0:02 good morning hello and welcome to treson Estates weekly I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Monday at 10: a.m. Pacific time and on the East Coast it's already 1:00 in the afternoon and I'm really happy to bring back Hillary Cooper my guest from a few months ago Hillary is the president of uncluttered and if you saw our first episode uh you'll recall that Hillary helps you simplify your life um whether it's from a situation where someone has
0:40 passed away and now you've got storage rooms or a house filled with stuff or whether it's some other transition point in your life and so uh Hillary and I have been talking about this for for a while kind of doing some onsite uh shows and so today Hillary is at Robins antiques in Midtown Manhattan and Robins antiques is owned by Robin uh rafy miary and Robin has been in the Antiques business for 31 years he's really deeply
1:16 deeply knowledgeable about the value of the kind of things that you find the stuff as we called it in the title of this episode that you know you look at and you go well this this looks old and it looks valuable so it must be worth some money and so I'm I'm really happy that um Hill Hillary is going to kind of take us through and help us understand the stuff that we think is valuable I mean is it really you know and and and it's it's not so easy to find out so so Hillary thank you for coming on the show
1:52 today first of all thank you for having me again Robert I know we have a series of shows coming up and this was sort of the the kickoff to the fall the clean units and they kick off to our fall exactly exactly I think we have three show we we planned a three show thing if I if I don't if I recall correctly so so Robin I'm Robin we're calling each other Robin um Hillary when you know when confronted with this just you know like like a stor room full of stuff right what do we do
2:31 in terms of finding the things that that may have value and and for a moment talk if you would about not just monetary value but other kinds of value so we can kind of start sifting through this and then and then we can get to the area where you bring in Robin's expertise um from from the you know strictly financial side yeah no for sure so I am often hired to be the first the sort of boots on the ground first person that goes in to sift through items that
3:06 people have received usually through someone passing or just an inance of whatever and it's usually in a storage unit and I say that because I live in Manhattan and my B my business is based in New York city so a lot of people just don't have the actual physical space if you're luy to have a storage unit in the basement of your building or you have just very large closet space and youve you know rooms to or a space within a room to Antiques and silver in China so we usually start with the smaller items first a lot of people um can easily keep that you know the larger items you know your grandparents you know Wonderful clo
3:42 or like the chest that's behind me or something like that you would probably that would probably the last thing to get rid of you'd probably you know sort of store that in storage unit versus keeping it in your apartment um so I think silver is is probably the first I mean Robin give me some props today so I know I can actually call on him to speak if there's any other questions but so for example this they call it the loving cup yes and it has trophy cup the trophy cup loving cup so it is a combin of a couple of things people usually end up with items like this whether it's a you
4:17 know a knickknack from a family Passover seder or Russ or something like that where their grandmothers have you know pass it down to their mothers and now to them or it's just sort of you know one more thing to keep in a shelf and whether or not you're actually going to use it but the interesting thing about this is and again it's all about the stamp on the bottom I know that's not possible to see on camera but that's the first thing that we look for is to be sure that it's Sterling that it's not plate but it's and then after that obviously it's you know the the Eye value you know you could put this up in a in a New York City dining room or living room or
4:52 something everybody would say wow Conversation Piece it's also small enough to keep so that's that's a perfect example of how we go through the first round of I silver chests are another thing that have been handed down before before you go on to the next one you mentioned the stamp on the bottom um that identifies it as Sterling is is it does it is it stamped Sterling is that what we're looking for or says Sterling A lot of times that I've that I've noticed with I bought in uh when I bought in Robin it things are silverplated they're not really they're not real silver so there's a huge value difference between
5:28 silver and silver plate so that's that's the first the first step is to be sure that it's actually stamped I mean not to say that silver plate doesn't have its own version of value but it's nowhere near the the cost Factor okay and there's Robin Robin is chiming in um about the different types of silver come join us yeah come on in Robin Robin to make it to make it very specific as I always bring Robin to to that point go ahead Robin hi hi thanks for joining us Robin uh uh silver not all silver is mar Sterling
6:03 European silver can be 900 800 750 so 84 so there's different versions of sterling silver out in the uh in in the world so and what is what does that mean 8900 just real the purity of the silver so it's 8,000 925 is basically American and that's 925 out of a th Japanese is 9950 they all have different um I guess grades you could say okay and so so it's actually not pure silver it's silver mixed with some other metal is that it they put a little bit of there's
