Elsinox I don't think you understand the scale of this in my case. It took me two months of working 8 to 12 hrs per day 6 days a week to clear the house out to get it listed for sale. I have a big truck with an 8 foot box. I've taken 13 heaping loads to the dump and 9 loads full of boxes to the charity shop. This is basically all my moms stuff plus all of my grandparents stuff from their house too because I guess my mom couldn't deal with going through it after they died.
I have counted 13 pairs of binoculars, 8 metal tool boxes, I have multiple full sets of china. The newest of which is 1890s. Two silver tea sets. hundreds of 1800s tea cups and saucers. This is insane.
I have listed over 200 items on marketplace in the last couple of months and had to deal with endless idiots trying to scam me or waste my time. I had a garage sale that took 2 days to set up. This place was filled with thousands of knotted up grocery bags that all contain the exact same crap. Old bills, old lottery tickets, old receipts but also family photos. money, jewelry etc. Every bag was the same. Some bags I opened were from the early 60s. In those bags I have found 3 vintage Rolex watches, 5 Vintage Omega watches, two vintage Bulova watches all gold. So I now have a 500x320x280 box full of Jewelry that I've filled just from what was in the bags and drawers. All gold, silver, pearls, one single earing x100, etc. All good stuff. This is why I can't just load up a dumpster with a shovel and walk away.
I've had so much old original artwork and old stuff to try and get in someone's hands who wants it. This isn't just an apartment sized place. I have thousands of old family photos from 6 or 7 generations back. Tin backed photos even. I've spend over $2000 to have these photos digitized so I can send them off to my relatives. Somehow I've become the curator of my families legacy. For example I have all the artwork my grandmother ever did in the 1920's and all of her school report cards, letters, etc. I went through a metal box today that was my grandfathers. It was full of children's artwork and fathers day cards, etc all from my moms sister who died at the age of 7 before she was even born. A loc of her hair in an envelope with her name on it. This was a box full of memories he never told anyone else he had. It's pretty rough to see someone else's pain like that.
This is all museum stuff and all really highend stuff. I live in a really small area. The market for this stuff is 5 or 6 hours away minimum. I've had a couple of big collectors drive up and buy the old indian baskets I had. I've shipped away a bunch of stuff too. The largest was a huge whale rib bone and the smallest was a gold pocket watch.
The charity shops where I live are just focused on items that help people get on their feet. They have refused a lot of stuff. They just don't have the space. Cloths, blankets, etc. They wouldn't take two victorian era mirrored dressers I had. I posted them for free and no one wanted them. These were both very high end antiques and were in perfect shape. People would rather buy crap from Walmart and if they can afford it ikea these days. I have a couch/sofa that easily weighs 3 or 400 kgs. I had to hire movers just to get it out of the house. I had considered taking a saw to it inside but I just couldn't do it.
The shaving mugs are another thing. Just one of so many things. My grandfathers grandfather was a barber and had a barber shop on an old Mississippi River boat in the 1800s and eventually moved west. I have an old picture of the shop even. Back then everyone went to the barber to have a shave. They would have shelves full of shaving mugs. Everyone had their own that the barber would use. Some have their name on them some have a number and some have their occupation painted on them in the form of a picture. Of course there are some that had them at home too. This is an entire thing unto itself. I don't have time to think about it and I really don't want to. The fact is they are all going for 3 to $600 each so I really don't have a choice. I have to sell them. I probably have 20 antique straight razors and 50 shaving brushes all from the same era too. I have to enter the eBay world of scammers and time wasters just to try and get rid of them. They take up a lot of space. Difficult to list, photograph and access once they are sold. I can't pack them up into their 4 huge boxes after they are listed. How would I access them. These are fragile.
Oh I also have 24 antique moustache cups with saucers. Probably all 100 to 200 years old. Ya that's another one.
I have two huge boxes of silver coins. One that's just silver dollars maybe 400 of them. Sure I could just sell them for scrap silver if I drove for a few hour to a big city. Most of them are proof coins or uncirculated coins. Their value is many times scrap value. Everyone I've talked to wants to pick though them and just buy a few. No one has enough money to even make me an offer on them all. So now I also have to become a coin expert and deal with trying to sell coins to all the scammers on eBay. I'm certainly not going to have buyers over to dig trough thousands of dollars in coins in this day and age.
I tell you it's really made me analyze myself. I have a lot of interests so I have a lot of stuff. Collections are great if they're your collection. In my experience collecting can never be forced on you. I'm going to get though this stuff from my moms then I'm going to have a fire sale and clear out a lot of my own stuff. This is total BS.
Because I build old cars I have a real respect of original parts and pieces. I know how hard they are to find. All the parts I use on the cars I build are original from the era. I think about that everytime I take a load to the garbage dump.
