few tips that I’m going to share today. But first let’s listen to this listener question.

(06:55):

Hi, can you talk about selling antiques and expensive items? Um, I think that’s, what’s holding me back because my parents gave me things that are antiques. And, um, I know I should be selling these on eBay that I don’t wanna keep them. And I think that’s what holding back, just listing everything. That’s it. Thank you.

(07:23):

Thank you for submitting that question. So yes, I have a couple ideas in this scenario, a few options for what you can do with what is left would be to keep it and store it. And you have the responsibility of that to sell these items, to donate these items or to toss these items. You probably have some things that will go in each one of those categories. There was a word in there, a little phrase that stuck out to me and it said, I, I know I need to sell these things. And I think this is what’s holding me back. You have been given the responsibility of figuring out what to do with these things. And a lot of times people place more value on things and physical items and material possessions than there really is some time most of the time selling a physical item, the work that goes into it, and the amount of money that you get in return for that item is not worth it.

(08:29):

If it, if you’ve been holding onto something for years and years, and you get $20, $50, even a hundred dollars in some cases, the work that it takes to do that is not worth the money that you get in return. Occasionally it is there’s one time where I had a client who was trying to figure out with some silver pieces that she had been given by grandparents. And she ended up putting them on a selling site, like a Facebook marketplace, Craigslist type of thing. And someone came to her house and they are a reseller of that type of thing. And she was able to get a few thousand dollars for that in that situation. It was not a big deal to sell those things, but depending on where you live, sometimes pieces like antiques are more valuable and more sought after in different parts of the world or different parts of the country than others.

(09:37):

And depending on antique dealers and places where you have the ability to sell these things, you might be able to make some money and maybe you won’t. So the first thing I like to recommend with family pieces and sentimental items is are you keeping these things because you love them or are you keeping them out of guilt? So if you are keeping them out of guilt, I want to remind you that you only have to let go of these things one a time. But when you are keeping them, they are burdening you every single day. They, you are thinking about them. You are noticing them, you are seeing them, they are taking up your space and they are taking up your, the room in your home. So they are a constant reminder that you need to do something with them. You need to figure out where they will go, or you’re keeping them because you have this guilt around them, or you don’t know how to get rid of them.

(10:38):

The idea of getting rid of them is much more difficult. It’s causing you more stress than the actual act of getting rid of them. So the first thing that I would say to do is offer these things to other family members, cousins, distant relatives, anyone in part of the family, even best friends of the person that gave them to you. You can offer to those people, take a picture, you know, and you don’t have to give much explanation, just say, does anyone want these things? And if not, if someone doesn’t take them, then you are going to get rid of them. You’re not gonna be able to store them anymore. You can’t keep them in your home any longer, but you wanted to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to take them if they do. And if no one takes you up on that.

(11:33):

And if whatever you have left, because no one wants it, you don’t have to be stuck with it. You don’t have to be the one that keeps it just because no one else is willing to take it. So you are doing a very kind thing by offering it to everyone else. And then you have to, to make a decision. Is this something you are going to keep? If you are going to keep this, make, put it into a room, mix it in with your design aesthetic, make sure you are intentional with it. Use these things, whether it’s a piece of furniture or a special platter or a decorative piece, use them, put them on display, make them part of your life. Because if you’re keeping them, that means they’re significant. They’re important to you. Don’t store them away. Now, there are a couple pieces that might be keepsakes that you don’t want to use, or you only put out on a holiday or a special education.

(12:32):

If it’s a holiday store, those things with your holiday decor. And then you will remember, it will be the reminder that you need to use those on that special occasion. Or if it’s truly a keepsake, you want to pack it away, package it away so that it is nicely stored, label it. Make sure it’s protected. If it’s breakable and have a bin or two bins of keepsakes in a storage area, out of the place, out of the way on a high up shelf in a closet or something like that, you don’t need to have easy access to them. And that’s, that’s totally fine to have a couple keepsakes, but a bin or two is enough. A bin or container for each member of the family is enough. You don’t want to go overboard with the storage because the likeliness that someone else will want this, or use this in the future, especially after you have already offered it to all your family members is pretty much, it’s not going to happen.

(13:32):

It’s not going to be something that someone wants to use. And if you are not getting rid of it today, someone else will get rid of it in the future. Now for the thing is that you have determined are high value items that you are going to put in the work, and you are going to be able to answer the questions you’re gonna list these online, whether it be eBay, Facebook, marketplace, Craigslist, uh, any SOC social selling sites, things like that. Maybe you’re taking it to an in-person antique dealer. Do a little research pick. Depending on the time you have pick two things a week or one thing every other day or four things a month, whatever it is that you can fit into your time and do a little research, see how much these things would actually be worth and be realistic about it.

(14:22):

If you see that you have a special piece of furniture or a piece of China, that could be worth a lot of money in perfect condition, but you have some scratches on the one you have, or you have a chip out of the piece of China, or it’s slightly faded. It’s not perfect condition. The value is much, much less. So do research figure out is this something that I really want to spend my resources and my time trying to sell? And if it is then come up with what’s reasonable for you, one item a week, two items a week and set time so that you can list these things and have the time to answer the questions, deal with the correspondence that comes back and forth, weed out the spam and the solicitors and the people that are trying to take advantage of a seller and things like that.

(15:17):

And make sure you have time to deal with those. Make sure that you’ve taken shipping costs into account and packaging materials. If these things are breakable, all of that, if going through that process and that work is worth it for you, then spend your time listening these things until they are gone. But if you are seeing a pattern and these things don’t have a lot of value then, and you’ve offered them to your family members, then this is when it is okay to donate them, give yourself permission to donate them and release the guilt of not selling an item because your parents and your family members do not want their belongings to burden you and keep you stuck and overwhelm your home just because you took on these items that are meaningful in a sentimental way, but maybe don’t bring in that much money. And usually when we look these things up, the value with the dollar amount is less than what we think or believe, or we’re told that it is when you have those rare pieces and those special fines that do bring a higher monetary value.

(16:34):

That’s when it might be a better decision to spend the time and the resources to sell and ship and get these two people that will appreciate them. But if you donate these things because you don’t have the time to sell them, someone is going to get them. Whether it’s they purchased them from the store you donated them to, or they don’t even have to pay for them, but they will use them by you donating them. You are blessing someone else that needs these things and wants these things. If you have something that is broken or doesn’t work, or is in a state of disrepair, that’s when you go ahead and you toss it, you, you just get rid of it. I hope that answered your questions and makes it easier for you to figure out what you need to do to get rid of some of these family pieces and antiques that you’ve acquired, but you don’t intend on keeping good luck with this process.

(17:30):

And I hope you can create a plan to get these things out of your home and feel good with where they end up. Thank you so much for listening to this tip Tuesday episode, I will meet you all back here later in the week. For another episode, that wraps up another quick episode of a tip Tuesday. If you want to be featured on intentional edits, tip Tuesday, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the podcast page in the menu bar, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll find a button that says record, tap on that and record your question or share what is currently overwhelming to you. What is going on that you need help with? I want to know I needed to know your struggle so I can share actionable solutions to help you create simplicity in your home. If you are having this issue. I know other people are having it too, and we wanna help as many people as possible. Head over to the podcast page of intentional, edit.com and record your question for me there.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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