Althouse: "Auction houses, consignment stores and thrift shops are flooded with merchandise, much of it made of brown wood."

March 31, 2015

"Auction houses, consignment stores and thrift shops are flooded with merchandise, much of it made of brown wood."

"Hardly a day goes by that we don’t get calls from people who want to sell a big dining room set or bedroom suite because nobody in the family wants it. Millennials don’t want brown furniture...."

"Millennials have stuff on discs and flash drives.... I don’t think my sons are going to want my walnut table, eight chairs and buffet."

The children of Baby Boomers don't want their shit.

65 comments:

Mark O said...: I, for one, am shocked.; 3/31/15, 9:37 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: As a baby boomer I don't even want my own shit. Downsized from 2500 ft to 500 ft and all the shit went - even a lot of the books. Down to one surfboard. Life is better.; 3/31/15, 9:40 AM
Wince said...: Auction houses, consignment stores and thrift shops are flooded with merchandise, much of it made of brown wood.

Then how do you explain the modern blight of "wenge"?; 3/31/15, 9:43 AM
MadisonMan said...: So it's news that children have different tastes from their parents.; 3/31/15, 9:48 AM
bleh said...: @ MadisonMan

It's news to Baby Boomers because they are the whiniest, most self-absorbed fucking generation in history.; 3/31/15, 9:50 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Pinterest had 1,001 ideas as to what to do with all this brown wood. And frankly I would love to get some nice solid furniture!; 3/31/15, 9:51 AM
Birches said...: First world problems.

Yeah right anyone in my family ever owned a silver tea set or a formal dining table or even China.

I'd totally take that couch featured in the article though--it looks comfy. Also, I know plenty of people that buy old wooden crap and redo it to make it look modern and fun. So let me deduce what the real problem is. Failure to launch children don't want their parents crap. Instead of selling it for a fair price, parents want to sell at exorbitant "heirloom" price. No buyers. Whining and complaining ensues.

First world problems.; 3/31/15, 9:52 AM
Birches said...: Me too Pants, but probably not for the price they're asking.; 3/31/15, 9:53 AM
TosaGuy said...: While on a recent business trip, the hotel where I was staying was having a Coca-Cola memorabilia convention. While a few of the really old stuff on display was interesting, most of it was collectible because people call it collectable.

My mid-40s self was the youngest person in the place.

All of this crap will be in a dumpster within 20 years.; 3/31/15, 9:54 AM
Thorley Winston said...: Wouldn’t the children of Baby Boomers be Generation Xers and Millennials actually be their grandchildren?; 3/31/15, 9:55 AM
Peter said...: It may not be environmentally correct, but there is a lot to be said for buying cheap furniture instead of the quality stuff. That way, when you move you won't feel guilty about not moving it with you and you'll then be free to buy new, cheap furniture that will better fit your new residence.

In any case, if you don't want to move that big, old inherited furniture around with you for the rest of your life, the easiest time to get rid of it will be immediately after you inherit it.

Some posessions just tend to own you more than you own them.; 3/31/15, 9:58 AM
Expat(ish) said...: When we downsized we didn't have any trouble getting rid of any *real* furniture, but the el-cheapo stuff we bought to 'bridge' us (printer stands) was just relegated to the curb for roving yard guys to pick it up.

Part of the trick is that it is worth what it is worth. Nobody cares that my 12 dining room chairs were $800/each @ Henrendon with $400 worth of seat covering on them. They were worth $100 each in set. But whoever got them probably will have them for 25 years and is pleased as punch. Win/Win I say.

-XC; 3/31/15, 9:59 AM
TosaGuy said...: Thorley,

Think if it as two alternating generational sets. It isn't a clean break, but the majority fits.

Before 1946 folks had Gen X in the late 1960s and 1970s and baby boomers had their Gen Y.; 3/31/15, 10:02 AM
Michael K said...: "The desire of many millennials to stay in cities rather than moving to the suburbs or rural areas is instigating a rewrite of the American dream. "

This is the dream of WaPo readers who are living with student loans and government jobs.

My younger son lives two blocks from me and has a nice big house with a new pool. My other son is in the Bay Area with a fair sized house. Both have kids.

My three daughters are still living smaller than their brothers but I don't see this trend as a desire so much as necessity. WaPo readers talk about suburban "sprawl" but would move there in a nanosecond if they could afford it.; 3/31/15, 10:02 AM
Shanna said...: Pinterest had 1,001 ideas as to what to do with all this brown wood. And frankly I would love to get some nice solid furniture!

Seriously. Chalk Paint! Milk Paint! Heh.

