Clearing Out Parent's Home

[Simplemind]

Today my sister (now co-trustee that my dad has passed) is picking up the last few items from the consignment shop and Wednesday we go to do my dad final tax return. Once taxes are paid the rest of the funds can be distributed. I am thankful that even though there were some strong emotions everybody walked through this process feeling as good as possible. We are stronger now than we ever were when our parents were alive playing favorites. Totally unexpected based on past behavior. I watched them change considerably knowing the financial safety net was gone and they were now truly on their own.

[saguaro]

Bumping for a quick update.

MS finally waved the white flag on insisting we do more cleaning and contracted with an estate sale company with my input, er, very strong encouragement. Keys were just turned over to estate sale folks a couple of days ago with the sale scheduled in August. It will take 4 weeks for them to sort through what is in their words "an abundance of items".

Went down to house one last time over the weekend to get the Mission style tiffany lamp plus managed to get MS to agree on me taking another smaller one at the last minute.

MS is still stressing over some artwork that my folks bought that she's convinced are worth some money, even though there is no secondary market after calling around. To sell on consignment means driving them to the one place who may try to sell them but it's a distance away and she doesn't want to do that. Estate folks have indicated they probably won't really sell or if they do it won't be much. I told her to just put it in estate sale and be done with it, she made a reasonable effort now just let them go. I was concerned she would put the brakes on the sale over this issue but fortunately she didn't do it.

I am just relieved that there will be no more cleanouts, constantly hauling crap to Goodwill, sneezing for a week afterward because of all the dust. DH went with me last weekend and within a half hour needed to get out of there, being in the basement nearly did him in. I have been keeping him out of all the family stuff including cleaning out the home, this is the first time he got to see just what me and siblings have been dealing with.

With this, I turn to being more ruthless in cleaning out my own home. I have been doing a lot of purging over the years and there's a lot more space than when we moved in 23 years ago but I can still identify areas that still need work.

Thanks to everyone for input and bearing with me on this home cleaning saga. I hope to never do it again.

[razz]

Glad the closing is getting closer.

[Teacher Terry]

Glad you are coming to the end.

[Gardnr]

Great news for you! The end is drawing near.

[iris lilies]

Progress, good. Still have quite a ways to go though it’s gonna be at least another year I would think. That’s ridiculous this is been more than two years like 2 1/2 years.

[saguaro]

Progress, good. Still have quite a ways to go though it’s gonna be at least another year I would think. That’s ridiculous this is been more than two years like 2 1/2 years.

It could be another year but I sure hope not. MS has complained about all the work so maybe telling her she's asking for another winter of running back and forth to shovel the sidewalks (they have to cleared 24 hours after a snowfall) and why in hell does she want to do it again. Because she's on her own with that, I live too far away.

It will be 2 years this October that Dad passed away. Though the cleanout efforts commenced 3 years ago because MS badgered Dad into allowing it. I knew it would be a PITA in any case but MS's handling of things has needlessly dragged things out.

MS finally consulted a realtor last week before the estate sale folks moved in. The house has to be empty before it can be listed but she got some recommendations on what fixes can be made, namely a coat of paint and some fixture replacements. MS tells me they will be done as soon as estate sale is completed, it is scheduled in one month. I am hopeful but not exactly counting on that as MS manages to complicate every step and is still hung up on the value of some items, namely some artwork my parents bought and she thinks has more value that it really has. If anything is left in the house, she will fixate on what to do with those things delaying any repairs or listing the house. The estate sale is already listed as "everything must go" and I hope that is the case. We are already looking at the end of the selling season in a couple of months. I think the house could still sell but it has to be put on the market pronto, no more dilly dallying.

[iris lilies]

It could be another year but I sure hope not. MS has complained about all the work so maybe telling her she's asking for another winter of running back and forth to shovel the sidewalks (they have to cleared 24 hours after a snowfall) and why in hell does she want to do it again. Because she's on her own with that, I live too far away.

It will be 2 years this October that Dad passed away. Though the cleanout efforts commenced 3 years ago because MS badgered Dad into allowing it. I knew it would be a PITA in any case but MS's handling of things has needlessly dragged things out.

MS finally consulted a realtor last week before the estate sale folks moved in. The house has to be empty before it can be listed but she got some recommendations on what fixes can be made, namely a coat of paint and some fixture replacements. MS tells me they will be done as soon as estate sale is completed, it is scheduled in one month. I am hopeful but not exactly counting on that as MS manages to complicate every step and is still hung up on the value of some items, namely some artwork my parents bought and she thinks has more value that it really has. If anything is left in the house, she will fixate on what to do with those things delaying any repairs or listing the house. The estate sale is already listed as "everything must go" and I hope that is the case. We are already looking at the end of the selling season in a couple of months. I think the house could still sell but it has to be put on the market pronto, no more dilly dallying.

I wish you luck with estate sale.If I am understanding you correctly the “everything must go” is an announcement to the public. They dont care. I hope you have an agreement with someone to haul the leftovers away.

[saguaro]

I wish you luck with estate sale.If I am understanding you correctly the “everything must go” is an announcement to the public. They dont care. I hope you have an agreement with someone to haul the leftovers away.

The "everything must go" is in the public announcement though I know that won't likely happen. There will be stuff left, just a matter of how much.

As far as the leftovers, MS put it in the contract that anything left is not to be hauled off automatically so no agreement on that. I pushed her to allow for things to be automatically junked or donated to no avail. She wants to know what's left which is my next concern: depending on what's left she will get caught up on finding sellers. She already mentioned trying to sell leftovers on Craigslist, the estate sale guy was telling her "do you want a life?" I told her it was not worth it, I shut down my own Ebay account for that reason.

[Ultralight]

To all of you cleaning out parents' homes I wish you the best of luck. You are doing tough work -- whether your parents are in the homes or not.