That's a hard process, because the real lesson in downsizing for retirement, for example is: your kids don't want your stuff. And I spent a lot of time on clean-outs, and the advice that everybody who does this in North America says, 'You're going to tell me I'm saving this for the kids, and I'm going to tell you, the kids don't want it.'
If you to thrift stores, particularly in the Midwest where that kind of furniture was extremely popular for many, many years, they are overflowing with oak tables that nobody wants. And it comes down to a matter of taste. People want a cleaner look right now. It's something sort of influenced by mid-century modernism. Also, just the way homes are designed with the big windows now, giant oak tables don't go well. And people move around more than they used. And with home ownership rates declining a little bit and you think you're going to be renting for a while, you don't want to keep moving those heavy oak tables. So it's really put this downward pressure on the price of this, what they call in the trade, the 'brown furniture.'
more: https://www.econtalk.org/adam-minter-on-secondhand/
If you to thrift stores, particularly in the Midwest where that kind of furniture was extremely popular for many, many years, they are overflowing with oak tables that nobody wants. And it comes down to a matter of taste. People want a cleaner look right now. It's something sort of influenced by mid-century modernism. Also, just the way homes are designed with the big windows now, giant oak tables don't go well. And people move around more than they used. And with home ownership rates declining a little bit and you think you're going to be renting for a while, you don't want to keep moving those heavy oak tables. So it's really put this downward pressure on the price of this, what they call in the trade, the 'brown furniture.'
more: https://www.econtalk.org/adam-minter-on-secondhand/