6:40 some copper in them but very very little okay what's that we've seen I'm trying to think common common common grade of silver that we've seen it's probably 925 which is American the Italians did it all the Italians it a lot with uh 800 silver okay a lower but still has a lot of value okay yeah I know I've got silver that's you know 925 that that number resonates with me and I I think sometimes it's even stamped on it isn't it that's 925 usually American silver stamped
7:15 unless it's something really really early there's the English marks which they don't put um a number on uh English silver has a what it's called a lion and has two other import and City marks which kind of gives you the the realm of where that's from okay theme content of 925 okay great great good so Okay so we've got the the loving cup or the trophy cup um and and then you were just starting to say something about a chest of silver sometimes that's another
7:51 common one that I come up with people that have actual full chest of that their families have handed down through generation and again might be something that they just bring out once or twice a year for you know a holiday but that seems to be the the item that most people most people's kids don't want you know that's why why the trophy cup might be something that you could you know pass off to your 25y old when they have their first apartment or when your children get married or anything anything of those moments where they're actually looking to decorate um that they would take a chest of silver is a much harder sell it's a much harder item to gift because they are with it comes
8:27 the responsibility you know silver to be polished and it's also large and it's heavy so a lot of times you know family silver that makes the most keep is something like a cup or a silver tray or serving utensils because at least that you know you could have some sort of memory of you know family holidays with a with a wonderful fork and knife and a spoon or a cake cut or something like that but the days of anybody in their 20s or 30s wanting to use silver on a daily basis really over I mean I think it's it's really a bygone generation
9:02 okay well so so so thank you for making me feel old I I use silver every day hardly hardly hardly I I use I have um I have three sets of silver that my older sister gave me that belong to my my Bobby my um paternal grandmother and I use one of them for the Sabbath and and I have two that I sort of use back and forth for every day and you know I I of course it's just me so I shine them up and you know it's I just love how there you know you can make them so shiny and you know
9:39 I mean there's no point in me running a dishwasher because it's just me so oh if you can and again you know because I guess the difference is that you live in you live in Beverly Hills so you have you have space but when your kitchen is you know eight feet by six feet every every inch counts you know it's the same thing when we when I look at people's closets and they try to decide what they should you know keep and what they should get rid of it's every hanger has Real Estate Value an intrinsic real estate as does everything in your kitchen so how many things are you able to keep before you end up in New York City you know a storage unit I mean
10:14 minimum price is a few hundred a month if you want to be on the island of Manhattan where it's actually to you you know if you go outside long City or New Jersey Brooklyn Queens it's a little bit less but then again you know people forget what they have in storage unit so if keeping you know maintain something or just you know or just being responsible for it becomes a CH you know that's it's not that's not going to be the kind of thing that you're going to use on a daily basis so you know and it occurs to me I think my my daughter for example she is much less stuff oriented than than I am and and and my you know I got this from
10:50 my mother right and so like if you came to my home you would see I have a formal Library set up with I think close to 4,000 you know books in it um I do have you know silver pieces and all of that um do you see the the desire to hang on to these things and and and discard them to be uh you know trends that change over time or do you think this is a more permanent Trend toward you know people wanting to live maybe smaller simpler
11:26 lives how how do you see that issue that's a great question Kevin I definitely see it's not just a trend but it's an absolute lifestyle change that people are looking to streamline you know the Marie wondo set off a a chain of different you know different uh opportunities for other authors to jump on the bandwagon and you know Swedish death cleaning and all of that um there is definitely 1,000% without and I don't know what would cause people to go back to collecting I don't see it I really believe it's bygone generation and I have seen everything from pen collections to stamp collections to coin
12:02 collections and people hold on to items because they're not sure if they have any value but like you just said something it resonated with me about your 4,000 books your formal Library you know what it is is actually leaving your daughter a huge responsibility to downsize that your home and to downsize your library I've taken on um in the last year a fair number of seniors as clients and the responsibility is that their kids you're in your 80s and you've had a home for 50 60 some odd years and you're in your 80s or 90s your kids are
12:37 in their 50s or their 60s and then the responsibility Falls their shoulders when you move whether it's to you know an assisted living or just to a smaller apartment or just to be closer to your family you know who knows people you know as we as we all move so much around in New York City very commonplace to you know to want to you know take an apartment someplace else but you leave that responsibility to your family members you know and that and that is there's no other word for it it's daunting you know not I mean it's hard enough to move they say it's one of the most stressful things that one can do um
