I don’t think either of my kids will want much-maybe my suburu. I will gladly give anyone the baby grand that is sitting in our living room.
Donated my piano to a military family, warning them it would be an anchor. She answered “It’s OK, the Navy pays for each move”. I feel lucky I found a grateful family that wanted it.
I did a remodel for an elderly couple that was downsizing into the home. Despite all efforts, no one could get the Mom to throw anything out. So truckloads arrived. I was stuck trying to paint and work around the stuff. Every time we took a dump run, I would gather up broken, discarded stuff. She insisted that her son or daughter might want these things. I called son and daughter and they didn’t want anything. Many parents have this delusion.
I have learned my lesson. Everything that I no longer wanted left the house during a recent remodel. The biggest clutter is actually D’s stuff that is slowly moving out. All my D wants is the house and some musical instruments.
Most of what DD wants has already been sneaked off to grad school with her. 
My Mazda Miata! (five years old and only has 12,000 miles on her.)
Side story: DS1 moved out a few years ago, leaving his room quite full. I waited a year or two, then started packing up what I thought he would want (asked him about everything before I donated/chucked). I had pared it down to maybe two Rubbermaid containers full of yearbooks, framed awards, etc. He stopped by and I asked him to grab them and bring them to his apartment (he has 1,000 square feet, plus a storage area in the basement!). He looked through the containers and left them saying “those are just memories…”
I think it’s interesting that most popular answer here seems to be “piano” but they are hard to even donate if you don’t have a family member willing to take them 
My D told us when she was 12 that she wanted her piano when she had her own house. I’ll be very sad to see it go. I’m figuring we have maybe 4 - 5 years left and then I’d gladly pay to take someone else’s off their hands for me ; )
My wife may want to give our piano (which my mother gave to us) to one of our kids, pay for piano lessons for any of our grandkids (none at this point in time) and watch one of our kids struggle to get their kids to practice the piano like my wife with our kids. One of my wife’s regrets in raising our kids. Wished she would have let them quit the piano before they did because they really were not interested in playing. Could have put them in other lessons (they moved on to play other instruments). Would give my wife a sense of grandma’s revenge. LOL
We don’t really have anything our kids would likely want. Other than the dog but they can’t have her. But they are welcome to whatever they want. Our Christmas ornaments amount to our life story (some from our childhood, some our kids made and many from trips/vacations over the years. They may be interested in some of those but ultimately they likely want their own life story (if they go that route). My wife doesn’t really do jewelry (engagement/wedding ring that she doesn’t wear because the diamond fell out twice and diamond earrings she wears every day – but daughter does not have pierced ears).
My parents’ estate attorney recommended that my siblings and I indicate to them what we wanted from their house. Was 10-15 years ago. Parents were in their 70s at the time. I wanted no part of it. My mom is gone now and I still feel the same. We have to help my dad clean out some stuff (my mom definitely wasn’t a pitcher though they did move from a 45 year house more than 10 years ago so some pitching happened – at least the studded snow tires are now gone). But I know its incredibly emotional for my dad so no one wants to push that at this point.
I forgot about xmas stuff - We have a tradition that we buy an ornament whenever we are traveling. D already says she wants all of those as she has already started continuing the tradition when she travels alone.
Ha! That’s an unexpected but very fair question. They’re probably each worth $1,000. The safe is humidity/climate controlled and the cues take up very little room in the back. Had I put them in the back of a closet they probably would have been damaged…or used as jousting lances by my boys when they were young…
Interestingly, I do not have a pool table and hadn’t played in 15 years until my 19 year old son challenged me to a game at a relatives house on Christmas Eve. He said he found the tales he was told by my cousin hard to believe. It was a very short game. 
A painting of the house is a great idea!
I’m going to look into it. Thanks for putting the idea in my head!
Apparently nothing! We are seriously talking about moving and downsizing and asked them this holiday. Actually they both would pay to store grandma’s piano. It is an old Steinway (1898 per serial number) and is a baby grand (85 key instead of 88, they hadn’t standardized yet). It is not HUGE, but it is pretty big for most apartments. After cleaning out Mom’s house, I plan and hope to get ours down to a couple of suitcases and boxes and make it clear that the rest is left on the curb!
