Comments on: On a more serious note . . .

By: mkaston

mkaston — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:00:19 +0000

You make such a good point! DH and I have no kids and I have fiber hobbies that no one else in my family (sisters, mom, etc) would really know what to do with. I don’t have a huge stash (yet – I just started spinning in the past 3 months) but I would still be heartbroken to think that all that lovely tussah and other softies would be lost

I guess this needs to be one of the things on my “todo” list this year. Thanks for making me think about it!

By: Miriam

Miriam — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:01:26 +0000

C knows what to do, but you’re right. No one else would know where to go. Perhaps it’s worth having a contact sheet stored with the fiber with some people and phone numbers that an executor could call to help deal with the stuff.

For instance, if I gave the time and place of my Stitch n’ Bitch, someone could haul all of my stash to that meeting and it would probably all be taken into loving homes.

Maybe for you, you need to give a name of someone overseas that could be consulted on what to charge and where to sell stuff.

By: sarah

sarah — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:37:41 +0000

My husband knows to take all the fibre and yarn to the local spinning group, who will find homes for it. I don’t worry about it too much because (as someone else once said) the sheep are growing more even as we spin. What worries me are our books – over 2000 paperback SciFi and fantasy, some inadvertent first editions because I bought them when they first came out. They don’t look like much, tattered and yellowing, but some are worth money, others are more valuable than gold dust because they’re out of print and unlikely to be reprinted anytime soon. And the out-of-copyright maps I use for work are worth money, too. And there’s the accidental art collection, the plates and bowls we use every day, all handmade by ceramic artists, some of whom are now collectable.

So: there’s a letter, copies with our will and everywhere else someone might look (in with the vet certificates we leave with the catsitter, for example) explaining which stuff is valuable and what should be done with it.

By: DebbieB

DebbieB — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:23:42 +0000

Already taken care of here. The daughters know what to do, and the local Guild is ready to help them sell and donate what they don’t want to keep.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:08:55 +0000

This has been on my mind a lot lately too, and I don’t think it’s morbid. We had to dispose of an entire huge house full of my FIL’s belongings this year, and Mom had to downsize to move here, so we’ve been thinking a lot about stuff. It’s only fair to those who have to take care of it to let them know what has value, and what to do with it.

When I went to pick up one of the looms I found on craigslist, it became clear to me that the previous owner must have died and the husband really had his hands full trying to sell all this fiber stuff. He didn’t even know what some of it was and was grateful I could identify a few things. Now with stash and wheels and looms and all the accessories, I really need to make DH a list of what things are and what they’re worth. I have a pretty good idea about DH’s radio equipment, but you’re right, if we both were gone, his grown kids would have no idea.