Clearing the house

[MildredPeirce]

I’d be really interested in how people tackled clearing out the family home after their last/only parent died. I have this ahead of me. I’m massively sentimental, it’s my childhood home and I know I’ll find it hard. I need a plan. Tackle the most sentimental stuff first? Build up to that by starting with easy stuff? Did you sell things? Give everything not to be kept to charity shops? Use house clearance people (I don’t even know how that works)? I’m dreading it, but it’d be helpful to hear how others tackled it. I live abroad so will come to the UK to do it with my two siblings and we’re going to try to do it in a week. Does that sound realistic? For info it’s a 4 bed house with quite a lot of stuff.

How are you doing, OP? I spent some of this weekend sorting through a couple of the boxes of my Mum's stuff. Things I hadn't been able to make a decision on earlier, so had bought home... So was thinking of you, and hoping you are doing ok.

Think best strategy depends on
a) your appetite to sort
b) if you have time to sort
c) if you need to clear the property & sell quickly

I like sorting as long as it's not a hoarders lot.

We used a local charity who support a range of projects to do a final house clearance. We set a date for them to come and then up to that date we sorted through and took what we wanted and also took away boxes of photos, paperwork etc to sort through at our leisure. Having the deadline right from the start really helped.

On the day they cleared absolutely everything but what i found really comforting was that the lady in charge talked about the various projects that things would go to. So saleable furniture but also said a few of the pieces wouldn't sell but would be fine temporarily for someone starting out in a house. All the kitchen stuff would go into starter boxes. Craft materials went to their mental health group. Ornaments and pictures would be offered to people setting up a house etc etc. It was nice to feel some of it would support others.