13:12 and then you add to it a volume of things that have to be you know let go somehow some way so with those 4,000 books sure can I call in you know an expert to go through the items and find the the ones that the you know the binding is perfect and and it's a collector's item or something sure absolutely and I'm sure that you've curated a great collection in your time but most likely more than not probably that's only about 10% if you're lucky of the items that are in that than the library the rest of it are books that you probably read and that you've enjoyed and you maybe there's paperbacks
13:47 in there as well but these are things that have no resale value you know I joke I'm I'm 90% unlicensed therapist 10% on clutterer because everybody feels such a passion for all the items that they've that they've on to but there's a psychology to it you know hence the the book that's coming out the story is stuff everybody needs to feel that what they have is valuable but also to know when it's time to let go so um going back to the issue of of you know people permanently downsizing
14:22 so I would think then that um let's let's take silverware meaning silverware silverplate or sterling silverware um what the fact that people just don't want to have it anymore how is that impacting then the market for these items that you know you someone may inherit now they've got a chest of I don't know Rogers 1847 um you know sterling silver um and it's a complete you know what service
14:57 for eight or service for 12 right it would seem like something like that would be quite valuable um but it would but if there's no market for it then you know should should it be melted down or you know what what what would one do no good question Robin you could probably speak to that as well the the idea silver do you melt it down the idea of what actually like so the problem with silver now is that uh the price of silver has gone up so with silver right now there is no
15:32 middle the lower end in the middle are silver value of melt value but the very higher end stuff that's really good has some Merit but you're seeing more and more every day that people are melting more and the way the econom is going gold and silver are going to shoot up to crazy highs so you know sometimes if you wanted let's say 500 for something the melt value is 55600 it's just easier and more sustainable than holding on waiting but silver right now nobody a lot of people don't want to
16:08 use it because they don't want to have to clean it their kids don't want they don't want to clean it so but it still has you know inher value and you can sell it can bring a lot of money depending on what you have there are things that are $30 an ounce I mean I mean $20 an ounce there are things that are three and 4,000 an ounce so everything kind of goes with depend on what it is yeah it's it it fluctuates it's just depends on quality how early it is who made it it's all about who made it really in quality I see and and over time I mean do you
16:43 see so so for example with silver coins right one of the big issues is a lot of them were melted down previously right which which decrease the supply of those that remain exist in existence right do you see a similar thing happening among other types of silver articles so that in the end all we're really left with is the I mean I I don't know you know the the top silver designers but I see in the Wall Street Journal they'll advertise you know um a chest of silver for you know it's like $50,000 it it
17:18 must be some recognized designer I assume this comes up all the time and I've answered this and I also ask the same question I think between five to seven years you'll see a real shortage of nice looking silver the really important will stick around because within the next six months years silver could go up so high that it will be not it would be foolish not to get rid of it because you'll never get that price again about n silver hit 49 and change um it was like an all-time high and I think it's going towards that with
17:53 the next six months to a year what happens is that with coins the other coins coins a lot of people are buying coins because it's easy to store it's not a big piece of silver it's easy to handle or you're just going right into the Commodities market and you're buying this you know it's like a stock but it all really depends what you like some people like to look at it some people like to use it it's not like it used to be back in the day where people had like uh sterling silver flatware sets and they ate on them Nobody Does even at my house my family friends
18:29 everyone uses stainless steel pretty much to be honest with you um and that's it it's you'd be surprised as to what people are keep or not they're not keeping nobody wants to Silver anymore it's a shame but it's the truth but you'll see a big decrease in the next few years you'll see very good and then to to manufacture and to even to mine silver right now is it's really expensive there was a huge article out that you know the the government wants to go green but they can't go green because it cost over $100 an ounce just
19:06 to mine silver silver is right now a little under 30 or $30 if you do the meth why is it at $30 it could really rise so there's all kinds of different perspectives it's also a very big manipulated Market by the three the three biggest commodity uh companies in the world just basically manipulate it they do what they want with it MH so besides the intrinsic value of of silver I mean and and this is this is why I still use silverware there's a
