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[novamc1]

https://www.myajc.com/lifestyles/declutter-now-your-loved-ones-won-have-later/0K1IjfhqQTAbHOb2shUrDJ...

[Sooner]

Great advice if you want to do it.  Otherwise, your heirs will simply call an Estate Sale company and walk away.

It took me cleaning out 3 houses to learn to do this.  And years to pitch out the stuff I'd hauled home from dead people's houses.  It's just more stuff to store and worry about.  So I got rid of 99 percent of it.

[novamc1]

@Sooner

Me, too.  Sis and I had to do it in multiple time-consuming stages after our Dad finally went into assisted living and we had to sell his house. 

He was a Depression baby and never threw away anything.  Mom had died years before, and she always liked to have nice things.  So there were a lot of "nice things".

  We did the estate/yard sale, divided up things we wanted to keep, called the Salvation Army to pick up furnishings, and then hired a junk company to do the final disposal of everything left.  

It seemed to to take forever.  And we were dealing with a very small house!

[Sooner]

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@novamc1 wrote:

@Sooner

Me, too.  Sis and I had to do it in multiple time-consuming stages after our Dad finally went into assisted living and we had to sell his house. 

He was a Depression baby and never threw away anything.  Mom had died years before, and she always liked to have nice things.  So there were a lot of "nice things".

  We did the estate/yard sale, divided up things we wanted to keep, called the Salvation Army to pick up furnishings, and then hired a junk company to do the final disposal of everything left.  

It seemed to to take forever.  And we were dealing with a very small house!

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I feel your pain.  Last time I called an estate sale company and gave them a key and walked out the door.  I just took a box of things and left the rest to them.  They cleaned out the house, cleaned and sorted, cleaned up and even gave me a check for about half the proceeds.  They took the leftovers to the Salvation Army and gave me a donation receipt.

Best move I ever made.  They sometimes would find things they thought I might want and would call me or send me pictures.

[RhondaRena]

This is a subject I think many famlies will go through. Last Spring my mother in law decided to downsize. My husband and siblings took a couple of weeks to go through and purge items. There was lots of QVC Temptations Lock and Lock and many other QVC items that were in the box. It was very difficult and time consuming. So much got donated and the old paperwork files magazines and newspapers were another story. 

Fast forward to a year later and things are neat and streamlined for her. She feels so much better being clutter free. She just needed a boost to get out from under everything. 

[mac116]

Having an Estate Sale may work for some people.  It cost us over $2,500 to have a team clean out my MIL 's home, garage, and then senior apartment. The amount received from the Estate Sale was less than $800.  Since we lived across the country from her, we had no idea of what she might have wanted to give to friends or family.  We would always ask when we visited if we could help her declutter.  Her answer was always NO.  When a person passes away it is difficult for the survivors who are dealing with their own grief.

I have been working on purging for awhile (I hate doing it), but I will not leave MY MESS for my kids to deal with.  

[geezerette]

I am currently in the process of going through my husband’s tools and small equipment.  (He died recently.)  I’m keeping one toolbox with things I’ll need and all the rest, including the large equipment, is going to be auctioned as soon as possible.

Then, I’m going to go through the entire house and get rid of as much as I can.  I’m getting older myself and the last few years have left me not wanting to deal with much anymore.  I’ll keep only a few things of sentimental value and anything else that isn’t used, goes.  My heirs will still have plenty to have to clean out and dispose of.

[NycVixen]

I had this discussion with my mother years ago. She was uncomfortable then got angry and said I'm not doing anything; you will need to deal with this when I'm gone. To her it's my problem not hers. She didn't have to deal with this with any of her parents. So this is in my future. She has hoarded mostly shoes and clothing in what used to be my bedroom. I guess most of it will go to Goodwill.

[Regal Bee]

When my mother in law died some years ago, it took four adults (I was one) two solid weeks to clean out her home, garage and basement. I have truly NEVER seen anything like that in my lifetime.

She never threw anything away and that was how my husband was raised. I, on the other hand, was raised that if I didn't use it....out it went.

Makes one think.

[novamc1]

Yep, I understand.

My dad collected valuable guns (fortunately handled by my BIL, some of which were donated to a gun museum), not to mention lots of silver and gold, which had to be divided up between siblings.  My  DH collects silver and gold and  wouldn't let me sell off any of that stuff, no matter how much I wanted to.  Sis and her DH store lots of that stuff, too.

Why do we want to  insure, store and leave behind to heirs these valuable items that they will have to pay to insure or sell off themselves?  I can't buy into that.  The kids would probably rather have the cash from a sale.

So my kids are going to face getting rid of DH's collection, made worse by their grandpa's collection.  It begins to seem comical after a while.  

These aren't items you  just leave in the hands of an estate sale company, and you feel like you have a moral and financial obligation to keep them for future generations, whether they want them or not.