Nobody should store anything in an attic in Houston. I was given attic duty when we were cleaning out my mom's house. I went from Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation nostalgia to throwing boxes down the attic stairs frustration, and back again. Aside from the plastic garbage bag disintegration, it should be noted that no kind of tape will adhere to a cardboard box long term in a Houston attic.
The other tough thing was that my parents came from a generation where there were lots of portrait type pictures of the large, framed variety hanging in the house. I kept a couple of the smaller ones, particularly ones of my dad from the 60s, a couple of which I hung in my office, but most of them were simply digitized with my phone and, then, thrown away. I'm sure the frames had some value, but ain't nobody got time for all that.
When it came to furniture and other antique accessories, the smaller stuff generally has more value because it's easier to transport and sell. Apart from vintage barware and a bunch of cool glass ashtrays I kept, the only two big items I bought from my mom were a 9.5'-long hifi console I've posted pictures of elsewhere on the site and a really cool Chinoiserie-style breakfast table and chairs. I would have loved to have kept the Kittinger Lotus Flower table, Moroccan swag lantern, and "Ancestor" painting, but it was enough already.