19:41 beauty to it I at least I think that that stainless steel flat wear just just can't match you know for Heather both you and and Robin how are people looking at the the the be beauty of of these these things that they might um you know that they might inherit so I'll give you an example I my grandfather he has an actual loving cup it was given to him by I forget what organization it was when he was a a moer in in Lacrosse Wisconsin
20:19 I'm pretty sure it's silverplate right and it's not in perfect condition but it still sits you know in the on the center of the bantle of my fireplace because you know it's so beautiful it it it you know connects me to my my Zeta um and and and and even if it didn't even if it wasn't his if I had if like if somebody offered to me I think I would take it because it's just it's so beautiful and I I appreciate you know beautiful things so how is that how is that playing out these days that's where I come in as the uncluttered
20:56 expert less is more you know know if your grandfather's cup was alongside a mantle with 15 other items that excuse me that were not as beautiful or maybe just you know just bigger smaller what have you that it would take away it would detract from that loving Cup's importance so I think that's where it's really that's where it's absolutely necessary and the reason why people come to me and to my team for exactly that you know what do we keep what do we get rid of because can't keep everything and once you start trying to keep everything it gets lost
21:32 in the shuffle and then you go back to you know the streamlining of a home prior to a sale which is something that Robin and I have done a couple of times together you know you have to move and you need to reduce what you have your belongings so if you're to put a this everything is so valuable on every item you are never going to be able to accomplish that you know I I this is what I come up with over and over again that's again the psychology of Letting Go you know that it's okay you do things still serve you with joy okay yes but how many of those items really are
22:07 necessary you know how much of it really serves you with joy that one loving cup because it has a story behind it that should stay on your mantle if that was if I was with you going through I would also have you take a really hard look at those 4,000 books because I am guessing that out of those 4,000 books there's probably a 100 or 200 that really are important to you to keep and if you were to sell your house size those books would have to go um but the it's just a piece or two you know it also brings Robert and I we pulled out a piece of laik uh glasswar and that's a item that I think people
22:42 really tend to you know sort of inherit of Our Generation and look at and you know sort of say like when am I gonna when am I going to use this so a couple of pieces sure do you keep those in your covered for Jewish holidays again Christmas Thanksgiving absolutely but again big platters serve a they don't really serve a purpose in today's life you know so the laik stuff again great name great brand you know it's all recognizable and resellable but better to downsize when the need is not urgent than to wait until it is and that's you
23:17 know like the key to everything in life you don't want to wait until it's an absolute must you want to do it preemptively and even if it's streamlining a bit between now and the time that it's you know at least just start you know every year to take a you know take a hard look at what's going on in your kitchen cabinets to really think about are you still doing you know thanksgivings for 16 people or are you now down to eight or do you travel for Thanksgiving or does your lifestyle lead you to going to a restaurant instead you know where where really are you at that point in your life because again this is a very what we do in uncluttered is very physically
23:53 demanding as Robin can attest too everything is very heavy and you know and valuable items need to be packaged properly and you know wrapped up and ensured if you're sending them places so there's really there's so much there that you have to consider and I really you know start off at piles that's usually the first job you know the absolute must keep the absolute you know 1,00% heirloom family items your Ling cup would go in there and then you would go on to the next level okay so if I could sell these and get something for it I would and then you know they'll
24:28 find is you know the donation and how do I how do I give I have a great collaboration with Goodwill and that's another one that I think that people underestimate the value of actually donating some and feeling so good about the fact that it's going to have a second life but you know that's a that's sort of the third category but just you know to get rid of things things just cause anxiety you know too much stuff just causes anxiety that's so so um you mentioned you have a leik platter Rob want let's
25:03 take let's take a look at well well Robin is getting that in defense of my library it's highly curated so um and I'm I'm actually trying to figure out whether I want to um donate it to an Institute that does the kind of research that I do so um but uh it's it's a it's an interesting thought so oh unfortunately I lost uh we lost um Hillary and and Robin so we'll we'll
25:39 hang tight here for a minute or two and see if they log back on I'm GNA send her a text message and let's see if let's see if she logs back in um hopefully it wasn't her phone battery that died and and she's not able to uh to um to come back on but um um but so just you know kind of summarizing
26:14 um what uh what what Hillary and Robin and I were talking about um and I right there at the end I think that's the important thing is is there's the three layers of stuff so there's the the top layer of I'm keeping this because it it it's a family heirloom it it resonates to me whether it has value or not is is IM whether it has monetary value or not is is immaterial um like you know my grandfather's love loving cup and then
