Your dining room shelters a wide array of entertaining and eating implements. Some of these may have been inherited. Many likely entered your dwelling as engagement or wedding gifts that were purchased by the previous generation (read your parent’s contemporaries) who held radically different ideas concerning entertaining from yours.  A significant proportion is probably still in its original packaging. You should consider purging the excess. 

CRUD Challenge

Let’s take the tarnish test. To do this, you need to pull out all of the silver and silver plate flatware, serving spoons included, the tea service, candle sticks, chafing dishes, and salt cellars from whatever dark cabinet they have been inhabiting.  Don’t worry. They are made out of metal so they won’t disintegrate upon contact with the earth’s atmosphere the moment you remove them from their wrappings.  How dull and blackened are they? Would you have to rob a bank to afford the required polish or risk repetitive strain injury to restore them to their pre-purchase condition?  The answer to these questions should furnish some insight as to how long it has been since you have used any of this finery, if, in fact, it was ever used at all.

If your only reason for holding on to these treasures is to pass them on to your children, after you have gone, think again.  Like many heirloom quality possessions, your kids probably won’t want them.  For one thing, silver is high maintenance. Who has the time to polish the tea service when you can’t even find a brief interval to polish your nails?  It is also quite likely to be too ornate to coordinate with many contemporary decorating motifs. You are probably musing on how much money was invested in the stuff when it was purchased. So here is our rule of thumb. If it has never been removed from the box, it is a great candidate for selling.  If you are downsizing to a smaller space where your china cabinet cannot dare to go, bring in a trustworthy antique dealer or appraiser and find out what the current market value is.  If you are going to sell, you will have to drag out that jar of polish one last time…