mother moving

[petal54]

It appears,at last,that mother's house house has sold,now the real fun starts,as she & dad have lived in their oversized semi for 45years.,some stuff is staying with house,rest to auction or house clearance,the personal stuff,HELP!!!!am from a family of magpies.dad in a carehome already,mum (&dog)to join him in month or so,she'll get in a tiz despite fact she'll be able to just walk away.any tips welcome,thank you

[ladyalex]

Get someone to help you .
Seriously...they can tell you to ditch things you might keep.

[petal54]

hopefully my sister will take some time off to assist.at least the local charity shops will take a fair amount.

[Jemisa]

What sort of tips do you want Petal? Looks like you've pretty well got things sorted.

jem

[ladyalex]

I'd also be very careful about the house clearers.
Your local auction house is a much better bet and you may be surprised at what they can sell for you (People seem to want the strangest, tattiest things). If you can be bothered/are able to take the stuff to them rather than have them collect it from the house, you *might* end up with a profit.
As well as the charity shops, there may be recycling centres in your area. They may take things that charity shops won't like small electrical appliances.
It is a really hard horrible job breaking up a house, that's why you really need someone else to help out if you can possibly get them.
All the best, petal :-))

[petal54]

what extra 'happy' pills to take so as to wake up next year in the Bahamas

[ladyalex]

You'll get through it, petal.
It's god-awful, but you will survive.
Been there twice and have a third coming up so know all about it.
Grit your teeth and try to be as 'detached' as possible.

[petal54]

good point,ladyalex.we've tried for several years to have the 'olds' down size before they neede to,but toook dad being unfit to jump the final fence

[ladyalex]

Note to self....have a clear out every three months from now on....

[sandyRoe]

You should try to get your sister to help. It must be very stressful for you and a burden shared...

[wolf63]

My mum died in 1996 and until my dad's death in 2004 my brother and I tried convincing him to down-size or at least to get rid of some of the junk. He just used to sit and smile and tell us that he would leave it all to us.

We were lucky in that it took a year to sort out his estate and get the house on the market. We put some things in charity shops, some to the auction room and sold quite a bit of his 'memorabilia' on Ebay.

We opened a wardrobe and slid the clothes apart only to be met with a wall of books at the back of the wardrobe. At stages we were in fits of laughter at some of the stuff they had stashed away.

It is also amazing what you might be able to sell - people buy the strangest things.

Good luck to you - I hope that there aren't any sheds/greenhouses etc in the garden, you would be amazed at how much junk can be stashed in them.

[Sheenamf]

My Mum is completely the opposite having downsized from a 3 bed bungalow, to a small flat, then two rooms. Later this year she will come to live with us in her own annexe, and I will be handing stuff back!