There are some fine ideas to chew on here. It will, hopefully, be 20- 25 years (statistically) before I have to use them, but one never knows :).

Someone asked why I was contemplating this subject: A friend who passed on recently hadn't spoken to one of his sisters for years because she had "pillaged" their mother's house before he and his other sister had a chance to say what they wanted. I believe he died without reconciling with her, although she was one of the weepiest at his memorial service.

On the other hand, my wife's mother had taped the name of each of her five children on each piece she thought they might want. If someone wanted to "trade" it later, fine. It worked really well and all are happy.

I have thought about libraries for the books, but have somewhat the same unease as several have expressed - they will end up for 10 cents a book in a fundraising bin. I think I would rather find a folk club who might want them - unfortunately none exist here regionally (western U.S.).

For the instruments I would like to gift one or more playing musicians who would appreciate and use them. But that seems like a formula to really tick off your friends if one gets something and another doesn't. On the other hand, what are they going to do - you're dead !