Hoarding mother sending 20 boxes of books!

[Toomanysquishmallows]

Hi , hoping for a sympathetic ear . My 78 year old narcissist mum lived in a care home . She has cousins clearing her house . I live 70 miles away and have two children with autism. We live in a very small council flat . On Wednesday the cousins arrived and deposited 20 boxes of books and rubbish! I’m talking filthy kitchen scales and cheese graters . I know have an unusable living room . I spoke to my mum today , and she merely said I could wait for my brother who I barely see to collect the stuff. I’m currently in total despair at the state of my flat .

Just take it to the tip🤷‍♀️

Take it all to the dump. Tell her it was too mouldy to do anything else.

@Violettateal is right, @Toomanysquishmallows - ditch it at once. You could sort through it, in case any of it is worth keeping, but is it likely that anything in there will be worth the time spent finding it and cleaning it? Worth it either financially or emotionally, I mean.

I would have said no to whoever dropped it off.
Just take it to to the tip if you can or arrange someone else to, might cost a bit of money but better than have it clogging up your house

Thank you ! I don’t drive , so it will be a cab , dp is convinced we can drop it off a free libraries , but there is so much !

Tip it all and if anyone gets stroppy point out it was a health and safety hazard given the sheer quantity of stuff, the fact that your flat is tiny, and your dc's need for a bit of space in the sitting room to play.

Some councils will arrange bulk collections for a fee OP. Please just get rid of it, for your own peace of mind.

Oxfam or similar might collect the books. Or put the whole lot on freecycle/Olio/gumtree free for collection

Would a charity collect be able to collect and sell the books?

Thank you so much for all your wonderful ideas . I should know my mum by now But her complete lack of concern over the clutter aspect was a new low .

Arrange for them to be collected by charity (I’d wash the greasy stuff first though)

Sorry missed the

@TheGirlattheBack , the greasy stuff went straight in the bin ! I have also binned about 20 boxes of photos .

Take a deep breath and get rid of all of it immediately and tell your mother you did so. They next time relatives show up with a mountain of shite, refuse to let them in.

You can sell second hand books via Ziffit or Music Magpie. They even collect them from you for free. I'd be tempted to do that and earn a £ or two.

As for the other stuff, put it in the bin!

Why did you let them bring it in? Don’t bother going through it or trying to sell it on unless she’s the type to have a Rolex watch she might have misplaced in a box of junk, just call the council and get them to collect it and take it to the tip (and then give your living room a really good clean afterwards, I’m assuming the old tat has that ‘charity shop smell’)

Why did you bin loads of photos? That'd be the one thing I did keep!

@MattSmithsBowTie , I think in retrospect, not letting them drop the boxes off would have been a good idea . I am checking all the boxes as we found my grandmothers birth certificate, stuffed amount a load of junk .my living room does indeed currently smell like a charity shop .

@AbraAbraCadabra , I binned the photos because there were a lot of mums time as mayor , which tbh I have no interest in , and other dreary things .

Look for a man with a van on Facebook to get them to take it all to the tip.

Or see if your council do uplifts.

Do you have space to put it in a sheltered area outside your flats. Free books, note on local Facebook groups.

Do you not want to keep photos maybe your mother would like them. I'm sensing resentment from everyone the cousins dumping it on you.

God don’t dump them!

Download a book selling app. There’s a few out there. Scan the barcodes. Put back in the box. And they will collect from the door for good cash. Happy payday OP

Don't pin too much hope on the book scanning apps. Book has to have a barcode, be in ok condition and be wanted by the company.

For every ziffitable box we had x10 that were not when going through a similar process.