The BB's are probably asking too much for their furniture. I had an old boss who said she had a chair she was trying to get rid of then she told me it would be 300 or 400 dollars. Um, I can buy a new chair for that. Come on.; 3/31/15, 10:05 AM
JackOfVA said...: The Rolling Stone reporters and editors should have followed the advice of Peter Parker (Spiderman)'s Uncle Ben:

Remember, with great power. comes great responsibility.*

Before firing the public fusillade against UVA and the fraternity in question, they should have checked and double checked the story for accuracy precisely because the risk of damage to the innocent from a factually wrong story.

* Yes, I know the original version of this may have come from Voltaire or from the English Prime Minister William Lamb. (Usually attributed to Voltaire but some disagree.) And, moreover, it's a variation on Luke 12:48 "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."; 3/31/15, 10:27 AM
JAORE said...: I found that we had to refurnish a room or two every time one of the kids moved out. Economics, pure and simple. But then we didn't pretend these were family heirlooms to be treasured and held or the next generation. And neither did the kids.

When we go I suspect a very small percentage of our belongings will be taken by the kids and the junk man will bring a large truck the following morning.; 3/31/15, 10:28 AM
JackOfVA said...: Sorry - my comment on Rolling Stone and UVA wound up on the wrong thread. My error.; 3/31/15, 10:29 AM
MadisonMan said...: I don't often use the sterling. (Once since I got it from Dad) It does take a lot to polish it, which is a good rainy day activity. Just haven't done that for a while, and now it looks less than sparkly, especially the fork tines. I have service for 12+.

The sterling pieces that I didn't recognize, I sold. Now, Mom would have castigated me, but she's dead, and frankly, if I don't have a personal relationship to the piece, why keep it? Just because some distant-back relative gave it to a not-quite-so-distant-back relative?

There are plenty of family "heirlooms" (I call them albatrosses) that my brother has. I'll toss them -- or try to sell them (I doubt anyone wants this stuff) if I outlive him, which might happen.; 3/31/15, 10:31 AM
lgv said...: I don't even want it and I'm a baby boomer. I guess I will just have to keep it so it can be used by the millennials' kids.

I have a pool table, 100 year old piano and other furniture I can't get rid of.; 3/31/15, 10:33 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Wouldn’t the children of Baby Boomers be Generation Xers and Millennials actually be their grandchildren?"

Depends on where in the Baby Boomer phase you arrived and when you had your children. Obama is said to be a Baby Boomer, and his kids are millennials.; 3/31/15, 10:33 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I did a quick skim, over there, and found neither "Toffler" nor "shock" so that's all I've got to add to the discussion.

Sorry.; 3/31/15, 10:36 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Googling, I'm seeing "millennials" as beginning in the early 80s. That would make my sons, born in '81 and '83 millennials. I think the old term was "Generation Y." "Millennials" seems more expressive of something... I don't know... less built on the idea of Generation X, which sounds negative, but I think it originally meant the Roman numeral for 10 and that this was the 10th generation in the U.S. In that light, Y meant nothing except following on and the dumb homophone ("why?").; 3/31/15, 10:36 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But Wikipedia has this account of "Generation X":

"The term Generation X was coined by the Magnum photographer Robert Capa in the early 1950s. He used it later as a title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately after the Second World War. The project first appeared in Picture Post (UK) and Holiday (US) in 1953. Describing his intention, Capa said "We named this unknown generation, The Generation X, and even in our first enthusiasm we realised that we had something far bigger than our talents and pockets could cope with." [1] The term was used for various subcultures or countercultures after the 1950s.
The name was popularized by Canadian author Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, concerning young adults during the late 1980s and their lifestyles.[2] While Coupland's book helped to popularize the phrase Generation X in a 1989 magazine article [3] he erroneously attributed it to English rock musician Billy Idol.[4][5] In fact, Idol[6] had been a member of the punk band Generation X from 1976 to 1981, which was named after Deverson and Hamblett's 1965 sociology book Generation X[7] – a copy of which was owned by Idol's mother.[8]"; 3/31/15, 10:38 AM
Birches said...: My mom is a boomer and had 2 Gen Xers when she was in her 20s and me (Millenial) at 38. Her oldest grandchild would still be considered a Millenial by the wide birthdate ranges they gave in the article.; 3/31/15, 10:38 AM
Shanna said...: I don't often use the sterling

My brother inherited the silver because he was the only boy #GrandmotherLogic. I got the depression ware.; 3/31/15, 10:42 AM
Tank said...: My kids have already claimed some of our shit, and we're not dead yet !!!

