Have you ever kept something for years, not because you loved it, but because you didn’t know what else to do with it?
That’s the silverware for me.
When my mother passed, a lot of her things found homes pretty quickly. My brother took the clock. A neighbor wanted the plants.
But the silverware chest, the big wooden one with the felt lining, came home with me and went straight to the top shelf of my hall closet.
And there it sat.
I told myself I’d deal with it later. Later turned into a couple of years (I’d like to say I’m exaggerating, but I’m not).
Every so often I’d see that box up there and feel a little tug of guilt.
It was my mother’s good silver. She was proud of it. Setting it out was her way of saying a day mattered.
But I don’t host big holiday dinners the way she did. My kids have made it clear they don’t want it. And selling it felt wrong, like I was putting a price on her.
So I kept it. And it kept sitting there, doing nothing for anybody.
If you’ve got a set like that of your own, tucked away because you can’t use it, can’t pass it down, and can’t bring yourself to let it go, you’re not alone. This is one of the most common things women my age write to me about.
So let’s walk through what to do with inherited silverware, one step at a time, without the guilt that usually comes with it.