I have a ghoulish question.

[zanana1]

What does one do with an empty urn? My husband's ashes have been in an urn on the shelf for over three years. I think it's time to set him free, but what do I do with the urn?

[Haggard Celine]

1. Find out what it's worth.

I'm sure the funeral home charges an arm and a leg for an urn, so someone might be glad to get yours at a discount. Or maybe someone collects them. There's all kinds of shit on the internet and you'll find someone who wants it and might give you good money for it.

[markie]

2. not ghoulish...

if you're sentimental, you can keep it as decoration or vase... otherwise wash it and donate it to Goodwill or such... I have spread ashes right after cremation (husband and dad) but my partner still has his son's by his bed

[2naSalit]

5. Interesting.

My mom wanted her ashes to be buried so we buried them.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. You pose one of the world's greatest and deepest questions

I've pondered possessions of the physical world for decades. I come to this conclusion, and you are so lucky because I've done all the thinking for you! Possessions only matter to those who own them, or those who remember them. Once they reach great-grandchild level, if not before, they are important to no one. Unless of course they are renewed as owned in subsequent generations.

So your urn has significance to you because you remember its use, and you own it. If you tire of it, or are finished with the memories, you could donate it, or give it to a relative who likes its shape, for even if you cherish it for its beauty or significance to you, I guarantee that in the end, you can't take it with you. It returns to the category of trinket and is recycled for use by others.

Hope you're not dizzy from me spinning that around in circles, but that's how I view it.

[zanana1]

4. Thank you for that.

You have given me something to think about.

[2naSalit]

6. A well rounded ponderance!

I am embarking upon the process of a great purge. I have recently moved and will again at least once in the next two to three years and I have stuff in storage that I need to part with to lighten my load. Your advice is a great reminder of the mindset I need to have while assessing the value of certain items.

I have been through this process before and realized when I began that the value of any physical item is only what I give it and was the sentimentality for such items worth the cost of protecting them? I had a bunch if antiques and the cost of their care and/or storage along with sentimental value was going to sink me so I sold it all, well almost all of it. I have since acquired items that need to go elsewhere since I don't want to handle them a bunch of times in the next few years.

Thanks for that reminder! The purge begins this week.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. My purge is a 20 year dribble

Harry Rinker wrote Antique price guides, and one book on collecting last time I looked. He wrote that items reach maximum value when people in their peak earning years about 45-60 buy what they remember from their youth, including what ma and grandma owned. After that it's all downhill.

I have a utilitarian streak. If I can't use it or cherish it, it is suspect and is better off cashed in for vittles. Imagine the junk Americans will try to take along as they flee the country from fascism! Gotta travel light.

[2naSalit]

9. Indeed.

Have to agree with that author's conclusion.

I was fortunate to have family help in retaining a storage unit a few years back when I was living in my vehicle for ten months, I used it as a warehouse along as general place to keep things that didn't fit in the car but I could not afford to replace like winter wear and my kitchen stuff and my pile of artwork.

I have very little furniture but all the things I still have also need to be seen as something that is or is not something I want to leave behind for relatives when I croak. I'll just hang on to the stuff I can't replace that still has value in my world and is worth packing along for the ride.

Occasionally I go out and look for cool rocks like agates and jasper and it's usually a couple miles of hiking to get to most places where the good stuff is. Before I can hike out, I have to assess my findings by coolness and weight because I have to pack it out and I can only handle so much weight in my pack for a two to three mile trek back to the car. I go through the sorting process often.

[Busterscruggs]

8. I've seen some

At goodwill and on fb marketplace. Always washed and sanitized. The one I did purchase for my new sugar canister was left on the porch and the cash in her mailbox for covid caution.

[3catwoman3]

10. After reading your question and the responses, I looked...

…on eBay, and there are many listed there. Some very utilitarian, some very decorative.

[Lars39]

11. Use as a planter?

Not sure I’d want to be the one buying it at Goodwill not knowing what it was used for originally.