‘What do I do with my parents’ stuff?’

Every day, 10,000 people in the United States turn 65, according to the Social Security Administration, and eventually somebody is going to have to dispose of the clothing, dishes, silverware and other stuff they've accumulated.

Amy Dean is well aware of how difficult that task can be.

When her father, Otto Eichacker, and her sister, Mary Green, died within a short time of each other last November, it fell to her to dispose of their personal possessions and furniture in preparation for selling the family's longtime northwest Cedar Rapids home.

Dean, who had experience in estate sales, has worked for the past 11 months to hold combination estate and garage sales. Despite often working seven days a week to group items together, price them, organize and stage the sales, the results have been disappointing and disheartening.

'A lot of the antique dealers are offering next to nothing,” Dean said. 'They want other stuff thrown in to pay $100 for an Amana six-drawer solid wood antique dresser. Many of the pieces of furniture were made in Amana and came out of the Homestead Hotel (where Otto Eichacker was born), so they had provenance.”

As more baby boomers and Gen-Xers find themselves trying to dispose of the large amount of items accumulated by their parents and grandparents, they are finding that no one wants those prized possessions.

That includes millennial children and grandchildren who often don't have space for more furniture.

'We are seeing more of this than we have in the past,” said Mindy Kayser, vice president of marketing for Goodwill of the Heartland in Iowa City. 'So far, we're not turning away people's household items. If we run into a situation where we get a lot of furniture, we will try to move it out.”

Mary Kay Buysse, executive director of the National Association of Senior Move Managers, said it has become the most significant challenge facing members of her organization.

'This is an Ikea and Target generation,” Buysse said. 'They live minimally, much more so than the boomers.

'They don't have the emotional connection to things that earlier generations did and they are more mobile. They don't want a lot of heavy stuff dragging down a move across country for a new opportunity.”

Item influx

Jeff Capps, Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity executive director, said his organization's ReStore in downtown Cedar Rapids has seen an influx of furniture and other items in recent years.

'We have large-scale donations from retirement centers and individual households,” Capps explained. 'Our store is full and a lot of it is furniture. They are bulky items, but they are great sellers for us and our largest single category of merchandise.

'We have to make good choices in terms of what we accept, but we certainly don't want to turn people away.”

When Goodwill, Habitat or other not-for-profit organizations are unable to sell donated furniture or other items, they end up paying landfill fees for disposal. Goodwill stopped accepting donated televisions some years ago due to the cost of disposal.

Christine Smart, a certified senior move manager and president of Designing Moves in Marion, said analog televisions, VCRs, console stereos, older computers, printers, typewriters and film cameras are examples of baby boomer possessions that modern technology has made obsolete and nearly impossible to sell.

'The younger generations are saying, ‘No, I don't want that. I'm not going to have any use for it,'” Smart said. 'Their cellphone replaces that kind of stuff.

'I think most of us were taught to save something for a rainy day because someone can use it somehow. It's hard for a lot of people to get their mind around that there's no value in something that they've scrimped and saved to purchase.”

Holding on

Smart said the baby boom generation inherited furniture, dishes and other items from parents and grandparents who had faced tough times in the Great Depression.

'They were taught to hang onto things,” she said. 'There also was a lot of emotion attached to items.

'They knew the back story on many items and felt an obligation to hold on to them.”

Kayser said that has led to china dishes either displayed in curio cabinets - which need to be washed or dusted periodically - or stored in basements or attics.

'I have a certain set of china sitting in a box in my basement that I feel guilty about getting rid of because it's a family hand-me-down,” she said. 'I've seen this particular setting of china over and over in our stores, so I know that people aren't hanging onto that pattern for 40 years.

'It's no longer getting passed down from generation to generation.”

Kayser said there also has been a generational shift in terms of how couples entertain friends.

'We don't have formal sit-down dinners at the dining room table where we need a big set of china,” she said. 'We have a lot more options today and people are likely to switch out their dishes more frequently.”

lack of respect

Dean said she has been surprised by the lack of respect shown by some people who have walked through the house during the sales.

'I found the knobs had been removed from one of the dressers and a lot of things have been broken,” she said. 'It was something like I had never experienced before.”

Although she has continued to hold combination estate and garage sales on weekends, Dean said the financial proceeds so far will not come close to covering her expenses.

'This has cost me several thousand dollars out of my pocket,” she said. 'I know at some point I'm probably going to have to call Goodwill, Habitat or another charitable organization and ask them to haul it all away.

'I have to get the house cleaned out before it can be sold. I just don't know when I will reach that point and have to make that decision.”