=====================

The article refers to a couple living in 700 square feet and another person in 900 square feet. Well, if you're living in a feckin shoebox, you can't have much of anything.

===========================

Brown wood is out?

Check back in 20 years.; 3/31/15, 10:42 AM
Seeing Red said...: For the renewable, Eco-friendly generation, they sure want to junk stuff. And the color brown is so earthy, too! I have inherited pieces. I think of the money I saved.; 3/31/15, 10:44 AM
The Savage Noble said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/31/15, 10:51 AM
The Savage Noble said...: These damn kids are awful c-c-c-cold.
They just think our funiture's o-old.
We thought we'd serve as an inspiration,
But they don't like our decoration.; 3/31/15, 10:55 AM
Alex said...: I live in a 10x10 pod-apartment. I only need to pee and sleep. The rest of my time is spent in community spaces or at the night-club.; 3/31/15, 10:55 AM
Deirdre Mundy said...: We (gen x) turned down used furniture early in our married life, when we were in small apartments. My husband's parents put it in their shed, and when we got our first house, we were happy to have it. Almost everything we have except bookshelves are hand-me-downs from grandparents and parents. (And the couch, because we needed a sleeper sofa and b/c no one offered us a decent couch.)

If the BBs would just wait a couple of years, their kids will be more settled. When you have kids, cheap paperboard furniture won't cut it.

Of course, the millennials may turn out to be a generation that doesn't reproduce....; 3/31/15, 10:55 AM
Darleen said...: As a boomer (1954) with daughters gen-x & millenials (79, 81, 83, 87) I've never felt upset over whether or not they want something I'm in the process of getting rid of.

#2 has my grandparents 1925 Art Deco bedroom set - she has always loved it. I had a 1917 dresser from a grand-aunt that I had restored and it is #1's pride & joy. I have a depression glass children's tea set that I'm saving for my granddaughter. As my own parents are still kicking (1928 & 1931) around, there hasn't been much passing of a lot of stuff yet. #4 daughter would so love a lot of the 70's deco my parents put in storage after they redecorated about 20 years ago.

I totally get not wanting to take stuff that doesn't fit your esthetic. What bothers me is that some said they had no use for photos, that all needed to be on digital.

Good luck when those storage formats go by the wayside or you pull out a cd/dvd and find out it has been destroyed by a fungus.

I'm scanning old pics into digital, but I'm also using them to make printed albums.

My mom has some awesome family photos going back to late 1800's. Stuff like that never goes "out of style."; 3/31/15, 11:09 AM
tim in vermont said...: This is the dream of WaPo readers who are living with student loans and government jobs. - Michael K

Yeah, this is kind of like the "Nobody I know voted for Nixon" saw. Long debunked, but never dies.

It wouldn't surprise me if my Millennial daughter didn't want our furniture though, but not for that reason.

I wonder what the next generation my youngest daughter is in will be called?New Millennials? She only knows of New Kids on the Block and Spice Girls from her older sister. The two are definitely different in outlook, and I notice the kids right behind my youngest daughter are more different yet.; 3/31/15, 11:14 AM
MarkW said...: "Good luck when those storage formats go by the wayside or you pull out a cd/dvd and find out it has been destroyed by a fungus."

But printed photos (except for B&W) definitely do decay and fade (especially color prints, but color slides also -- and they survive getting wet much worse than plastic CDs do).

Also, when people die, their photos get scattered among relatives, or are tucked away and forgotten or are even tossed out (if you ever peruse 'Shorpy', a lot of them are of unidentified people whose family albums somehow ended up in flea markets).

Once you digitize, on the other hand, you can easily give everybody in the family a complete set, store them online, on hard disks, on optical disks (or all of the above).; 3/31/15, 11:24 AM
JAORE said...: I wonder what the next generation my youngest daughter is in will be called?New Millennials?

New Millennials on the Block.; 3/31/15, 11:32 AM
Jeff Boulier said...: "It does take a lot to polish it"

Don't let your silver flatware sit around, but wash it after you use it, dry completely, then store in airtight ziplock bags. This basically obviates the need to ever polish it again.; 3/31/15, 11:36 AM
MadisonMan said...: My brother inherited the silver because he was the only boy #GrandmotherLogic. I got the depression ware

I have Mom and Dad's. My sister has our grandmother's, and my brother has our grandmother's sister's.

Mom's family jewelry all went to Mom's cousin (my grandfather's sister's kid) and that rankled Mom.; 3/31/15, 11:41 AM
bbkingfish said...: "The children of Baby Boomers don't want their shit."

