In a consumerist culture, the boundary between trash and treasure is continuously in flux. Everything has equal potential to hold value and become waste.

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Worth shifts with perspective; to some degree everyone can make value-based evaluations.  Though, value can never be universally agreeable. Appraisals tend to reveal more about the conditions in which the evaluator lives, rather than the market-value of an item. Scarcity may influence a person to save what is useful, while abundance may allow for the retention of what feels meaningful. Regardless, people try to preserve what they deem worthwhile.  

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Family heirlooms often carry value beyond the lifetimes of the individuals who first assigned it. Some inheritances, like jewelry and antiques, can be owned. While knowledge such as recipes, stories, and traditions, are entrusted to sustain future generations. These less tangible legacies usually prove the most useful, yet remain the most difficult to quantify.

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worthwhile reflects on the inheritances that resist straightforward appraisal, and considers what is lost when worth is only measured in capital.