26:51 there's the next trunch down which is does this have some kind of monetary value can it be sold and and you know the the money gotten for it and and now you've got you know the money and the third is then what what can be um uh donated to um Hillary used the um the example of of Goodwill um but I think there's there may be other opportunities for for donating things so there's so
27:27 many charitable organizations out there there are also universities and academic organizations so you know for example oh here we go she came back it's a little technical difficulty with a too hot phone I think somebody's trying to tell me that I'm um no sorry so where we left off um I apologize for that but it's yeah no problem it's so it's you know the laik we're looking at glass where that people tend to also just want to keep very few pieces and you know we can talk about
28:02 the beauty of this and the etching but you don't need you don't need a lot you know again I I keep going back to this is what this is the principle which uncluttered was founded it's to be able to help you streamline streamline your your your items and you know you have to do them you have to do this certain junctures in your life you have to do it when you move out for the first time you're first post College apartment you have to do it again when your kids leave to do do it yet again when you move you have to do it yet again when your parents move whether you have whether you're moving to a bigger house and even with a bigger house and again I have this with clients too you
28:38 don't want to take all of the items from your prior house with you when you get divorced my life transitions you know with my with my on my website if you take a look on clutter. me you'll see all of my different lists people corporate relocations you know we help people through that transition as well you know there's might move from one part of the country to another and just you know you might want to just less is more lifestyle period end of story but that's uncluttered all about and so the leik platter you have how how would one know first of all I mean I've heard of L
29:15 um but I don't think I could identify it so um with with silver right we can look and see if it's stamped oftentimes the maker will be stamped on on Crystal and glassware how do we know if something has any kind of value most glass most glass is signed yeah like this piece is signed Rene laik it's Rik and it's on the back it's gonna be really hard for me to show that's not gonna show up on camera but it's usually bottom this is our laik which is a little bit older better but it really goes behind like
29:50 what you what you use what you use it for is it in the way do you are you going to use it do your kids want it that's when I think Hillary comes in and you know con of can come in and break it down for you and tell you she might need some help or we can help her but you know her main goal what she's very good at is like you know getting things organized and that's what she does and then it's the and the streamlining process I have a list of experts Robin of course number one guy um but also you know for like I said pen collections for stamp collections for you know Robin's great with coins and that kind of stuff but you know there's there's jewelry I
30:26 work with the Jeweler that very often will have you know bring a chest of jewelry to to to My Jeweler and we'll hey you know we remember our mothers wearing these things but they're not they're not modern you know so we repurpose jewelry we redesign items we use the same you know the same stones but we put them in a different setting that kind of thing um so that's another service you know again with Furniture sometimes you get yourself into trouble you know you think that jum sofa that you spent $6,000 on is going to be worth you know 2,000 when you go to resell it most likely that sofa will cost you $1,200 to get out of your apartment you
31:02 know so we we're very we're very transparent we tell you what we think you should hold on to and what we really think you should get rid of and help you through the the process and again too much stuff just causes anxiety you know hence the story of stuff com out in early uh 2025 so so here this question is actually more for robin as as people stop using all these things H how will you stay in business I I you know to to just to put it bluntly right if people don't want you know big glass platters and and and
31:38 you know silver trays and all that so right your whole business is you know buying these things and and reselling them so what what happens to a business like yours or how is your business changing because that will affect those of us who administrate Estates right um as we look all these things and and we bring Hillary in to help us you know declutter a client right and now we're saying well okay now we're gonna hand it over to Robin um you know what what are you g to do with all this stuff it's
32:14 like a cycle you have your generation who used it for 20 30 40 50 60 years now they're you know downsizing decluttering you know they're giving it to their kids or you know there are still people that are buyers that are at are at an you know at an older age but you will find that it's like a cycle then you get the younger generation starting to buy these things and going on it's a cycle it's like the older they downsized and the younger who's just starting out buying and decorating and supplying their house it's like a big
32:49 it's like a it's like a big wheel that goes around yeah it's what we're calling the silver tsunami right now where our where our um population is getting old older quicker than we are having children and also the phenomenon of single children you an only child is coming back into being you know where people realize that it's just you know maybe they're concerned about the the state of the world they're having one child and not two or three or they just want they have children later you know and they just want to live in a major Metropolitan City and that's you know cost prohibitive space space is always always but you know again uncluttered was built on this I've moved many times