A whopping swing and a characteristic miss from the Charlie Brown of blogging commentary.

Now, it may be true that the children of Baby Boomers don't want their grandparents' shit...; 3/31/15, 11:54 AM
Titus said...: I don't want any of my parents stuff-just the cash.

My mom always tells me I am going to get everything-I am like not that huge dining table, sofa, tele etc.

I will do an estate auction.

My mom has tons of diamonds, rubys etc. My sisters will want them but mom has already put them in a safe for me because she knows the bitches would take em.

She is giving them each a nice diamond right and some land.

Everything else is mine. She told me I will never have to work another day in my life.

tits.; 3/31/15, 12:01 PM
MayBee said...: When we were first married, painted furniture was out and people were stripping wood down to the natural (usually oak). Then dark wood came in, now painted furniture again. Also the blond wood of midcentury modern.

Things have to cycle past the "just old enough to look like last decade's style" to the "old enough to look fresh again" stage.

I was at an auction this weekend and the auctioneer said he thinks mahogany is coming back.; 3/31/15, 12:01 PM
Seeing Red said...: Hmm, my grandmother didn't want my great-grandmother's furniture, either.; 3/31/15, 12:05 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Hmm. When we bought my parents house from the family and moved there last year, we also had to unload 2.5 sets worth of furnishings. Lots of their older stuff was "Swedish Modern" hand-made by my father between '55 and '65. Beautiful solid stuff, but I figured no one would want it. Boy was I wrong - you should have seen the consignment store folks eyes light up when they saw the pieces. They said, "Oh yes, 'mid-century-modern' is all the rage now among the younger generation."
Sounds like the WaPo types did their usual stellar research job.; 3/31/15, 12:10 PM
JSD said...: There’s a big difference in priorities between generations. I have nieces and nephews who insist that NYC is the only place to live. It can be liberating to have a small apartment, no car and not a lot of shit. However, don’t tell me that it’s better for the planet and leaves a smaller carbon footprint. The energy consumed in their IPhones, cloud data, movie streaming, electronic gadgets and frequent airline travel absolutely dwarf’s the amount energy I consumed in the 70’s. It’s not even close.

Now if I can only find someone interested in taking my ginormous floor standing Klipsch speakers.; 3/31/15, 12:20 PM
Charlie Currie said...: Fred Drinkwater has it right - millennials don't want their parents overstuffed, cheap particle board furniture, they want their grandparents 50's 60's streamlined modern solid wood, aka "retro", furniture and appliances. Their parents stuff is just "old" not "retro". And, mid-century modern fits their smaller homes...because it was made when homes were smaller.; 3/31/15, 12:29 PM
hombre said...: Their taste in Presidents is also atrocious.; 3/31/15, 12:42 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I'll second Drinkwater and Currie. There's always great rejoicing among the hipsters here in metro Phoenix when a storage locker door is breeched to reveal yet another undiscovered Mid Mod living room suite!; 3/31/15, 12:57 PM
Jason said...: Shit, it would be nice if most of the people my age I know had the option of storing all that stuff, long term, in a house they could stay in and raise a family in and put down roots.

Unfortunately the jobs that allowed people to make those kinds of choices are largely gone, in many areas.

The millennials are economically stagnant, stuck at home for much longer, burdened with large education debt payments that disqualify their debt to income ratios from most mortgages, and stuck working in jobs that threaten to fire them if they work more than 28 hours in the week thanks to Obamacare.

The work force participation rate is at a 40 year low. Millions aren't in the work force at all. Where are they going to put this crap? If they have to move to take a job it will be a ball and chain to them.

Yes, people are staying on the job longer - it's now up to 4.6 years. Longer than it's been since 1983. But that's because those who are fortunate enough to have jobs hang on to them for dear life.

These baby boomers will be trying to unload their heirlooms all at the same time and create a massive glut of secondhand home furnishings. The baby boomer demographic has caused many bubbles to inflate and deflate since they came into the world - just by sheer force of numbers.

They will be lucky to be able to sell their 401(k) stocks to an emerging affluent class of equity purchasers in India, China and Indonesia. Their furnishings and household goods are... less fungible and transportable.; 3/31/15, 1:45 PM
tim in vermont said...: "Now if I can only find someone interested in taking my ginormous floor standing Klipsch speakers."

BLAST FROM THE PAST!; 3/31/15, 1:47 PM
gerry said...: It's news to Baby Boomers because they are the whiniest, most self-absorbed fucking generation in history.

And we (I am a boomer) are a giant mushy bolus about to be squeezed through the anus of death, to be flushed into history.

