Decluttering when your children leave home - would you bother?

[Onedayatatime1]

I’m interested in views really, I’m a single parent with children who have left or are soon to be leaving home. In the last couple of years I’ve made a huge effort to declutter the family home. All those furniture and decor ‘heirlooms’ from my parents, children’s toys and books, my clothes, collections and ‘special’ items that were stored in cupboards, the garage and loft my have all been assessed and other than some agreed keepsakes have gone. Years worth of paperwork dumped and just essentials left. I guess I’ve done it because there is no-one to share the responsibility so otherwise the burden would one day fall to my children. However my friends think I’m crazy as ‘we are only in our late fifties’ and in any case they just assume their partner or children will do it after they’ve gone. I now feel like maybe it wasn’t so important and I should not have bothered. What do you think?

Your children will thank you, you've done the right thing!

Swedish Death Cleaning.

I am in my late thirties and am doing a relaxed version of this alongside the minimalist challenge.

Also let your children know where your funeral preferences are stashed. Do it whilst you are well and healthy, I see it as practical not morbid. It gives me great solace that they have this sorted.

I've met my people.

I aways feel so energised after a good declutter.

I think it is a selfish act to leave someone else to clear up after you.

I resented doing it for a parent I had a very poor relationship with although it was just a matter of binning or donating most of it, but for some stuff you have to pay to get rid of it.

I am trying to ensure that my children do not have to clear up after me by getting decluttered and organised now.

I wish my parents would do this while they still can.

they have a 4 bedroom house and a big double garage which are absolutely crammed with stuff. Not hoarding as such - nothing insanitary or offensive or pointless, and most of the house still looks ok, but just loads and loads of things kept ‘just in case’ . My dad likes having everything to hand that he might need (he does a lot of diy and gardening and has hobbies). My mum is on a permanent mission to not waste money by buying something ‘again’ so she keeps absolutely everything. they both seem quite happy to live in a guddle.

they are 76, and while I know they are entirely free to live as they like in their own home, my sister and I do look in horror at the garages / cupboards / drawers / rooms / loft that are just full of stuff they never use.

by contrast DH, me and two DSs live in a flat and we declutter ruthlessly. I don’t plan for this to change.

Yep - have started. Early fifties. Partly to reclaim my house. But I am also nostalgic so as I struggle to let go of some rubbish I’m holding I ask myself what my kids would do with it when I die. If the answer is bin it I save them the trouble.

You’ve done a good thing, op.

Perhaps not but I'm not a complete arse and it is his stuff not mine...