I think this is the thread for me. Long-time lurker but never actually posted.
Today I finally made a start on sorting my late DH's study. It occupies the entire top floor of our house, and has remained unsorted since he died in 2020. As well as all of his own books and papers (he, like me, was a literature professor), it also has the entire collection of books he inherited from his grandfather - also a literature professor in the 1930s, plus all of the family history objects and research done by his late mother, and many of his late sister's belongings.
It has since acquired further layers of unsorted stuff from elsewhere in the house.
His terminal illness and death during covid were so traumatic that although I managed to sort and dispose of things like his clothes and shoes, it was just too hard to deal with this space. I have been working my way up through the rest of the house sorting and clearing and I finally feel ready to deal with his study.
Today was day one.
There is SO much stuff that I am not going to be able to itemise, but I managed to clear a lot of the top layer of shared stuff which is not too emotionally difficult.
Found a home for the Christmas decorations on top of a cupboard in the spare room.
Took boxes of photographs downstairs to put in the desk I have cleared in the front room. Planning to clear a bookcase for the copious amount of family history here also.
Removed lots of piles of stuff that are actually mine, to sort elsewhere.
Found a charity shop that would accept suitcases and filled three with sundry puzzles and board games and took to the shop.
Booked a collection of electrical items and books etc for a couple of weeks time. Took down piles of boxes to fill for this to close to front door.
The worst layer will be when I get down to all of the papers with his handwriting on. But I think that's going to take me some time.
The very worst thing I have already done - reading then shredding all of the many files of his medical documents.