And this too shall pass....
At first it was agreed among my siblings that we would take our time clearing out our parents' house, giving ourselves about a year and getting it on the market next spring. Sixty years of accumulation brought from house to house, and for the last 20 years in a very large house, is a daunting effort in and of itself, but my mom loved to shop for everything from clothes to collections and she NEVER threw anything away. On Mother's Day my brother decided that he wanted the house on the market ASAP. Huh???
His idea was to hire a company like 1-800-GOT-JUNK and pay them to empty it out and haul everything away. He didn't want anything and didn't want to put any effort into it himself. I am the complete opposite. My mom had so many nice things and they meant a lot to her, but there were things mixed in throughout that should have been thrown out years ago. I thought it would be so disrespectful to do it my brother's way and so I took it upon myself to sort through everything.
My sister Julie helped quite a bit when she could, but my other two siblings only dedicated one weekend and a few odd days to the task. I've been working anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day on it 7 days a week since that Mother's Day announcement. With the timeline pressure on, I did what I call a triage type sort. Things that couldn't possibly be sorted through quickly, like family home movies, slides, photos, and memorabilia were just loaded into my car and taken to my house. Same with jewelry, Longaberger Baskets, Boyds Bears figurines, Jim Shore figurines, and about 25 bins of her Christmas decor. Also all of my dad's office paperwork - 6 file drawers worth and numerous stacks that he hadn't filed. The rest was sorted and put into three categories - trash, donation, and for pass along to family.
It has taken more than a month of hard work, but it is about finished now. The house is completely emptied out. I've made numerous trips to disperse the content and today the hospice thrift store donation truck is coming to get what is left and has been boxed up for them. All those boxes are in the garage so it should be easy loading. It feels strange and sad to me that your worldly possessions can come down to this.
I've been under a lot of stress again with it all. I was truly looking forward to a break after so much of my life has been consumed with care giving, but it wasn't meant to be. The only good thing that I can say is that it is done and there will be no more time crunch pressures associated with it. With so many things brought to my own home, I have months ahead of me to get my house back in order. At least I can do it at my own pace. There will likely be quite a few more donations, but I will keep and incorporate her things in with my own decor as much as I can. Bittersweet.
I can't even look at my gardens without dismay. They have not been worked on at all. I haven't planted the perennials I got from the amish nursery in spring and the weeds have taken over. I actually thought that this would be the year to get on top of it. HAH. I will have time now, but the summer heat and humidity will be in full force and that will be a factor in what I can physically do anyway. Heavy sigh.
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Stuff of memories by gardengus | Jun 23, 2022 7:49 AM | 1 |
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
