This job was a big one and I didn’t even start it at the beginning. After both of my grandparents had passed away and it was time to list their home and property of almost 50 years, A LOT of work needed to be done to get it ready. That is a very long time to be in one house and every nook had been used and I’m not sure decluttering had ever been done. 😰
Earlier in the year, my dad, aunts and uncle and many of the cousins, got together and cleaned out the upper floor that housed a lot of tools and things that many of them were interested in taking. Once this part was done and everyone got what they wanted from the house, it was my time to step in and deal with the day to day stuff in the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and living area. The kitchen itself looks small from the outside but I can’t stress enough at how shocked I was at the amount of items in the cupboards. It was like Mary Poppins bag… the stuff just kept coming!
They lived in a rural community and didn’t have a lot of large communities nearby so actually getting rid of the items for donation was a huge job in itself. The closest thrift store was about a twenty minute drive down the highway and they only took clothing items. The next closest was about 30 minutes in the opposite direction and they took kitchen items but at the time had listed that they could only accept two boxes maximum. Thankfully, I called them and they were willing to take more from us because we had an SUV full of items to donate. It eventually all did get cleaned out but not being local to them did make it more difficult. I took three trips myself to work on it and other family members took more.
Life is busy for many people so being tasked with cleaning out a home after people have passed away can be so difficult, especially if there had been no work on it while they were still alive. Who gets what? What is garbage vs. what can be donated? Should items be sold? It’s a lot to deal with on top of daily life. It can be hard to suggest to someone but getting started before the house has to be sold is much easier and can be a more therapeutic process than being rushed and grieving at the same time. If this is something you are dealing with at the moment, contact me to give you a hand.
