Inheriting the fine china? Many younger folks say no thanks
China feels outdated ... difficult to maintain
LBy Tracee M. Herbaugh
ast summer, I cleaned out the house where my Grandma lived for 60 years.
Every nook and cranny was filled with something — papers, mugs, old photographs, knickknacks, furniture. There were also two complete sets of Johann Haviland china, from plates and platters to an ornate coffee pot. What to do with all these fancy dishes? The reasons not to keep Grandma’s china were many. My family is casual, not traditional. We live in a small home outside Boston and have moved four times in the last decade. Most importantly, I’m kind of a minimalist. I just don’t like having a lot of unnecessary things.
As it turns out, a lot of 30-somethings like me face this quandary.
“Multiple generations of china in one house (or, more specifically, basement) seems to be a common American condition,” said Adam Minter, who wrote the new “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale” (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019).
The book follows what happens to possessions once they’re donated. Minter was inspired to write it after dropping off his mother’s china at Goodwill. It was the last of his mother’s possessions that he and his sister dealt with.
“We put it off, mostly because we know my mother loved it,” Minter said. “But neither of us actually wanted it.”
China’s waning appeal
The five enormous boxes I filled with Grandma’s blue garland china, which she purchased in the 1980s from the grocery store where she worked, sat unopened in my basement months after they arrived.
Acquiring a set of china isn’t the rite of passage it was decades ago. Some people still collect it, but nowadays it might not even end up on a couple’s wedding registry.
“More and more younger people don’t see the need to use their space for things that are ceremonial,” said Cecilia Jones, a personal organizer and productivity coach in Silver Spring, Maryland.
NedaGhaffari , a 37-year–old San Francisco doctor who married last summer, opted to register for modern dinnerware she could use daily or for entertaining. China feels outdated, Ghaffari said, and difficult to maintain, as it normally has to be hand-washed.
“We didn’t register for china because we live in a relatively small condo in San Francisco and generally only entertain small groups at a time,” she said. “We also have limited storage space in our kitchen.”
Moving more frequently and living in tight quarters means people are less likely to accumulate things.
Deidre Bryant, a 32-year–old teacher from Aurora, Colorado, registered for off–white plates from Crate and Barrel ahead of her 2017 wedding. As for china, “the thought didn’t even cross my mind,” she said. (AP)