33:24 in my 10 years since my divorce and my kids were young and you know you learn how to say goodbye to things and you you embrace the you embrace the journey you know so that again story of stuff is all about that but surely there's you know the most important thing is that you don't one of the most important things that you don't have great anxiety that you're leaving too much behind you know I I've seen things I mean Co your brothers kind of hoarding crazy stuff where you know kids that are in kids that are in their 50s don't have the time to do it and have to hire thankfully somebody like me that they
33:59 can trust to go through a big house or storage units and and all the like or multiple homes I've done that as well you know we're we're the We're The Trusted advisers you also have you know if you notice when you if you ever have sold your house and you're moving on to something smaller or different you'll see the Realtors are telling you to completely go crazy and move this get rid of this there's too much of this there's too much of that you'll see that people when they look at homes too they also want to see them very sparse absolutely so that's another thing absolutely you know that's that's I
34:34 think our main they want to be staged by the realtor and you cannot sell a home I mean you can't go to closing as you I'm sure you know you can't go to closing if there's items left in the house so it all has to be gone and you know to do it preemptively before you list your home to sort of streamline it is the best possible way to get top dollar for your property so I I there's I'm thinking of kind of a maybe a metaphor if if you will so um it going into the world of clothing um you see all these sort of fast fashion brands right where the the
35:12 clothing is very cheap it's not very wellmade it's maybe designed to last for you know a season or a year or maybe two and then be thrown away and and you know on to kind of the next thing and one of the things I've seen and and I know I've talked to my daughter about this because um you know being the age that she's a teenager that that sort of fast fashion thing is is very popular I think with teenagers and what I've tried to stress to her is you're better off buying a few
35:49 classic garments that are very wellmade they are going to be much more expensive but they'll last for you know 5 10 15 20 or more years I mean I I know I have clothing in in my closet that um I think dates back to you know the 90s now in some cases I've had it recut so it looks you know more more current but in terms of its its you know functionality it's still it's you know it's still in good condition it still looks great it still if if you know thank
36:25 goodness it fits still you know 30 years later right so I now see I look at possessions the same way so rather than having a bunch of cheap glasswar for example I want to have you know a few pieces very nice things that are that are beautiful now I like old things because I I do um but you know how does how does that sense of the value of things versus the sort of throwaway nature of so much of things
37:03 H how do you how do you see that I I think you're you're talking about a couple of different topics that are all really important and Ure to my heart I just hope that my phone doesn't overheat and cut us off but I'll give you I'll give you about a minute on all of the above um the first part of the fast fashion idea which you know I have a 17-year-old daughter who mostly drifts that is her that is the way that she she has deleted the sheen off app off and the Teemo off app off of her phone um there has been an occasional Brandy Melville I'm not going to lie but less and less after the expose them the T the
37:38 uh the Netflix expose came out about him but it's definitely the trend for young people that are wise that are just really staying current is to is to Thrift it is to is to find items through flea market and all of these wonderful you know shops all over Brooklyn and what have you actually all over the world we we're thrifting in in Paris or going to the flea markets is the number one Hotpot but it's so wonderful to be the one person that has something when you walk into a room you know if you fast fashion all the time you will inevitably bump into some at a party and
38:14 again this is the mindset of a 16 17 18 year old girl 20 year old girl what have you that you're going to be wearing the same thing as one of your friends and prior to uncluttered I was a stylist so I did all of same exact thing and I rebranded my business and thought that this is the next thing because people come to me to get rid of items so when I was in their closets they were also asking me about their homes and it you know became a perfect segue to doing what it is that I currently do with uncluttered but it's absolutely that I mean you know you see the waste you see what goes on in landfills you know you I had a I was driving down in Boer Ron
38:49 Florida last week and I was like where what is this and there's huge must have been I am not kidding Kevin 30 Acres of a landfill I mean it was man-made mountains I know it's awful truly truly if I could have stopped at the traffic light and cried I would have and you see these you know sort of artificial Greenery over these over these land and these trucks that are climbing over I mean mountains I am not kidding they are they are green they are green ski mountains I mean this is in the lift to get up to the top of them and you would consider that a green heartbreaking
