"Anyone else buy stuff they thought their kids would want when they get their own homes and you are left with the stuff?"

No... I would never do that.

I have completely different tastes than MY mom. I do not want her stuff, and I never assumed that my kids would want my stuff.

I only buy things I like and would use. I don't see a reason to buy just because I would hope someone would want it...

BTW - my kids are 22 and almost 25.
They DO want my china, crystal and flatware... and LP/CD collection!

I bet you could make good money selling these ornaments on Ebay.

You don't have any of the Barbie ornies do you Judy?
I missed the first one for sure. Maddie gets Barbie ornaments every year in her stocking.

I still have stuff my kids have left here when they moved out!! Not much left from the girls but DS still has a half of closet of shirts! He looked in there one day and said huh there is some nice shirts in there! Welll YEAH! LOL
DS just turned 27, the girls are 30. I think I need to clean it out!

Some of the Hallmark ornaments are worth a small fortune...like the first in the series Frosty Friends. I started collecting them for my daughter when she was born, and later switched to just the ones that are native animals and then to just raccoons.

I collect Christmas ornaments....not sure why, since I haven't put up a tree in years. Now I only buy raccoon ornaments and vintage ones. I found 48 very old and nice ones at a thrift shop for a dime apiece a couple of weeks before Christmas.

I went to an estate sale a few weeks ago, and the people had saved everything....all their children's toys, etc. The dealer who conducted the sale said the children kept very little of their parents' stuff.

I don't buy things with my daughter in mind...altho I know she likes a lot of the things that I do, but the amount of stuff I have is mind boggling and I don't think she relishes the idea of going through it all when I pass away. I need to start doing what my mother did, and give most of it away before I die.

I told her she would be foolish to sell this place tho, when I leave it to her. It is close enough that she can come down here on weekends. Hopefully before I pass on, I will have a finished house and a place for most of my junk and then she can just leave it all here. (Realistically, I know that would never work. Someone would come down here and steal and destroy everything. It is close enough to Houston that she could commute, but I don't think she would ever want to live in the country.)

I don't collect anything of value anymore. I mean things with a potential value. I have boxes of my Mom's collectors plates that she paid huge amts of $ for that now go for $5 at estate sales. This summer I cleaned out over 40 years of "stuff" and kept only things that I really liked. The DS's have their own stuff and no one wants anything of mine anyway. That's why I don't bother making quilts either. I do make afghans because it is something for my fingers to do but as one DS says what can I do with another afghan?

There's always one caveat - what kids don't want today they might rethink and want years from now. But I don't regard my house as a storage facility until some day comes.

Back when my social circle was nest building, we had a motto: "Remember, nobody will ever love your junk as much as you do." With that in mind, we bought/accumulated what we liked without any ideas that someone else would ever want it. So, if in my lifetime no one wants or can use what I have, the eventual estate auction will be a field day.

For as long as I can remember my Mom has bought Hallmark, Carlton and even Enesco (when they had the cutest mouse ornaments)ornaments for each of us kids. Each one was bought with special meaning. Last year I go a Chatty Cathy ornament because when I was young - she was my special doll.

I think you could make a fair bit of money if you sold your ornaments on ebay.

One of my ornaments (Candy Store) is now worth $340.00.

I love each and every one of them.

I too have that problem I have some various china cups/saucers that my grandma had made in Persha, England etc My one daughter wants them but at the present time has now room. I will put them away. When I moved this last time my house is way too small for all the stuff. My other DD has some of my stuff, but her taste are different. Will wait to see what granddaughters want.

I have a Lenox service for 21 that neither one of my daughters want. They'll probably put it in a garage sale for a dime a piece when I die. Sad to think about. I had some flowers in a creamer today on my dining room table for lunch and DD#1 asked me where it came from. My grandmother, do you want it? I'll give them anything they want at this point b/c I have so much. But, they're just like me, they need to clean out and have too much stuff, so basically they don't want anymore stuff.

Yep put it on ebay you will be happy when you see the price they go for Hallmark is a seller for sure hugs imabest who wishes she was one of your kids lol

I sell on ebay but I don't see any of these are worth all that much. I think I will try to group them together and sell as lots. We shall see.

It's unfortunate that these ornaments you worked so hard to collect are now a surplus thing in your household - unfortunate as well that they don't seem to sell on ebay for as high a price as some might expect. I am reminded of my friend who diligently collected Bradford Exchange plates for years believing the advertising that they only go up in value. As she recently found out when she tried to sell some of them off, they not only don't retain their value, they are so plentiful they depreciate very badly.
Sadly I suspect the Hallmark/Enesco/Carlton ornaments will suffer the same fate unless they are rare. The exceptions to that I would consider keeping are ornaments that portray stars that have now passed on, or famous people connected to the ornaments such as Charles Shultz (sp).
If you still find yourself with a large number of unwanted ornaments or other items why don't you sell them for whatever you can get for them and treat yourself to either something special you've had your eye on or a trip somewhere special...
Suzan J

Over the years I've had so many collections. At one time, I had over 1,100 advertising tins! I collected those for about 5 years..then discovered that THEY collected DUST!lol Sold some on eBay (at a big profit), sold others at yard sales and gave some to friends. I still have 3 or 4 that I like. Can't say I've ever collected anything with my kids in mind.

The mention of Christmas ornaments reminds me of a lady I saw checking out at Walmart today! She had a buggy running OVER with all different kinds of ornaments,lights,etc.! The guy behind her knew her and mentioned that she was "like his wife"..getting those deals. She told him she was buying them for her son and his girlfriend for when they get married! Duh lady...did it EVER occur to you they just might want to pick out their own ornaments and decorate their own tree!lol

When my kids were young they would get to pick out one ornament of their choice each year. I would sometimes gift them with an ornament that reflected their interests at the time. When DD moved out she already had a good start for her own tree. DS doesn't have room in their place to put up a tree so we keep his for him. They still go on our tree each year.

DD and a I were just talking about this very subject the other day. She and I have a habit of keeping all our ornies in the boxes they came in marked with the date of purchase etc. This year we've decided to get rid of some or most of the boxes. Like DD commented, it's only a keepsake because Hallmark said so on the box. LOL

I plan to first get rid of the generic boxes. Not ready to toss the Hallmarks yet. DD,aother anal friend of hers and I are still discussing how we will keep track of the ornies without the boxes. DD suggested taking a pic of each one to be stored in an ornie case. LOL That's hundreds of pics in my case. We also like knowing that an ornie is missing when there is a leftover box. That way we know to look on the tree.

How do the rest of you who have LOTS of ornaments store them? We have no basements here so they all have to stay in the attic crawl space above the garage.

Mine are wrapped in tissue in those rubbermaid storage containers. Except the last 48 I bought are in a basket on a shelf in a glass doored cabinet.