Inherited furniture: what to do without rushing it

The short answer

Inherited furniture shouldn't be decided in a hurry. First you list what's there, then you work out what it's worth, then you choose between splitting it, selling it, donating it or keeping it. If the house has to be emptied before you've decided, the furniture can wait in storage, for as long as you need.

One warning: selling or giving away things from an estate can have legal effects. I say more below, with sources, but the last word belongs to a notary, not to me.

I sell storage, so I have an interest in the warehouse option. The other four routes are below too, including the cases where storage isn't needed.

Five routes for a piece of family furniture

Each piece takes one route, and not always the same as the piece next to it. The sideboard can go to a niece, the bed to a family that needs one, and the rest can wait.

Before selling or giving anything away, call a notary

This is the bureaucratic part, and it's best not skipped. I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice: it's where to look. The sources below are Italian, because the rules are.

The Italian Ministry of Justice explains that an inheritance is accepted either expressly, with a written act, or tacitly, through conduct only an heir would engage in. The Notarial Portal lists among these the sale of inherited things: selling a piece of furniture can, in some cases, count as accepting. Other rules, such as the benefit of inventory and its deadlines, are in the Ministry's page.

Then there's the real paperwork. According to the Italian Revenue Agency the succession declaration must be filed within 12 months of the succession opening. If you're unsure what goes in it, a notary or a tax assistance center (CAF) will settle it, not a blog post.

My takeaway: when in doubt, hold everything still and ask. A piece of furniture that waits loses no rights. One sold in a hurry doesn't come back.

A piece of furniture is worth less than it weighs, or sometimes far more

Nobody knows by eye what grandma's dresser is worth.

People who value furniture for a living, like the author of the blog Il mobile antico, note that pieces from 1900 to 1950 are often better built than today's, but they don't all sell alike: bedside tables, chests of drawers and extendable tables move better than wardrobes, beds and sideboards. Condition matters enormously: woodworm, broken joints, water damage and lifting veneer all pull the price down.

The practical rule is one: photograph first, have someone who knows look at it in person, and only then decide. The walnut wardrobe that won't fit through the door doesn't become more precious because it's a problem, though it does try.

What nobody needs can go without guilt. In Milan, Amsa collects bulky waste from the street for free, up to 2.5 meters and 50 kilograms per piece and one booking every 30 days; collection from your floor is paid.

How to split furniture, deciding together

The pieces to share out with most care are the ones each person ties to a memory: the sideboard, the Sunday table, the chairs.

A simple method helps. First the list: room by room, each piece with a photo and two lines on its condition. Then everyone privately marks the two or three pieces they care about most. Where the lists don't overlap, you assign on the spot; where they do, you talk it through calmly, with the list in front of you, not from memory.

If you want a ready-made form, there's the inventory guide: a page per box and a page for furniture, with each piece's condition (including the drawer that won't open, because there's always one). It helps you write the list the first time, and it's the same list that later shows what was there. On why an inventory matters, there's also the post home inventory template.

Storage as a pause: decide when you're ready

It happens a lot: the house has to be vacated or sold by a date, and the heirs need more time to decide. Storage separates the two. The house is emptied when it has to be, the decisions are made when you can.

Our long-term storage is open-ended: it runs month to month and stays as long as you want. When you've decided, you ask for full redelivery from your account, with no cancellation fees. If the request arrives at least 5 working days before the renewal, the following month isn't charged.

The warehouse is indoors, dry and access-controlled, and it can't be visited: that's why it pays to photograph and list everything before pickup. At pickup you or a person you've delegated must be there, and a brother or sister makes a perfectly good delegate.

The price works one way: a monthly fee for the square meters you occupy, and pickup paid once at the start. If you commit for more months the discount goes on the pickup, never on the monthly fee. The figures are on the pricing page and in the quote.

Who takes what, and where it goes

Once you've decided together, you don't need to redo the whole move. Things in storage can be brought back in part: write to Smoves what you want back and the rest stays in the warehouse, under the same contract. Redelivery is paid when you book it.

Each redelivery can go to a different address. One part to a sister's place in Milan, another to a cousin in the province, the rest stays where it is. If one of you lives farther away, the furniture is shipped on a quote.

A practical tip: if a piece won't fit in the elevator, have it taken apart first. Disassembly and reassembly are quoted, and explained on the page about furniture disassembly and assembly in Milan. If you just need a place to keep furniture for a few months, see furniture storage in Milan.