39:24 absolutely heartbreaking and you know when you see what goes on in our oceans as well and you have any sort of an idea like why so warm out in September why do we not have snow in New York anymore you know especially you in California you know your wildfires all the climate change that we're going through is all absolutely directly related to this so if you know uncluttered could help you do a little tiny bit of good for the world it's my pleasure to be able to do it but it does start with the with the generation now that are hopefully accumulating less because they see the anxiety that accumulation does and on
39:59 top of it what it does to our world that's really the that's really the the Crux I think of what you were trying to ask very good well so you know what um I think we're we're gonna stop here um we're we're actually at the 40 minute Mark I I want to reiterate something that you said earlier that I that I think is is so important I I started mentioning it when we lost you for a few minutes and the idea of of figuring out the tranches in the things we own so the top tranch being those those few items that have a very strong emotional
40:36 attachment their their family heirlooms part of our history that we really want to hang on to be because there is so much meaning in them whether they have Financial value or not and and and figure out what those are and then the next trunch is um of the things that don't you know fall into this I'm definitely keeping so are there ones that are valuable things like um sterling silver like um gold I'm people don't need off of gold flat flat wear
41:12 anymore I don't think but they but they're I've seen gold you know they're they're pretty much solid gold you know forks and spoons and such or things like leik um uh you know um glass pieces um you know China from um the the you know post World War II period made in Japan that kind of thing um and and you know and coin collections stamp collections potentially those sort of things that's the second trunch and then the third trunch is that which we can give away we might be able to get a terrible deduction or just we we get the um I'm
41:49 the only word I can come up with is a yish word the the nakas the the the the the the good feelings right from from having um done something whether it's to Goodwill or there's housing there's you know Dress for Success there's so many different yes NIS does actually every once in a while a yish word just is just up it's it just sums it up knocka sums it up yeah the good of giving back the good of helping somebody that maybe lost their home for whatever reason and they need to rebuild so think about how great that feels that you're not
42:25 spending you know x amount of money on storage unit or Worse giving your children the responsibility of getting rid of it but being preemptive to that really the most important and I I'll I'll give you I'll give you just a small example of where this happened when I was deployed in uh 2011 on the USS Ronald Reagan so we were the first ship on the scene after the earthquake and tsunami that followed the um nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan and people had lost in literally everything in in in many many cases they had no food no
43:00 water no clothing it was all it had all been wiped out and we had a ship of about 4,200 people um 80 or 90% of them were 25 years old or younger and were stuck in the ship because there was a radioactive plume so we couldn't be out on the deck doing whatever um we weren't running flight operations and and the these young people were just beside themselves they wanted to help but there you know we were on the ship and so we came up with the idea to um organize a clothing drive and all of these well no
43:38 not all of them but many of these young Sailors went through their um uh you know their bag of that they would bring on U their seabag and find clothing that they had brought on deployment that that in fact they really didn't need and we put together these big huge boxes of clothing box after box after box of clothing and mind you when you come to a you know a Navy ship it's not like you're bringing a whole lot of stuff right you're bringing a couple of seabags and maybe you know a suitcase
44:14 and yet we still found box after box after box of stuff to donate to um you know our Japanese uh friends allies you know whatever you want to call them who who you know had had nothing and they needed clothing for themselves their children Etc and the outpouring of of donation was was really heartwarming it it it it was just tremendous they also bought at every piece of clothing you know in the ship store you know and donated that as well but I mean that was a small percentage overall of of what was donated so I I think there is
44:51 something in certain certainly the younger generation gets maligned and I think undeservedly so there is a a sense in them of of wanting to to really do something have an impact and and I you know much of what we talked about I think relates to that that just because you know a relative has passed away we don't have to keep all of their stuff to honor them we we can honor them by moving it on to someone else else who
45:27 can use it better it it it may be something that's not monetarily valuable but may have a great deal of academic value maybe some you know um manuscripts or something like that that a university would put into their permanent collection on a particular writer could be something like that where it's even just a few pieces or it could be you know something much larger so um these are the kind of things I I know that that you can help people with and and um I I think that's why especially when there's a lot of stuff it really you know you're saying that you're 90%