In forty years the Millennials will be sitting around the radioactive landscape wondering why they never saved any keepsakes.; 3/31/15, 2:26 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: I built my six oak Mission style dining chairs and eight-foot natural finish birch table. If one of my kids doesn't take the furniture and cherish it, I will haunt them. And they know it.; 3/31/15, 3:38 PM
the gold digger said...: Not only do we not want their crap, we are dreading cleaning it out of their houses when they die.

(Says the person whose in-laws are quasi-hoarders who moved newspapers - regular newspapers - from up north to retirement down south - and who keep trying to give me junk I don't want, like a life-sized cast-iron cat.); 3/31/15, 4:15 PM
Sammy Finkelman said...: Maybe it is simply that the cost per square foot is too high - and also, for many years, they got used to living without brown furniture (and most new wooden furniture is no good - and by new I mean 1980s or later); 3/31/15, 4:21 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: "Now if I can only find someone interested in taking my ginormous floor standing Klipsch speakers."

My dad had those! If my brother and I wouldn't get out of bed, he'd crank them up and shake the walls.

I like that the one guy is keeping his Pinewood Derby cars.; 3/31/15, 5:18 PM
Darleen said...: I was at an auction this weekend and the auctioneer said he thinks mahogany is coming back.

I picked up a gorgeous 1940's Duncan Fyfe mahogany buffet a couple of years ago for about $400 ... The thing weighs a ton, but the craftsmanship of the piece is wonderful - sleek lines and tons of storage.; 3/31/15, 5:45 PM
glenn said...: Damn it's nice to be an non generational. Born in 1939. And believe me the last thing on my mind is what happens to the furniture we collected in our 50 year marriage.; 3/31/15, 5:51 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: And those older pieces have uses undreamed of by their creators - At college I had my dad's old coffee table, with a 3/4 inch travertine top, about 60"x20", that is to say, a heavy bi*ch. During a complex and delicate relationship negotiation with my then-girlfriend, I flipped it over, neglecting to note that my Olympus OM-10 SLR was on it. The camera hit the wood floor lens-up, the stone top fell on the camera, and the stone broke into five pieces. The camera survived unscathed, save for a slight stickiness at one spot in the focusing. (The relationship also survived, though later I had to chastise her for giggling. I have a different girlfriend now, but I still have the stone pieces.)
See what you can learn from your parents, kidees?; 3/31/15, 6:01 PM
ALP said...: Huh, I wonder how many people hate the furniture used in most interiors in "House of Cards"? I love the interior design in that series primarily due to the contrast between the consistently dark wood furniture and white/off white walls.; 3/31/15, 6:48 PM
Tim said...: Floor standing Klipsch? Is the foam still good? Seriously awesome speakers.; 3/31/15, 7:33 PM
chickelit said...: My generation was perhaps the last one that appreciated dark woods. In high school wood shop class in the 1970's brown woods were "in" -- American walnut and pecan in particular. We learned to draw scaled plans the first semester and then made the project the second semester. here is a photo of what I made. Dark wood used to connote a certain richness and it wasn't really necessary to stain them. Most all the furniture I made or bought subsequently has been lighter. Wood paneled rooms are another trend long gone.; 3/31/15, 7:47 PM
Alex said...: I've got the newer Klipsch Reference-II series. They are outstanding.; 3/31/15, 7:58 PM
Bob R said...: Part of this is the boomer's tendency to have kids later than previous generation. Ten years from now, the millenials will miss some of those things.

On the other hand, some of it may not come back. My mother and grandmothers had furs. My wife and sisters wouldn't take them then and would not take them now. (If I were thin, I'd have a fur lined jacket for the winter. I love the feel of fur. The cedar closet was the best hide and seek place in the world.)

I think mahogany and other dark woods will come back. China probably. Silver....maybe. I have some of each.; 3/31/15, 8:43 PM
Bob R said...: Turntables and vinyl are coming back, so I think the floor standing speakers will too.; 3/31/15, 8:44 PM
Bob R said...: "Damn it's nice to be an non generational. Born in 1939" Glenn, you are a member of the "silent generation." So is my mother, and she won't shut up to save her soul.; 3/31/15, 8:50 PM
Birches said...: Wood paneled rooms are another trend long gone.

Oh, they're coming back. A very hip neighbor who is younger than me has a wall in her house with chevron wood paneling, like this. All of the others were going gaga over it. I just kept thinking back to our old wood paneled living room that stayed that way well into the 90s out of financial necessity. I couldn't even say it looked nice; I just remained silent.; 3/31/15, 10:04 PM