House clearance

I'm sorry to heart this, Gagajo, it's a difficult thing to do.
There were a few tears and trips down memory lane when we did both mothers' houses.

My Mum was a great clearer-outer so it was much easier to clear her house when she could no longer cope on her own.

My MIL was a hoarder and it took some time, umpteen visits to the charity shop, house clearers for furniture and a very large skip.

However, we still have much of their stuff all these years later, a big mistake imo. I would recommend being ruthless, you could take photos of things rather than keep everything.

Good luck

I’m so sorry GagaJo, it’s so difficult especially living so far away and with family commitments. ?My own experience was similar to yours Sparklefizz. My son is also an only child and it’s spurred me on to leave as little as possible in the way of possessions.

Having done both, IMO it’s a lot harder clearing a house when someone is still alive, rather than when they’re gone. You feel as if you’re throwing their life away - I did, anyway. We had to clear my mother’s house after she had to move to a care home (dementia) and a sister and BiL did the same for an aunt.

One thing I’d say, if anyone’s thinking of getting house clearance people in, keep an eye on them. My sister found them taking more than a very cursory interest in a picture which had been wrapped in brown paper and shoved for decades behind a chest of drawers.

It had belonged to a GM who’d never had much money but had been fond of going to sales - I remembered it vaguely from her rarely used ‘front parlour’. Sister had it valued - it turned out to be by a well known Victorian artist and sold at auction for £9.5k - all of which went into the aunt’s pot for care home fees.

I feel for you Gagajo. My Mum died very suddenly and I am an only child so everything fell to me. When I let myself into the house - my childhood home - her undrunk cup of tea was still on the kitchen table.

My swing and wendy house were still in the garden, and although she'd been brilliant and decluttered a great deal after Dad died, there were so many childhood memories there.... cards I'd sent, crafts I'd made for her, etc. I cried buckets, and for months afterwards I revisited the house in my dreams.

Take care of yourself. Sending you hugs. (( ))

It is hard work and it does emotionally wreck you. I had to empty my mother in laws house her sisters then her brothers we were their only relatives close by.
Your mum will settle soon enough in a nursing home and it will take the stress away from you.

Unfortunately, Mum has S4 cancer, so not sure how long she has. And I live 300 miles away with GC care duties so can't be here much.

When we cleared our Mums home, my sister and myself went from laughing tears to sadness tears in a heartbeat, multiple times each day.

Sending you a (((hug)))

I feel for you Gagjo I had to do the same. My mum was in the nursing home already. She gave me instructions on what had to be done with things but it made it no easier.
It's finding your toys on the loft and some of my fathers who had passed away many years earlier.
If it helps my mum got a new lease of life in the home, remade friends with people from school actually enjoyed the meals and went up two sizes in clothes and was content. She even told a cousin who passed it on she should have done it years earlier, though not to me.
Just tell yourself she is safe clean, warm and well looked after with help 24 hours a day. Enjoy your time with her.