46:02 counselor that that's a lot of it is is helping people see where can I really you know derive value from this process that doesn't necessarily mean keeping all these things absolutely and that's an incredible experience that you have Kevin but and what I loved about the story all of it and then the seabags like you're you can only take so many items onto a ship I mean I can only imagine even even if you're taking a a luxury Cruise you still don't have room in your cabin so when you're on I mean that's it's the truth and think about my carry-on bags that's you know how we that's how my children and I travel on
46:37 airplanes only carry on and that really even in itself if you go on a trip for seven days and if you have of a wash or dryer you don't wear what's what you've taken with you in a carry-on bag and if you're going on a ship and you have these seab bags and you're still finding items I mean imagine how streamlined we really can be you know again it's part of the story of stuff in the uncluttered book and the reason why you know people work with me it's just exactly that and giving somebody the um the ability to live to say it's okay yes you touched on that and I you want to we can probably end
47:13 with that idea that you still preserve the memory of someone even though you don't hold on to everything you know and again I lost my father two years ago and it was the same idea of what you know what do my kids want my kids want you know his his ballpoint pens his felt tip you know something something like that you know a lovely fountain pen a tie but ties don't look the same as they did my father we called him the mayor of Madison Avenue always dressed up every day but you know my 21y old is he's he'll take a couple but you know but then you have to go and you have to alter the ties like as you said you know alter the clothing back to that one for one second but very true it's like when
47:49 you really look at something or you have me there next to you and my team and they're all they've all been trained by me and they have that same wonderful empathy I like to think that we all walk in and we say okay what do you really really need to keep and I've I've never had anybody have any sort of remorse I mean a month later two months later six months later it's you know they're they're spreading friends and they're not saying I'm sorry I let something go you know if not sure and I'm really on the fence say okay then keep it keep it and I can come back in a month you know and we can can take it then and we either weell it or we can donate it at that but it's it's a process that we do
48:26 with utter and absolute transparency and that's you know again part of the part of the joy of what it is that I do I see how happy people are when they're when they're done working with uncluttered very good all right well just if you'll hang tight with me I'm just going to do a quick wrap up and and then we'll we'll talk offline so first of all H Hillary thank you so much for being on the show today and and Robin who is off screen Robin thank you for for also in in and and and um opening up your your your your shop to uh to to
49:02 Hillary it it's terrific to see I just love seeing these kind of beautiful things so next time I'm in New York I'm gonna have to come by and just yeah absolutely so real quickly um coming up tomorrow at 10: am Tuesday Pacific time is my show business lessons from the military and I'm going to be talking about Washington at the the Battle of Yorktown this of course was the last major military uh confrontation in the American war for independence and there are some terrific lessons as
49:38 business people and professionals that we can learn from how uh Washington uh ended up winning that battle it was not a foregone conclusion so I invite you to tune in on T Tuesday tomorrow at 10: a.m. and then on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. is my show people making money and we are I'm going to be doing taxes affect you and the economy part two so for those of you who who saw uh part one which was back in July we covered a number of different types of taxes this
50:13 time we're going to cover capital gains taxes and excise taxes and tariffs and how do these affect us as individuals um how they work their way through the economy and then this week is my every other week's show on Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific Time jiggers is place where we sit back we have a cocktail and we talk about all the things that aren't related to business and professions and on this coming Thursday again at 5: PM Pacific
50:48 I'm going to be talking about a book that my young my daughter um asked me to read I had heard about it but I had never read it it's called flower hours for algeron it's a classic classic book from I I believe it was written in the 1960s um a fascinating book um when you know when my daughter told me you have to read this book Daddy I was kind of like yeah yeah you know talk to the hand kind of thing and then we we we bought I bought two copies one for me and one for her and I decided Well you know I I want to be a good example to my daughter and show her that I really care about her
51:23 opinion I picked the book up I could not not put it down it is it is a wonderful book so I'm looking forward to having a cocktail with you and talking about flowers for algeron on Thursday afternoon as we head into the end of the week so thank you so much for joining us today really appreciate you viewing as always if you're not a subscriber to the show please do consider subscribing that way you'll know um every time that that that a show is getting ready to Air and in fact um just real quickly um since Hillary's with me we're gon to be doing
51:58 another show on October 28th and a third show in our series on November 18th so become a subscriber so you can see Hillary every time she's on the show I know she dresses the place up you you know you gotta look at this not so good but uh but but I mean you know wow right so Hillary thanks again for joining us today fantastic advice that you give us and signing off as I always do Marie darling you are my bell courage at all
52:34 times my friends