Things they don’t see that are part of home though are insideous. Like the paintings on the walls. We moved into this house before kids were born and never changed out the wall decorations. I am sure they don’t see them anymore. I do though, and I see the one small painting I brought from Grandma’s house and when I “see” it I think of her kitchen. … But the kids don’t see the paintings as something to take because they are part of home I think. When they are down and stacked in the bassement, then we will see if they want them.
I would hope that an old family Bible brought with the family from Germany in the 1700’s would not just be dumped in the trash. It’s not valuable but it’s history.
Well, we are probably terrible parents. We sold our ds’s baby grand piano when we did our big downsize to our 2BR/2BA condo. We did offer to store it for him, but he is too practical for that. He said he had no idea if and when he would ever have a home large enough to place it (he graduated from college five months after our downsize). We told him he could have the money (which wasn’t much) from the sale to apply toward any piano he ever bought for himself. He has a digital keyboard that he took to college.
We asked ds what he wanted when we did the big downsize, and he said he wanted all the Christmas ornaments. So, we kept those.
If we died today, he might take some of our art. We live on opposite coasts, and while he might want our nice, new furniture, moving it to CA would likely be impractical. I think he would take the family photos, his one tub of his memorabilia, and a couple other things that belong to him that we are storing. No doubt he would sell our condo.
My kids would all want our house. D2 would want our cars. I don’t know what else they would want. We have nice things but nothing worth a lot. Youngest will probably want the surfboards.
My inlaws have a large house plus a barn filled with stuff. They have great taste and have a lot of nice art. Over the years the kids have told them what they like. My MIL has taken to putting stickers on the back of items. My H will not ask for anything and will let his siblings pick first. My Mom didn’t have anything of value. The youngest grandkids at the time all wanted their parent to take The big chair that grandma had that stood you up. They all loved playing on that chair.
Like most people are reporting, our kids don’t want much. They are practical and would gladly take basic furniture for a first home or apartment.
Besides that, D2’s eyes lit up when I told her to please be settled somewhere before we do a big downsize because I will need a place to store all of my tools.
All that’s left of my grandmother’s piano is the bench which is my coffee table.
I’ve told my father that I want absolutely nothing from his house. My mother has given me the one item I wanted that her mother made. I expect my brother will end up living in and dealing with the multigenerational accumulation at her house.
My son would like my Oriental rugs. I also have real antique furniture, but I wonder.
“The big chair that grandma had that stood you up”
We called it the “dump” chair because it would dump you out when you were ready to get up!
Maybe I should take a lesson from myself. When my mother died, I could have had everything (I was her only child). Her jewelry was willed to my kids. I kept only a few things…a Nippon China cup and saucer that I remembered from my childhood, a set of white Royal Doulton dishes that we use for everyday eating, a service for 12 of sterling silver flatware, and a picture I made in 6th grade that my mom had framed (it’s in our son’s room now). That’s it. Everything else was just “stuff”. It was given away, donated or tossed.
I can’t imagine our kids will want much more than I have of my mom’s.
The real problem with downsizing is that when you are ready to do it, you are likely 20 years too late for your kids to actually want your stuff. When we married, my husband and I would have been thrilled to take our parents’ unwanted furniture, but they were still using it. When they were downsizing, we had already acquired what we needed. The same will likely be true of our children.
DS would probably want the piano, but he is back in Boston… too far away, and the move from CO/dry to humidity supposedly is not good.
Sadly DS/DD will likely want very little from the house. That is too bad because my dining room set has lived at BOTH sets of my grandparents houses. My mom remembers it from growing up. Then when her parent retired and moved to a bungalow, they gave it to my dad’s parents… where I remember big family dinners on it.
Tastes change. There’s a high end consignment shop my son loves and the other day when we were in there the employees were talking about how antique furniture and oriental rugs that commanded a huge price only a few years ago are now worth very little if they can sell them at all.
Who knows - maybe a “new” design fad a few years from now will make antiques hot again? Until then, they’re not in general valuable, just old.